Tag Archives: Stress

Mysteries of the Heart

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 HeartMath’s Quick Coherence® Technique can help you become more heart-centered – and there are sooooo many benefits. Here’s the technique:

This is a simple yet powerful technique to release stress, bring more coherence into your heart rhythms and build resilience. Once you’ve learned the technique, it only takes a minute to do. There are three steps:

1.  Heart Focus. Focus your attention in the area of your heart.

2.  Heart-Focused Breathing. As you focus on the area of your heart, imagine your breath is flowing in and out through that area.

3.  Heart Feeling. Continue to breathe through the area of your heart. As you do so, recall a positive feeling, a time when you felt good inside. This could be a feeling of appreciation or care toward a special person or a pet, a place you enjoyed, or an activity that was fun. Allow yourself to feel this good feeling of appreciation or care. If you can’t feel anything, it’s okay. Just have an attitude of appreciation, care, compassion or other positive attitude. Once you’ve shifted to a positive feeling or attitude, try to sustain the attitude by continuing your Heart Focus, Heart-Focused Breathing, and Heart Feeling.

 

25 Stress Buster Tips

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For Releasing Mental Stress:

  1. Listen to your body and your feelings. Acknowledge them, don’t judge them. They can tell you when you need some relief.
  2. Know your limit. Don’t take on too much. Delegate and share responsibilities. Ask for help!
  3. Balance work with play. Play will help you go back to your work with a fresh sense of creativity and energy.
  4. Do nothing. Take time to be in the quiet-the stillness. As few as five minutes a day of sitting in stillness can help re-energize.
  5. Get plenty of sleep and rest. Naps are very therapeutic. A quick 15 minute nap in the middle of your day can revitalize you.
  6. Don’t hold onto physical tensions and mental worries. Create a place such as a box where you can place your mental tension and worries. You can always go get it if you want to! Warm baths are an effective way to release physical tension.
  7. Talk out your frustrations and troubles. You don’t have to actually talk to someone to obtain the positive effects of releasing internal stress. Talk into a tape recorder. Write your thoughts and feelings in a letter.
  8. Step out of it. When you feel cornered or blocked, step out and get away from it all. Take a walk. Go to a movie. Trust that you’ll gain clarity and insight once being away. Continue reading →

It’s in You

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Wholeness or health is our natural state. The nature of healing involves removing obstructions to this natural state and bringing individuals into alignment with themselves and their world. Free of these obstructions, an individual’s innate intelligence and self-regulating capabilities will guide him toward a state of well being. — Richard Carlson, Ph.D.

There are many ways that stress is impacting your life and with a bit of awareness you can begin to reduce the price you are paying by ignoring it. Begin with identifying the sources of stress in your life. True sources are not always obvious and it is easy to overlook stress-inducing thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. What habits and attitudes may be contributing to the stress in your life? Continue reading →

10 Natural Ways to Relax and Rejuvenate

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10 Natural Ways to Relax and Rejuvenate: Easy Ways to Manage Stress and Build Immunity

By Monique N. Gilbert

Originally published in Massage & Bodywork magazine, April/May 2005. Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals. All rights reserved.

Protecting the immune system and managing stress are vital aspects of living longer, feeling younger, and being healthy. Here are 10 ways to reduce stress, boost your immune system, and slow down the hands of time.

Physical activity. Regular exercise — whether it’s walking or dancing — strengthens your cardiovascular system, heart, muscles, and bones. It also stimulates the release of endorphins; improves mental functioning, concentration/attention, and cognitive performance; and lowers cholesterol, blood pressure, cortisol, and other stress hormones.

Yoga and stretching. The slow movements and controlled postures of yoga improve muscle strength, flexibility, balance, circulation, mental focus, and calmness.  Continue reading →

Tips – Difficult People

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In the video one of the techniques I reference was the Wayne Cook posture which is part of the Daily Energy Routine created by Donna Eden. Here is a short description of it: Wayne Cook posture helps you focus your mind and allows you to untangle the inner chaos so you can see with better perspective, think more clearly and learn more proficiently.

  1. Sit with your spine straight. Place your left foot over your right knee. Hold your left ankle with your right hand and the bottom of your left foot with your left hand.
  2. Breathe in slowly through your nose, letting the breath lift your body, while stretching your leg toward you. Exhale slowly through your mouth, relaxing your body. Repeat four or five times.
  3. Switch to the other foot and repeat this entire process.

And if you can, do #4 too. But if you’re some place where you can’t easily do the next step, don’t worry about it.

4. Uncross your legs and “steeple” your fingertips, resting your thumbs just above the bridge of your nose. Breathe slowly in through your nose and out through your mouth three or four times. On exhale, separate your thumb slowly stretching your skin on your forehead. Slowly bring your hands down in front of you. Surrender into your own breathing.

Energetically Shifting Deep Habits

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This Energy exercise works by bringing various meridians into balance. Relaxing the defensive mechanisms, supporting the metabolism functions and activating the radiant circuits all work together to help you feel safe and supported in making changes. It is generally suggested that you do it four or more times per day to shift deep habits.

  1. Cover your eyes with your fingers. Inhale. Exhale.
  2. Inhale with your eyes still covered. Exhale while dragging your fingers across your eyes and out to your temples.
  3. Inhale while dragging your fingers up over your ears. Exhale while dragging  your fingers down behind your ears to your shoulders. Hang your fingers on your shoulders at the neck.
  4. Inhale as you cross your arms, placing your fingers on the opposite shoulders. Exhale, smoothing your hands down your arms to the forearms.
  5. Inhaling, place your hands flat across the ribs under your bust area.
  6. Exhale while sweeping your fingers down your legs and off your feet at the toes.
  7. Inhale while sweeping your fingers back up your legs to under your arms.
  8. Exhale while sweeping your fingers down and off your body at the sides of your waist.

Ahhhhhh……….

Energy Tip for Daily Stess

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Stress has an immediate impact on every system in your body. The daily stresses of life trigger primitive brain centers into an emergency response condition.  Up to 80% of the blood leaves your forebrain to support the fight-or-flight response and stress chemicals pour into the bloodstream.  The primitive brain structures don’t distinguish whether the alarm was set off by something small like a broken shoelace or a huge physical threat.

 

“Oh My God” Points

With simple Energy Medicine techniques you can reprogram your nervous system to no longer set off the crisis response in the face of daily stresses. Holding your Neurovascular points returns blood to your forebrain and reconditions your response to stress.

Try this simple technique the next time you are hit by stress, feel overwhelmed, or highly emotional:

  1. Lightly place your fingertips on your forehead, covering the frontal eminences, the “Oh my God” points (p. 234).
  2. Put your thumbs on your temples next to your eyes, breathing deeply.
  3. Sink deeply into the emotion and stress as you hold the points for three to five minutes.
  4. As blood returns to your forebrain over the next few minutes you will begin to think more clearly.

It is that simple!

From EEM Newsletter. Page references to Donna’s Book Energy Medicine, 2008 Tarcher/Penguin.

Intentions and Commitments

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The first of the year is always an inspiring time for me. I love to take a look at the direction that the new year will seemingly take and then be open to new twists and turns as they appear.

An intention is a direction, an aspiration, a big picture goal. It’s a statement of what you are moving towards. I intend to take better care of myself or I intend to play more.

A commitment is an act of will and integrity. It is giving your word to follow through on something. I commit to working out 3 times this week or I am committed to doing something just for the fun of it every week in January.

It’s important to keep your commitments – and that begins with the commitments to yourself. If you don’t trust your ability to be honest with yourself, how can you trust yourself in anything you say or think, much less anyone else? But if there is some reason that it really can’t happen, renegotiate the commitment in good faith as soon as you can.

Committing to huge goals can be setting yourself up for failure. Instead, intend the huge goal, but use smaller, consistent commitments to get there. One step at a time. Just one, small committed step.

Move into this exciting new year with awareness of your intentions and commitments – and make it the BEST one yet!!!

Walking through the Door of Change

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Aruba, Kylas Prints 119Imagine a door in front of you. (or a cocoon all around you) It’s big and solid and you have no idea what is on the other side. It could be something awful. It could be something wonderful. You have no idea, nor can anyone tell you or offer advice, for it is YOUR door. It is only for you. It could shake your world as you know it, or add another layer of joy to your current situation. But you just don’t know. How do you feel about going through that door?

Most people have some level of fear around the unknown. Most people have resistance to change. While they may not like their current situation, it is comfortable and they know what to expect. Why rock the boat? Just get a “Life Sucks, then You Die” bumper sticker and on you go. And sometimes we must go through that door of change, even though we are fighting it all the way.

Or you could take a leap of faith in whatever lies beyond the door. You could possibly then own the bumper sticker “Life is an adventure. YEEHAW.” But you won’t know until you open the door and step through.

Why do we resist change?

Continue reading →