Previous research indicates that there are at least four broad, trainable competencies that can help people to manage stress effectively: source management (reducing or eliminating the sources of stress); practicing relaxation techniques, such as yoga; thought management (correcting irrational thinking and reinterpreting events in a positive light); and prevention (planning and conducting your life to avoid sources of stress).
Epstein assessed the relative importance of these by conducting an online test of 3,304 individuals. Participants were asked how stressed and how generally happy they were, and whether they had received formal stress-management training. They were then asked questions about different practices that fall under the four competencies.
The results also suggest that people who have received stress-management training cope better with stress than those who haven’t.
The challenge now, writes Epstein, is “to teach techniques for managing stress to a public that knows little about them, and, especially, to educate our children before the big stressors hit.”
Source: Scientific American
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