How to Use Biofeedback for Stress

Video Transcript

DEBBIE MANDEL: Greetings everyone. I'm Debbie Mandel, a stress management specialist and author of "Addicted to Stress." In this clip, we're going to talk about how to use biofeedback to reduce stress. Managing stress can be stressful. How do I know I'm getting it right? How do I know my blood pressure is calming down? Once you get adept at managing your own stress, you begin to feel your body; but until that point, you might want a reality check or to might know that you're on the right track. So using biofeedback will help you reduce involuntary activity like blood pressure and muscle tension. Many people use computerized tracking devices to measure small changes in skin temperature and in heart rate. The easiest thing you could use is a blood pressure monitoring kit at the very basis. And using relaxation techniques like breathing, meditation and visualization go hand in hand with biofeedback methodologies to reduce stress. The main thing is you will be gaining control of automatic responses that you think you have no control. How wonderful is that in stress management to control the beating of your heart and slow it down? The five points to remember about biofeedback to reduce stress is number one, use biofeedback to reduce involuntary activity like blood pressure, brain waves, muscle tension; number two, use computerized tracking devices to measure progress on skin temperature and heart rate; number three, the simplest and perhaps the most primitive machine is a blood pressure kit; number four, use of relaxation techniques like breathing, meditation and visualization go hand in hand with biofeedback; and number five, you will gain control of automatic responses through the mind, and that's a beautiful thing.