When you are under stress,
typically you are tense, your breathing is short, shallow and rapid. Find a
chair to sit in and sit with your back upright but not tense. Take a deep
breath, pushing your diaphragm down into your belly. Tense all the muscles in
your body. Hold your breathe for a moment to feel how tense your body is. As
you exhale, release the tension. Repeat this one more time, fully tensing you
body as you breathe in. Again, hold your breathe and feel the tension in your
body. Slowly exhale and release the tension as you do so.
Take another deep breathe but do
not tense your body. Exhale and continue to relax. Repeat this 7 more times. In
as little as 3 minutes you have reduced the stress and tension in your body by tremendous
amounts.
You can do the same technique at
home, but take longer to complete the exercise by adding other techniques to
the end. For example, after your tenth exhalation, picture in your mind a
vacation place that you enjoyed and found restful. Picture all those activities
you found most relaxing. Review what you heard, felt, smelled, and tasted as
vividly as you can. One such time could have been at the beach. Picture
yourself lying on the beach, the waves rolling into the shore, the sun warming your
body, the sound of the breakers as they reached shore, seagulls calling in the
distance, the smell of salt water.
Picture these as vividly as you
can, putting yourself back in the scene, relaxing and letting your body float
in the remembrance of the scene. Stay there for as long as you feel you need
enjoying the returning sense of calmness and relaxation. Feel any sense of time
pressure slide away leaving you with a sense of unbounded time to do what ever
you want for as long as you want. Let the pressures of daily life, work or
other stressors go away with the breakers as they slide back into the ocean.
Over time as you practice this,
your ability to quickly release stress with improve. You will appreciate this
new feeling, your family will appreciate it and your friends will enjoy being
with you as you leave the stressors behind you at work.
