Besides the obvious of quitting his job, what lifestyle changes can an
inner city high school teacher do destress?  A good answer would list
at least 7 or 8 things and give some detail about why each one would
destress and how they could be practically implemented.  For example,
if meditation is mentioned, please include some specific practical
examples of what to do, when to do it, etc.

The first is start an exercise regime.  Run, lift weights, golf,
tennis, swimming, something to exericse the body and "destress" it in
the process.  Start taking a multivitamin.  Take some psychology
courses so you can get an insight into abnormal behavior (the
students) and to realize that you can only do what you can do. In
other words, learn how not to internalize the stres.

Take breaks during the day - perhaps read some uplifting passages or
listen to music.

Google for "eft manual"

Read very carefully, the basics are available free in a download.

I have not yet tried it, because at present have no real stresses, but
it seems worth investigating.

Try Islamic Methods

1-Ablution
Ablution is to clear all body included nose holes, ear holes, mouth,
Wash your all body. No part  of your body will not be dry. You must
wash everywhere of your body. There are two special words.

Before ablution say "Bismillahirrahmanirrahim" (In The Name of Allah,
Most Grateful and most Merciful.)

After ablution say "Elhamdulillah" (All praises(thanks) to Allah)

This will make you destress

2-Think a Good Side

Think that all negative things has a good way. As we seen in example.
Stress problem (negative) will help u to be a Muslim and to meet with
Islam. (best positive thing)

3- Try not to watch TV more

4- Try not to surf Internet more.

5- Try not to use computer more

6- Try not to read negative news.

Here is another info for you.

Understanding stress

Your feelings about the events in your life are very important. By
understanding yourself and your reactions to stressful events, you can
learn to handle stress effectively. The best place to start is by
figuring out what produces stress in you, such as:

major events in your life: getting married, changing jobs, moving your
home, getting divorced, or coping with the death of a loved one,
long-term worries: concern about your children's future, financial or
economic problems, or an ongoing illness,
daily hassles: traffic jams, rude people, or machines that just don't
work when you want them to.
The stress response

When you find an event stressful, your body undergoes a series of
changes, called the stress response. There are three stages to this
response. They are:

Stage 1 - Mobilizing Energy
At first, your body releases adrenaline, your heart beats faster, and
you start to breathe more quickly. Both good and bad events can start
this reaction: the night before your wedding or the day you lose your
job.

Stage 2 - Consuming Energy Stores
If, for some reason, you do not escape from the first stage, your body
begins to release stored sugars and fats from its resources. At this
stage, you will feel driven, pressured and tired. You may drink more
coffee, smoke more, and drink more alcohol than is good for you. You
may also experience anxiety, memory loss, catch colds or get the flu
more often than normal.

Stage 3 - Draining Energy Stores
If you do not resolve your stress problems, the body's need for energy
will become greater than its ability to produce it, and you will
become chronically stressed. At this stage, you may experience
insomnia, errors in judgement, and personality changes. You may also
develop a serious sickness, such as heart disease, ulcers or mental
illness.

Coping with stress 

Because each of us is different, there is no one "correct" way to cope
with stress. However, there are a number of different things that can
be done, and it is helpful to look at both short and long-term
solutions to reducing stress.

Identify your problems. Is your job, your relationship with someone,
or money worries causing you stress? Are unimportant, surface problems
masking real, deeper ones? Once you are fairly sure you know what the
problem is, you can do something about it.


Solve your problems. Start thinking about solutions. What can you do,
and what will be the consequences? Should you be looking for a less
stressful job? Do you need marriage counselling? Should you talk to a
financial expert about money management? What will happen if you do
nothing? If you follow this problem-solving strategy, you should be
able to make some changes to take the pressure off yourself. This
long-term way of reducing stress in your life is something everyone,
sooner or later, will need to do.


Talk about your problems. You may find it helpful to talk about your
stress. Friends and family members may not realize that you are having
a hard time. Once they understand, they may be helpful in two ways:
first, by just listening to you vent your feelings and second, by
suggesting solutions to your problems. If you need to talk with
someone outside your own circle of friends and relatives, your family
doctor may be able to refer you to a mental health counsellor.


Learn about stress management. There are many helpful books, films,
videos and courses to help you cope with stress. There are also
counsellors who specialize in stress; ask your family doctor for a
referral to one. There may also be community college courses and
stress management workshops available in your community.


Reduce tension. Physical activity can be a great stress reducer. Go
for a walk, take up a sport, dig in the garden, clean the house. You
may find it helpful to learn some relaxation exercises. These can be
as simple as deep breathing - slowing inhale through your nose until
you cannot take in any more air, and then exhale through your mouth.
Another simple exercise is stretching - stretch and relax each part of
your body, starting from your neck and working downward; exhale as you
stretch, and inhale as you release the tension. If you make a habit of
taking pressure off yourself by getting rid of your tension, you will
find yourself less stressed and more able to solve the problems that
caused your stress in the first place.


Take your mind off your problems. You may be able to get rid of
stressful feelings temporarily by getting busy. If you get involved in
hobbies, sports or work, you can give yourself a "mental holiday" from
your stress. Not thinking about your problems for a while can give you
a little mental distance from them and make them easier to solve later
on.
Preventing stress

Once you have lowered your stress level, it is wise to look for ways
to prevent excessive stress from building up again. The best way to
cope with stress is to prevent it. Some good ways to do this are:

Make decisions. Not making them causes worry and, therefore, stress. 
Avoid putting things off. Make a weekly schedule, including leisure
activities as well as chores.
Delegate. Get others to do tasks that they can handle so that you are
not trying to do everything by yourself.
Remember, it is impossible to have a completely stress-free life. Your
goal should be to avoid getting to the third stage of stress where
your energy stores are drained. As long as you do not get stuck in the
third stage of the stress response, you will avoid becoming
chronically stressed.

Everybody gets stressed from time to time. Different people feel
stress in different ways. Some ways of dealing with stress - like
screaming, hitting someone, or punching a wall - don't solve much. But
other ways, like talking to someone you trust, can start you on the
road to solving your problem or at least feeling better.

Try taking these five steps the next time you are stressed.

1. Get support. When you need help, reach out to the people who care
about you. Talk to a trusted adult, such as a parent, other relative,
a school counselor, or a coach. And don't forget about your friends.
They might be worried about the same test or have had similar
problems, such as dealing with a divorce or the death of a beloved
pet.

2. Don't freak out! It's easy to let your feelings go wild when you're
upset. Notice your feelings. Name them - for example, "I am so angry!"
And find a way to express them. Do breathing exercises, listen to
music, write in a journal, play with a pet, go for a walk or a bike
ride, or do whatever helps you shift to a better mood.

3. Don't take it out on yourself. Sometimes when kids are stressed and
upset they take it out on themselves. Oh dear, that's not a good idea.
Remember that there are always people to help you. Don't take it out
on yourself. Be kind to yourself and ask for the helping hand or pat
on the back that you need - and deserve - to get you through the tough
situation you're facing.

4. Try to solve the problem. After you're calm and you have support
from adults and friends, it's time to get down to business. You need
to figure out what the problem is. Even if you can't solve all of it,
maybe you can begin by solving a piece of it.

5. Be positive - most stress is temporary. It may not seem like it
when you're in the middle a stressful situation, but stress does go
away, often when you figure out the problem and start working on
solving it. These five steps aren't magic - and you might have to do
some steps more than once, but they do work. And if you can stay
positive as you make your way through a tough time, you'll help
yourself feel better even faster. Ah . . . it feels so good when the
stress is gone!


Anticipatory Strategies are the most useful techniques to use when
dealing with stress as since most of stress is subjective, depending
on how many resources we have available to deal with it, the more
things you have on hand available, the less you'll be stressed by an
event in the first place. Below you'll find some good anticipatory
strategies.

Releasing Stress Through Regular Activity

Many people find exercise to be a wonderful release from stress - and
many forms of exercise are particularly useful. These include
kickboxing, martial arts and exercises which you do outdoors such as
running, horse riding or rowing. These allow you to work out your
anxiety through "hitting" your negative thoughts or by leaving them
behind you. They also allow you to become more fit and healthy, which
also contribute to reducing the perception of stress in the long run.

Other useful activities which are useful for releasing stress include
enjoyable social activities such as going to the cinema, going out
with friends, or going shopping.

Developing Your Support Network

Stress research has shown that those who have well developed support
networks are less likely to suffer from severe stress, and when they
do they cope better. This is because they have a natural outlet for
when they suffer stress. You can call your support network into action
in any way but including calling them up for a chat and to put things
into perspective, meeting up with them to escape from the stressful
situation for a time, or even just to listen to their issues to take
you away from your own stresses.

While women are generally accepted to be better communicators, this
does not exclude men from having good support networks. Men can meet
up to do exercise and thus use two strategies at the same time:
exercise and the support network. A social support network is not
necessarily based on communication therefore, but can be equally
effective when used as an escape.

Effective Planning & Risk Management

Many people suffer from stress because they have not adequately
planned for the situation or have not anticipated quite how stressed
they will get - and have no solutions in place to use. Remember that
stress is entirely based on your own perception of the situation and
that if you have plans for how you will deal with stress, your
perception of the stressor will change.

So what kind of plans can you make? You can perform a risk assessment
on your life for the following situations: loss of job, car/train
accident, financial troubles, poor health, sudden end of your
relationship, flood/other problem affecting your residence, among
other less serious issue such as sudden appraisal at work, unexpected
arrival of difficult people etc. If you have plans available for these
unexpected situations, you will feel at least partially prepared and
thus will have less of a reaction if you do have to face a situation
like that. You can also incorporate regular stress-relief into your
life which you can do on an as-and-when-needed basis so that you know
what to do when you recognise that you are becoming stressed out.
These can be anything, from the simple such as learning a breathing
exercise to use, or to putting a full-on stress relief plan (such as
having a list of things to do including relaxation techniques,
contacting people from your support network and booking time off) into
action. You can also rehears events to anticipate the unexpected, so
that you can plan your different responses.

Meditation

Meditation has grown in reputation over the last few years, especially
with the integration of other Eastern practices into the Western
world. There are fundamentally two different types of meditation which
you can learn: frstly there is the chanting kind, where you focus on
the chant or the breath, and secondly there is the blank mind kind,
where you keep your mind as blank as possible, returning your mind to
blankness whenever a thought intrudes. Meditation as a whole has been
shown to be extremely effective in reducing stress levels, but it must
be practised regularly for it to have any effect.

There is nothing mystical or fundamentally weird about meditation. On
the contrary, it is something that you can learn to do fairly easily
by following the steps below. It may be difficult at first to keep
your mind focussed, but if you practise you will get better.

Set aside anywhere between 5 and 20 minutes depending on how much time
you have to spare - the longer you spend, the better the results, but
not everyone has much time to spare.
 - Sit or lie down in a quiet and comfortable place, where you will
not be distracted.
 - Close your eyes. 
 - Start by relaxing the muscles of your feet and work up your body
relaxing muscles as you go - alternatively you can try tensing all
your muscles at once and then letting them go.
 - Start to focus your attention on your breathing. Try to breathe
from your diaphragm (this means that your belly will be going up and
down rather than your chest) and in through your nose and out through
your mouth.
 - Start counting your breaths, and when you get to 10, start again at
1. You can say the number of the breath out loud on the out-breath or
in your head.

Self-Hypnosis

Hypnosis, in a similar way to meditation, has had an association with
"fluffiness" thanks to the various stage shows, but has actually been
proven to be a very effective adjunct to many therapies, and has been
shown to be particularly effective with stress. Self-Hypnosis is a
version whereby you actually hypnotise yourself rather than needing
someone to talk you through the process or by following a tape
recording.

Like meditation, self-hypnosis allows you to relax your body which in
turn lets the stress chemicals subside and also allows your mind to
rest and not be plagued by unpleasant thoughts. While like meditation,
the relaxation level you achieve with self-hypnosis is high, in
self-hypnosis there is frequently the use of affirmations to manage
the stress through the retraining of the mind by replacing negative
thoughts with positive ones. Affirmations are positive statements
which go hand in hand with visualisations to fully embed them which
helps replace the stressful thoughts.

To practise self-hypnosis, you firstly have to decide whether you want
to incorporate affirmations into your session - you will still be able
to relax deeply without them, but you have the opportunity here to
multi-task. If you do decide to use them, you have to prepare them in
advance.

The actual process of self-hypnosis is fairly simple:
 - find somewhere comfortable and quiet, where you will not be disturbed 
 - next, relax your body - one possible method to help you with this
is to close your eyes and concentrate on letting any tension flow out
of you with each out-breath.
 - Feel your muscles relax with each out-breath as all the tension
flows out of you and let yourself get very deeply relaxed as you focus
on releasing the tension
 - Next you start introducing the suggestions which are an integral
part of hypnosis, such as "I am feeling deeply relaxed and
comfortable, with every breath making me become more and more relaxed
and comfortable". Alternatively, you can use the more traditional
words such as "I am feeling very tired and sleepy. My arms and legs
are very heavy and tired. With every breath I become more and more
tired and sleepy".  Once you have achieved the hypnotised state, you
can start using the affirmations. If you have decided not to use
affirmations, you can just spend time focussing on the sensations you
are feeling and the relaxed state you are in.
 - To bring yourself out of self-hypnosis, you simply need to say to
yourself, "When I count back from 10, I will become more and more
awake, and when I reach 1, I will be fully alert, awake and refreshed.
10, 9, 8, waking up now, 7, 6, 5, becoming more and more awake, 4, 3,
2, 1, I am awake" (open your eyes).

Try out a few of these techniques this week and see for yourself what
a difference they can make when you are able to fall back on them in
times of stress.

All good suggestions.

Pick 2 nights a week to do something other than schoolwork and expand
to three if you can.  Tuesday is Pizza night with friends and watch
Amazing Race on tv and Thursday is laundry/ housekeeping night  or
whatever you enjoy and need to do.

Pick 1/2 day on the weekend to address school issues, either Saturday
morning (best choice cause it's over and done) or Sunday evening. 
Spend the rest of the weekend enriching yourself... rest, read, see
exhibits, attend religious services, play sports, whatever makes you
feel good.

I have a friend who worked as an inner city school teacher in Chicago.
 The thing that saved his life was yoga.

Find a really excellent hatha yoga teacher; shop around: there are
yoga teachers, and then there are Yoga Teachers!   Find one with a
reputation for a complete workout and deep relaxation within each
class, and one who understands what it means to 'strengthen the core'.
 Also look for a teacher who will teach him how to develop a home
practice.

If he does it even three times a week it'll make all the difference in
the world.  Good luck and namaste!


***

repeat my mention of eft manual. My son is in medical school, and
suffers from social anxiety disorder. EFT promises major help, not
three nights a week, but in a few minutes, period.

My son has tried it, so has a fellow student, in times of stress, and
in a few minutes, they are totally relaxed.

Do what you wish, but for efficiency, eft beats the other suggestions
hands down, and in only a few minutes.

www.emofree.com and manual download is free, videos available for $60
if you can't do it from manual -- my son and friend did.