Mental Fitness for Good Health

Affirmation of Your Values Can Reduce Stress

Recent research has validated the importance of values and strong self- resources in reducing stress.  I love it when research validates the beliefs and practices of practitioners like myself. 

In the 1980s I wanted to improve people’s mental fitness by teaching 15 choices or tools for solving life’s problems.  The goal was to provide strong self-resources for coping with the stresses and problems in everyday living.  Repetition of the choices makes people stronger and strong enough to overcome the stresses in their life. 

Communicating values was perceived to be the best way for creating satisfying and sensitive relationships as well as reducing and repairing conflicts in relationships.  The Relationship Choice was the procedure to follow for  unleashing the healing power of values in relationships.

Read on to find out more about the research.

"Stress is implicated in the development and progression of a broad array of mental and physical health disorders" according to J. David Creswell and others from the UCLA Department of Psychology.  In Psychological Science, they reported on their research, "Affirmation of Personal Values Buffers Neuroendocrine and Psychological Stress Responses".

Stephanie West Allen, J. D. and Michael Schwartz, M.D. from Brains on Purpose presented information on the importance of values in solving problems in their post, Your Values, One Way To Lessen the Stress of Conflict. You can read about this research at Medicine Net.com.

These researchers found that stress could be reduced by:

• Figuring out what aspects of yourself or your life you hold most dear.
• Reflecting on those things when stress comes calling.

The researchers concluded:

"The present findings suggest that strong self-resources, especially when coupled with an affirmation of personal values, protect against psychological reaction to stressful events.  Value affirmation alone was sufficient to buffer participants-neuroendocrine responses to stress."

Also the researchers hypothesized:

"From a clinical standpoint, the results imply potential benefits of stress-reduction interventions that capitalize on the protective capacities of the self, by introducing value-affirmation task prior to stressful events or a chronically stressful environments".

The Relationship Choice of I Live within the Environment Created by My Choices urges people to think about their relationship from the perspective of values rather than on the basis of unresolved problems and hurtful feelings. 

The Relationship Choice encourages people to communicate values in relationships prior to talking about difficult issues as a way of preventing escalating conflicts in relationships.

"When emotions are dying or flaring destructively, communicating values can provide security and rekindle love".  This quotation is from my post, Relationship Makeovers. 

J. David Creswell’s study confirms the importance of mental fitness and values in reducing stress at a physiological level.  Mental fitness and expressing values will also reduce psychological and interpersonal stress.

Remember, You Live within the Environment Created by Your Choices!

Dr. Hal

Life and Mental Fitness Coach

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