JUST RELAX: STRESS REDUCTION KEY TO HAPPY LIFE

The alarm clock failed to rouse you from a deep sleep, and then you spend an hour you can't afford trying to find a tie that matches the only clean pair of pants in your wardrobe.

On the way to work some idiot pulls out in front of you, then proceeds to putter along for six blocks at 15 mph. Upon arriving at work you find a note taped to your desk: "The boss wants to see you right away."

By now your pulse is racing; your breath is coming out in short, strained puffs; your head aches and your palms sweat.

It's called stress. For those who fail to manage it, it can lead to diminished productivity, depression and serious health problems.

Judy Stricker, director of the stress management program at St. Francis Medical Center, says no one is without stress.

"All of us have stress, but at different times there are different levels of stress," she said. "If it's a normal day, and something happens to trigger stress, if you take a deep breath and relax, you get back down to normal and have a good day.

"But if you go into work and tell everybody about the idiot that pulled out in front of you, and allow that to build, you can ruin your whole day."

Short-term stress can lead to the more serious problem of chronic stress.

Claire Lafoon, a clinical therapist at the Community Counseling Center in Cape Girardeau, said chronic stress can lead to psychological problems such as anxiety disorders, substance abuse, and depression. Potential physical problems are ulcers, chronic headaches, and heart disease.

"Something like two-thirds of all visits to family doctors are for stress-related illness," Lafoon said. "There are giant health-care costs related to the problems of stress."

On Wednesday, the Community Counseling Center will offer a free presentation titled "Just Relax" to teach a variety of stress-reduction and relaxation techniques. The presentation will be at 6:30 p.m. in the Harris Room of the Community Counseling Center.

Lafoon said she'll show people how best to identify the source of their stress and ways to manage it.

Stricker said stress falls into a few main categories. Physical or environmental changes or challenges can trigger stress. Also, the people in our lives -- whether too many or too few -- can cause social stress. Another category is organization stress.

"If it's time to pay income tax, but I can't find all the necessary papers and forms, that's an example of organizational stress," said Stricker. "And there's mental stress, which relates to people worrying about thinks they're unable to do anything about anyway.

"My mother used to have a saying: `Worry's like a rocking chair. It keeps you going, but it doesn't get you anywhere.'"

Stricker said two overriding factors that determine whether people are likely to experience stress on a given day are change and control. "Change causes stress, but a more important factor is the element of control," she said.

Lafoon agreed.

"One definition of stress is any kind of environmental change that requires your behavior to change," she said. "I think that's a pretty good definition."

But it's important to note that stress can be good.

Even positive events -- your wedding day, for example -- still can trigger stress.

"There's really a bell-shaped curve with an optimal level of stress," Lafoon said. "Up to that level, stress is a challenge. Beyond that it's counter-productive."

Stricker said stress can prod people in competition or enable them to attain goals that would otherwise be unreachable.

"It can thrill us and tense the body," she said. "But the other kind of stress we call distress; it produces wear and tear on the body.

"Stress is like ivy growing up a tree," Stricker said. "At first it can be pulled off easily, but after time it takes root and eventually strangles the tree."

That's why it's important to learn ways to deal with stress. Often, simple acceptance of those environmental factors being unable to change is all it takes.

But Stricker and Lafoon said deep-breathing, relaxation and exercise are great "stress-reducers." Writing your thoughts into a journal can help too.

"Sometimes simply in processing it from your head to your hands it goes away," said Stricker.

She said gardening, wood-working, crochet -- "anything that requires your concentration and focus" -- will help people get their minds off the thing that's causing stress.

Also, relaxing activities -- fishing, listening to music, deep breathing -- can ease day-to-day stress.

"When confronted with stress, the body goes into a fight-or-flight mode," Stricker said. "Exercise or athletics help you to face those types of situations."

For many people exercise is a way to tackle stress, but competitive athletics often does little to help them relax.

Janine Pfanstiel can help. She's a message therapist who works out of Meyer's Chiropractic Clinic in Cape Girardeau.

"Generally people who suffer from stress are very tense, and their muscles are very tense," Pfanstiel said. "When I give them a full body massage, particularly, people find it extremely relaxing."

Many people carry tension in their hands, shoulders and neck, Pfanstiel said.

"When I'm finished, most of them feel like a wet noodle," she said. "I also do a mini-massage, where I'll go to the work place and help someone while they're sitting at their desk."

Pfanstiel said massage often relieves people of pain caused by muscle tension related to stress. Also, the massage increases blood circulation.

"They just feel stimulated and warm all over," she said. "I think it improves your quality of life.

"I don't think there's really anything that compares to a massage for taking out stress."

Her clients range in age from high school students to people in their 70s. Pfanstiel said that as massage therapy has become more mainstream in the past decade or so, the idea of a "massage parlor" in some seedy seaport town has waned.

"When I started training for this field, it wasn't really a problem for me," she said. "But it was for my husband; he's a minister and he really had reservations about it.

"But I really wanted to do it. It's a valid way to reduce stress, and I'm not going to let prejudice keep me from helping people."

Lafoon said that once the source of stress is identified it's important for people to accept those factors they can't change, and begin the process of problem-solving for those things they can control.

Stricker said suffering from stress unnecessarily affects people's joy and contentment.

"Instead of just letting life happen day after day with no control, it's important to seek the mental contentment that doesn't come from your circumstances," she said.

"We've traded 24 hours of our life for this day. People need to ask themselves, `Have I found some joy? Was it a good day?' -- not a perfect one because none of them are -- but, `Was it a good day?'"