stress management for tmj patients

Stress Management for TMJ patients

ALTERNATIVES TO STRESSFUL LIVING

1. Every day choose one thing that you enjoy doing and that you will not feel pressured about. It should be something with which you can escape the pressures of the job, family or any other stressful situation. DO IT ONLY FOR YOU!
2. Choose foods that will provide complex carbohydrates for energy, yet within your caloric allotment of the day. Avoid sugary foods and other junk food like fries, hot dogs, pizza and burgers. Increase consumption ofwhole grains, beans, raw vegetables, fruits. Get plenty of  B, C  and D vitamins as well as minerals. Stress depletes them more readily.
3. Develop a routine exercise program which will fit in with your schedule. Allow yourself to work off pent-up tension and hostilities with exercise so that you can feel relaxed and refreshed.
4. Eliminate unnecessary activities from your routine. See what can be delegated to others or what can be completely forgotten. (Don’t get rid of anything that is fun.)
5. Learn to distinguish between major and minor crises. We think you’ll find most of them to be minor ones.
6. When you begin to feel rushed or panicked….STOP… Take several deep breaths and don’t continue until you feel in control.
7. Make your environment peaceful… Try to surround yourself with something pleasant and eliminate unnecessary dissensions.
8. Live in the HERE AND NOW. Don’t remain in the past of project too far into the future. Appreciate the beauty of the moment and you will experience more beautiful moments.
9. As we learned before, ventilate your feelings and worries. They never seem as hopeless or as bad when we speak them aloud.
10. Learn to bend and compromise. Don’t see that as a weakness or failure. Hold your ground only where principles and morals are concerned. Compromise will not hurt that badly.
11. If you have many things to do, divide them into small tasks and do only one thing at a time, until all things are completed.
12. Important… No one is perfect in everything we do, so we needn’t try to be.
13. Learn to control your competitive nature. The next time a car tries to ease into your lane of traffic, allow him to get in.
14. Get plenty of sleep… This allows our bodies recovery time from the daily stressful pace at which we live.
15. Learn to say NO… Choose to be your own master and only do what you really want to do… Not all of what others expect of us.
16. Take a work break… get up… stretch… walk… get some fresh air (even if it’s winter).
17. Learn not to hurry… Plan far enough in advance that you are not always in a rush.
18. LOVE PEOPLE… use things… tell your loved ones you love them.
19. Use music to calm yourself.
20. Make a list of the things causing you stress and eliminate them if you can. For example, if the phone bothers you while you are working or reading, etc. unplug it for that time.
21. List the things that have been bothering you for a long time. Now, instead of feeling pent-up guilt or anger, decide what positive things you can learn from the experience.
22. List all of your needs, i.e. a walk, talking, reading, or a close relationship. Then decide how you can fulfill them.
23. Don’t do something just because it is expected of you or because it’s the IN thing to do. Only buy theater tickets if you enjoy the theater.
24. VITAL… Learn to have fun and let go completely.

*Remember, you and you alone are in control of your life. Once you take control and value yourself as a person, your life will be less stressful and your body less subject to needless disease. Your health will abound. So be good to yourself.

Alvaro Betancur DDS

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         Dr Alvaro Betancur © 2012