|  | Mental Health | Stress

Theories on Expressing Emotions to Relieve Stress

Stress is a serious health problem. Too much stress can lead to physical conditions such as high blood pressure. Mental conditions such as depression can be caused or exacerbated by too much stress in a person's life. People need to find measures that help them to manage stress and some feel that finding ways to express emotions in a healthy manner helps contribute to stress management.

  1. Journaling

    • HelpGuide.org is a non-profit website created to provide individuals with mental health support resources. It suggests the keeping of a stress journal to help release the emotions that cause you stress. The theory is that by articulating the emotions and causes related to your stress you will start to see patterns. Also document your reactions to the stress and the fallout of those reactions. If this works for you, it will allow you to not only see where the stress in your life is coming from, but also which strategies are useful in dealing with that stress.

    Support

    • WebMD suggests that having a person to talk to is a good way to relive emotions that may be causing stress. Sometimes coping on your own is not enough, but having someone to listen to how you feel helps to let go of stress that might be causing you harm. This can be a friend, or it can be a professional in some regard. For some people that might be a counselor while for others it might be a religious figure.

    Different Than Thoughts

    • Dr. Larry Alan Nadig, a California based psychologist, makes a careful distinction regarding the difference between thoughts and emotions. He states that people must find ways to express emotions as well as thoughts to avoid having lingering feelings that cause stress and doubt. He suggests that you must be as specific as possible about the feeling you have as well as how intense it is and whether other feelings are also present. He suggests that the sentiment "I feel frustrated" is an expression of a belief, rather than "I am frustrated" which expresses the feeling, and recommends the latter in most situations.

    Art

    • Art can be an effective vehicle for expressing emotions. Many artists are people that have high levels of emotional stress that have found effective ways of channeling that energy. Dottie Oatman, an art therapist, states that it is not the final product that matters when relieving emotional stress through art. Instead, it is the actual process of creation that she feels creates the release of emotions that help provide that stress relief required.

Stress - Related Articles