Since it’s a new year, it’s time for another round of resolutions, goals, and tips for better living. NPR joined the trend the other day with a Morning Edition segment that featured Dr. Aditi Nerurkar to talk about her new book about stress, The 5 Resets. Throughout the interview, the doctor shared steps that listeners could take to manage their daily stress levels.
But These Tips For Stress Aren’t New
The doctor suggested regular breaks during the day, limiting screen time, being mindful, and practicing breathing exercises. These are all fine ideas, but nothing new. The list resembled most other lists of stress-management techniques that have been published in the last decade.
Although it was a perfectly reasonable list, it really struck a nerve.
Why do we hear the same instructions year after year to take more breaks and deep breaths? How did the high levels of stress we experience in our daily lives become normalized? And why is the solution always on the individual to advocate for breaks and practice breathing, rather than changing the systems causing this harmful stress load that necessitates annual lists for its management?
This book’s audience – average American adults – experience large amounts of stress from societal demands, such as the need to work for most of our waking hours to pay for housing, food, and other necessities. Despite some favorable economic indicators, plenty of people are struggling with the rising costs of housing, childcare, and most everything else. For someone working overtime at their full-time job to catch up on bills, a breathing exercise is like a band-aid for a bullet wound.
Seeking Systemic Changes to Reduce Stress
For a greater impact, this doctor could use her position of relative power to lobby her representatives for changes that would reduce stress on a larger scale. This could include advocating for a shorter working week, a higher minimum wage, and mandatory paid breaks.
She could provide her patients with notes for their employers. Since many employers require a doctor’s note after two consecutive sick days, how can doctors make it as easy as possible to provide those? Doctors could also provide notes for reasonable accommodations like seats for cashiers in an attempt to provide better working conditions. Perhaps doctors could advocate amongst their peers to normalize these practices.
Instead, we get another book with mindfulness and breathing exercises that places the responsibility for managing stress squarely on the people who are already struggling. I don’t want to sound ungrateful (practicing gratitude was another of the doctor’s recommendations), but I think I’ve had enough stress-management tips for the year. Now I’m ready for the stress itself to actually be reduced.
Joyce Nash Writes 