June 18, 2014

Talks on Stress Management and Relief

With these audio & video lectures, LearnOutLoud showcases 6 of our best talks on stress management and relief. Taken from the pages of our Free Audio & Video Resource Emails, this list gives you clear tips on how to relax and de-stress and cope with the daily pressures we face in a fast-paced modern world. Among the resources below, Kelly McGonigal talks about how to make the stresses of life your friend, Andrew Bernstein takes on the myths we’ve surrounded around stress and tries to dispel them, and you will also learn why worrying may not be such a bad thing. Learn how to deal with stress and relax amid the storm by clicking any of the links below:

1. Herbert Benson: The Relaxation Revolution

Learn about the science behind the beneficial effects of mind/body relaxation! Dr. Herbert Benson is an American cardiologist, a bestselling author on health and well-being, and the founder of the Mind/Body Medical Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. In this talk Dr. Benson discusses his latest book Relaxation Revolution which details the science behind the benefits of relaxation practices such as meditation, yoga, and repetitive prayer. While traditional medicine focuses on surgery and medication, Dr. Benson explains that more and more studies are showing the significance of stress and the importance of relaxation when it comes to holistic mind/body health. This talk is available on the Forum Network on streaming video and MP3 download.

2. Worrying Well: How Your Brain Can Turn Anxiety and Stress Into Calmness and Confidence

In this audio & video presentation from UCTV Martin L. Rossman, MD takes a look at good worry and bad worry and the stress and anxiety bad worry can cause. He examines what is going on in the brain with these emotions and how we can use the power of the healing mind to reduce stress and anxiety. At the end he leads the group on a guided imagery meditation for reducing stress. This talk is available on MP3 download from the UCTV website and on streaming video from YouTube.

3. Andrew Bernstein on The Myth of Stress

Andrew Bernstein is the author of the book The Myth of Stress: Where Stress Really Comes From and How to Live a Happier and Healthier Life. In this talk he delivered at Google, Bernstein takes listeners through 7-step process he calls ActivInsight which analyzes the thoughts that cause us stress and turns them on their head. In the end he hopes we can cognitively shift our focus from the stressful fantasy world of the way things should be to a more accepting approach which provides stimulation without the negative stressful thoughts that wear us down.

4. Kelly McGonigal: How to Make Stress Your Friend

Learn about stress in this 15-minute TED talk. Psychologist Kelly McGonigal looks at good stress and bad stress and how perception can influence the effect of stress on individuals. She discusses the stress of reaching out to others for help or the stress of helping others and how this kind of stress can be beneficial to your health. She uses the “stress” hormone oxytocin as an example of this kind of positive stress. This talk is available on streaming video and video download through the TED website.

5. Balance, Stress, and Optimal Health

Dr. Emmett Miller is known as one of the pioneers of holistic mind/body medicine. In this Google Talk he describes how he came to study holistic medicine and get beyond the specialization of most doctors. He eventually looked at stress and the far reaching implications it has on a variety of diseases. Dr. Miller dynamically demonstrates how humans have maladapted to the stresses of modern civilization and he suggests ways that we can release and relax from the ongoing stresses we face. He ends the talk with an excellent guided relaxation complete with music. Learn to maintain balance and reduce stress in your own life. This talk is available on streaming video on YouTube.

6. Stress and Health: From Molecules to Societies

Get down to the nuts and bolts of the stress response with this talk from neuroendocrinologist Robert Sapolsky. Sapolsky’s research has focused on stress, neuronal degeneration, and the many stress-related diseases that afflict our chronically stressed Western societies. In this talk he focuses on the stress-induced hormone glucocorticoids and their disabling effects on the brain, specifically on the region known as the hippocampus that is vital to memory. At the end of the talk Sapolsky looks at the potential of gene therapy to protect neurons from the damaging effects of glucocorticoids. Sapolsky uses many real life examples of how our maladapted stress responses wreak havoc on our health.