WELLNESS CONNECTION · Medical

Managing Stress and Its Impact

by Steven Tan, M.D., M.T.O.M., L.Ac., Director of Complementary and Alternative Medicine

September 14, 2009 - 12:00PM

• Adequate sleep and rest. Try to get at least eight hours of sleep per night. Sleep helps our system to shut down from the stress mode and to reset itself.


• Mild to moderate aerobic exercise. Keeping your fitness up helps burn off the stress response.


• Meditate regularly, perhaps at the start of each day. This helps to calm our minds and shifts our attention away from stressful thoughts.


• Take up a hobby. Doing things you love is not only personally gratifying but another way to shift our bodies from a stressed state to a relaxed one.


• Develop or maintain healthy eating habits. Fuel your body appropriately to avoid additional stresses caused by a poor diet.


• Make time for stress reduction therapies: mind-body, acupuncture, massage, energy medicine.