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Is there a need for a stress management book for black people?
There are plenty of books on stress management. They should be good enough for everyone no matter what color right? Stress is stress and how to reduce the negative effects should be the same for everyone, you would think.
There are a lot of differences in our backgrounds, cultures, experiences, and environments. Some of these have nothing to do with the color of our skin and some do.
Stress is unavoidable, right? That is a practical reality. We can’t totally avoid stress as long as we are alive in this world. We can reduce our exposure to stress. We can counteract stress by doing relaxation exercises, yoga, exercise, meditation, and other things like biofeedback.
Why is it worth the effort to reduce or manage stress? Here are a few reasons.
People like to think they know what the stress of being black is like.
If you’re not, you don’t.
Think about the stress of having a final exam in high school or college coming up.
You worry about it for two weeks or so leading up to it and it is very hard and stressful. You get to the time of actually taking the exam and it is very stressful. Then, the exam is over.
Being black is not like that because it’s never over. Every morning you wake up you have to deal with the stress associated with being black all over again.
Although more people are now interested in mind body techniques like meditation, mindfulness, and yoga, there is still a great lack of clarity as to what the real effects of these techniques are. It is also often difficult to know if a person practicing a technique is doing it correctly or getting the maximum benefit they can from it.
Several months ago, I was at a university in New York city visiting a meditation group. The two people who were leading the group were interested in using EEG biofeedback equipment to measure the brainwave activity of people who were meditating. They were interested in comparing the EEG activity of a novice meditator with that of a very experienced one. This is one example of how technology can be used in combination with mind body techniques. The idea was to see if there is a difference in what is going on in the brain while a person is meditating and does that vary depending on their experience level.
Mental health symptoms and solutions are being openly discussed more than ever. Most days that I turn on the news I hear at least one story related to mental health. Just today I heard a report about three separate people who were survivors or a relative of a survivor of a school shooting who committed suicide. We often hear reports of the devastation across the country related to abuse of opioid drugs. Concussions caused by car accidents, slip and falls, sports injuries cause memory loss, behavior and mood changes as well as other problems.
Sometimes you don’t have anything with you, no essential oils, no smart phone with relaxation app or relaxation music or biofeedback instrument. You may not be able to go outside for a nice walk or sit by the lake to relax. You could be in an office on the 25th floor or in the subway feeling stressed. What can you do to relax now?
Spending Time in Nature
In my last article I discussed the importance of learning simple stress management solutions that you can use easily in everyday life situations. Life is complicated and we are all very busy. It can seem difficult to find extended amounts of time to practice relaxation exercises.
Stress is a real problem that we must all deal with every day of our lives. We cannot afford to ignore it because it has real negative effects on our health, relationships, performance, work, and lives in general. I discussed much of this in book, What Stress Can Do, (available on www.createspace.com/3839220 ).
My next goal is to give people simple stress solutions so that you can quickly and without much effort rid yourself of the problems stress could cause in your life.
On June 5, 2018 fashion designer Kate Spade hung herself. Her husband Andy said, “Kate suffered from depression and anxiety for many years. The most recent stressor may have been her husband filing for divorce after 24 years of marriage. This led to severe depression according to a Page-6 article by Yaron Steinbuch.
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