Throughout our lives, observes psychologist Dan Chartier of Life Quality Resources, “we inevitably make some choices that are harmful to our health—we might smoke, we often eat poorly. But one of the ‘choices’ that may be most harmful to our health is often out of our awareness. It’s stress.”

And while we often view stress as something imposed on us externally, Dr. Chartier would argue that we are the source of our distress. “In years of working with clients who typically come to us bearing the burden of physical and/or psychological pain,” he says, “I have come to deeply appreciate that—fundamentally—chronic stress is most often a response to a problem of conflicting expectations and reality.

“Simply put,” explains Dr. Chartier, “stress can be defined as the gap between expectation and what reality gives us. For example, we expect that when we push the start button on our car things will happen to make it possible for us to drive somewhere. If that doesn’t happen, we’re stressed.

“That stress response is normal,” he says. “The primitive circuits and networks that were part of our ancestral parents’ survival experience are still with us. So, the reaction to stress is immediate—preparing us to defend ourselves. And it’s physical as well as psychological—the body’s automatic response to that gap is to tighten up. Muscles tense up throughout the body to prepare for action; stress hormones are triggered, preparing us for fight or flight; heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure rise.”

Chronic Stress

Short-term, notes Dr. Chartier, the stress response is a positive defense mechanism. “But when stress is chronic—that is, when we hold on to that tension—it takes a heavy toll on our health. Chronic stress is associated with such health issues as muscle tension, digestive problems, headaches, weight gain or loss, trouble sleeping, heart disease, susceptibility to cancer, high blood pressure, and stroke. So, our health depends upon our ability to manage stress.

“Let’s take that simple example of a car that won’t start. That seems a minor source of stress; but what if you’re late for an important appointment? The issue becomes not so much what is stressing you as the way you perceive it.

“Being able to move into reality and to take the next steps of problem solving will mitigate the stress. If we can do that, we stay healthier than if we are unable to release the tension. But the person whose main attitude is, “Oh, this always happens to me, things are always going wrong for me,” will help fulfill that expectation.”

Biofeedback to Close the “Stress Gap”

“We’re always going to have stress triggers and tension triggers,” observes Dr. Chartier. “But when we consistently find ourselves going into a very negative space when even the smallest provocation or disappointment occurs—that is a sign of chronic, unhealthy stress. So, the best choice you can make for all your health is to learn to manage stress.

“Over many years, I’ve witnessed the power of biofeedback and neurofeedback to help people acquire and use self-regulatory skills for stress management,” he says.

“From a biofeedback perspective, people often come to us for relief of physical pain—spasms of muscles in their neck or shoulders or back, constant headaches, clenching jaws. The source of the discomfort is most often a manifestation of the stress they’re living with in all parts of their lives. And unresolved stress eventually affects their mental health as well as physical health: the aches and pains of the psyche give way to the aches and pains of the body.

“Thus, over time, stress begins to show up as depression, lack of energy, and anxiety: the racing heart, the sweaty palms, the conviction that the body is in a death spiral. And our job,” he says, “is to use our experience and the ‘tools of our trade’ to help clients resolve their physical and psychological and emotional distress and in the process, help them recalibrate the expectation-versus-reality gap that is often at the very center of their physical, emotional, and mental distress.”

The Power of Biofeedback

Dr. Chartier is often asked how biofeedback is different from meditation and simple relaxation techniques, such as yoga. “There certainly is a relationship in the operational process that a person enters into,” he says. “For example, focusing on how slow or fast they are breathing or how quiet their mind is are relevant concerns in both meditation and biofeedback. But the vital ingredient that biofeedback provides is as clear as a reflection in a mirror that helps a person know that their hair looks good. Biofeedback provides an objective reality that takes away the questions: Am I relaxed or not? Am I depressed or not? Am I anxious or not?

“This is because with biofeedback—as the name suggests—we can provide both visual and auditory feedback signals that let the person immediately know: Am I more tense or relaxed?”

And, he explains, “as they begin to make associations between subjective awareness and these objective points of feedback, they initiate the process of creating a new map, a new internal process, and as it develops over time, with sufficient practice, it takes on a new reality for that individual and a diminishment of the symptoms that brought them to the process.”

This is all very practical and straightforward—a very common-sense approach to physical and mental health. The chronic inflammatory process that leads to physical tension in the muscles begins to calm. The process of calming via self-regulation feedback is an important part of the healing process.

New Tools for Stress Management

“One of the remarkable—and revolutionary—advancements in my field,” notes Dr. Chartier, “is the recent development of a host of personal neurofeedback devices—such as The Muse, Mendi, and HeartMath. They’re referred to as wearables and use smartphones or tablets connected to a device on your head to guide the neurofeedback process. I consider this revolutionary because it makes the tools that help develop self-regulatory skills available to anyone with a smartphone—much like a personal GPS guidance system for stress management.”