Stressed out? But here's the good news: the secret to staying healthy and feeling energized is simply learning how to … slow down

Natural Health, May, 2008 by Chrystle Fiedler

All the dashing around we do--rushing to work, eating on the go, multitasking--doesn't just make us feel frantic, it also ages us faster and can lead to illnesses like heart disease and diabetes.

RESEARCH published in the last two years shows that certain slow activities--like gentle yoga or gardening--can reduce your stress level and blood pressure and improve your body% ability to regulate sugar. Past studies have shown that other habits like meditation can help reduce chronic pain and enhance mental clarity.

The first step to finding "slowness" is to clear some room in your life--watch less TV or spend less time browsing at the mall. "Jettison the clutter that clogs up your schedule," says Carl Honore, author of In Praise of Slowness (HarperOne, 2004). "When you focus on the things that are important at work or at home you can enjoy those things more," he says.

You can also take a more relaxed approach to the things you already do and adopt new habits that require mindfulness. "It's one thing to say you're going to slow down, but a slow hobby helps you put those words into practice," says Honor& To get you started we've come up with seven ways to destress and reenergize.

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1. Become a Gardener

Caring for flowering plants may help you relax and get grounded. In 2004, researchers at Japan's Utsunomiya University found repotting plants lowered fatigue and promoted physiological relaxation in study participants, and that working with flowers seemed to have a stronger positive effect than working with nonflowering plants.

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HEALTH BENEFITS Research shows that exposure to plants--and even just looking at them--can reduce blood pressure, increase concentration and productivity, and help you recover from illness, says Andy Kaufman, Ph.D., assistant professor of tropical plant and soil sciences at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu. He cites a classic 1984 study, published in Science, which showed that even the view of a green garden helped surgical patients recovering from gall bladder surgery. Among a group of 46 patients in a Pennsylvania hospital, the 23 who had rooms with windows facing greenery had shorter postoperative stays and needed fewer pain-relieving analgesics than the 23 whose windows faced a brick wall.

GETTING STARTED If you live in an apartment or don't have much room to garden, invest in the EarthBox (earthbox.com), a self-watering container garden that comes with potting soft and fertilizer. "Even if you have a brown thumb, you can grow things [in it]," says David Ellis, American Horticulture Society spokesperson. You could also join a community garden; visit ahs.org, the American Horticulture Society's website, for more into.

2. Practice Slow Yoga

Slow yoga emphasizes one drawn-out breath for each movement you make. Like tai chi, it uses many repetitive flowing moves. "When you practice slow yoga, you create more awareness between mind and body," says Beth Shaw, founder of Yoga Fit Training Systems in Los Angeles. This creates a deep sense of stillness and helps develop patience and lower stress, she adds.

HEALTH BENEFITS Last year, researchers in Sweden and india showed that practicing yoga can reverse the negative effects of high blood pressure, obesity, and high blood sugar. The studies, published in the journal Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, showed reduced waist circumference, blood pressure, blood sugar, and triglycerides (the chemical form of fat cells) and higher HDL (so-called good cholesterol) levels in a control group that practiced yoga versus a placebo group.

GETTING STARTED To find a Slow Yoga class near you visit yogafit.com or inquire at your local yoga studio. You might also consider restorative or yin yoga, two other gentle forms of the practice.

3. Take a Nap

You snooze, you win, according to a Harvard study published last year in The Archives of Internal Medicine. Researchers revealed that people who regularly napped at least three times a week for an average of 30 minutes had a 37 percent lower risk of heart attack than those who didn't nap."R shows that napping is an important preventive strategy just like regular exercise, eating right, and not smoking," says Sara C. Mednick, Ph.D., author of Take a Nap! Change Your Life (Workman, 2006).

HEALTH BENEFITS A daily nap also boosts serotonin, says Mednick, which may lead to improved memory and performance. Napping can even contribute to weight loss, according to a study in the American Journal of Physiology, Endocrinology, and Metabolism in 2007. That study looked at hormone levels in 41 men and women who were part of a seven-day sleep-deprivation experiment. Those allowed to nap for two hours following a night without any sleep showed a significant drop in cortisol, a hormone related to high levels of stress, and a complement of growth hormone, which helps regulate insulin and fat storage. Researchers concluded that a mid-afternoon nap improves alertness and performance and reverses the negative metabolic effects of sleep loss.