Deal with Stress Today » Deep Breathing

Do You Use Avoidance as a Strategy to Deal with Stress in Your Life?

donnam — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 19:23:27 +0000

Avoiding situations won’t deal with stress. In fact, avoidance may actually escalate your stress. Have you been guilty of this? Everyone has come into contact with a situation that causes stress, fear and anxiety. As a culture, we have a fight or flight response to many stress filled situations, with many people more easily making the choice of flight. This means that many people are choosing to avoid stressful events or situations entirely, rather than deal directly with the source of their stress or fear.

While in the short term, this seems like an easy fix, in actuality it can cause much more harm than good. By choosing to skip out on any event that may cause you undue stress, you will not be able to effectively learn tools and coping skills. There are many things you can do yourself to help you prepare to deal with stress in advance.

One effective tool is planning ahead. Envision the stressful situation in your mind. Maybe it is a situation at work, such as a meeting where you always feel put on the spot. Now break down the event into steps. Visualize in your mind a successful meeting. Visualize being calm, centered and in control during the whole meeting. Imagine successfully answering any questions posed to you, easily and calmly. The more you can picture yourself succeeding, the more you will be able to meet any challenge thrown your way.

Also, take time to connect with yourself before every stressful situation so that you do not feel like you need to run away from a challenge or stress. Take time to do deep breathing, relaxation or meditation, or take time to thank the universe for the multiple blessings in your life. Many people also practice affirmations. Repeating positive thoughts over and over to yourself will allow you to prep yourself to deal with stress and stressful situations as they arise.

Once you have spent time envisioning a challenging situation going smoothly, preparing internally for the challenges that may lie ahead, and practicing positive self talk and affirmations, you will be prepared and ready meet any challenging situation that may come your way. Deal with stress in this way and you will find that difficult situations can become easier, and you will be able to meet your challenges head on.

Mindfulness Meditation: Consciously Relax and De-Stress

donnam — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 03:28:48 +0000

Are you ready to tackle stressors in your life? Are you looking for a way to deal with day to day hurdles that get in your way? There are many simple techniques to keep the stress from piling up, but the key to all of them is mindfulness.

Mindfulness is being aware in the moment. Too often our lives fly by on hyperspeed and we can barely remember how we feel, what we did that day or when the last time was that we took some time for ourselves. It is very important to stay in the moment at all times.

Mindfulness can help in numerous aspects of our lives, especially while dealing with stress. Mindfulness, when paired with relaxation, visualization and meditation, can be the keys to leading a life that is much calmer and more connected.

Begin by taking some time every day to focus on yourself. If you need to get up a little earlier, or use part of your lunch break- do it! It is easy to spend too much time focusing on others, be it family, friends or co workers, and we usually forget that we should be number one. It is time now to focus on yourself!

Take some time to do some deep breathing and focus on the day ahead of you. Think about events that may be causing you stress in the future. By focusing on events, mindfully, piece by piece, the stressor won’t seem so large, but instead will become manageable. If there is a specific situation that causes you anxiety, playing out how the situation will go in a positive way creates a higher likelihood that you will feel less stressed in a given situation!

Also use some of your personal time to do some deep breathing. Find a comfortable place to sit or lay down. After you have thought about things that may be coming up in your day, try to clear your mind of anything that may be causing you undue negativity. Studies have found that people who relax and meditate on a regular basis not only have lower levels of stress, but are healthier over all!

You too can tackle any problem or situation head on by planning it out in your head. When you enter a stressful situation, think back to the planning you did before hand. You will find that many of those situations become easier to deal with. By taking a few simple steps to relax and take some time to simply focus on you, you will soon find that you are on your way to having decreased stress on a regular basis.

Deal with Stress with Mindfulness Meditation

Four Simple Ideas to Deal with Stress Right Now

donnam — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:49:41 +0000

Are you a person that must deal with stress on a daily basis? Is life bringing you more downs then ups? Are you finding that you are more and more stressed out in your day to day life? If this describes you to a “T”, don’t worry! There are many all natural ways to deal with stress in your life. All you need to focus on are a few simple steps, and you will soon be on your way to a calmer, more productive life!

One of the most important things to think about when combating stress regularly is your breathing. When many folks get stressed out or frustrated they forget to breathe, or may begin breathing too shallowly. When either of these things happens, it contributes to your feeling of pressure or anxiety! In order to combat this symptom, you need to remember to breathe. Sounds simple, but for some, it takes a bit of effort.

Did you know that deep breathing, in addition to relaxing you, will also bring many additional help benefits into your life? Your deep breathing in stressful situations will help increase your brain activity and functionality, reduce the feelings of pressure, help you relax so you can think out your situation as clearly as possible and in general enhance your mental well being. How can you garner all these benefits?

When you are in a situation that demands a lot of you, and you can feel yourself breathing shallowly, make a concerted effort to take just a few deep breaths. Try to breathe deeply into your abdomen and slowly release the air. You may be shocked to find out that this simple “treatment” can help you deal with stress extremely effectively!

There is another very simple way for you to reduce stress in your life! Try to find a few situations in which you can pause for a moment to give thanks for something in your life. In our fast paced lives we may not regularly pause to give thanks for any of the things we have in our lives. Giving thanks reminds us that we are lucky to have what we do, even when stress seems to be infiltrating our lives.

Additionally, you can take the time to be kind to others. Go out of your way to help someone, spend some time volunteering or helping out a charity. Doing something selfless will allow you some time away from your own personal stressors.

Finally, make some time to laugh. Laughter, as they say, is the best medicine, especially when it comes to dealing with stress! Find a TV show that amuses you, have a conversation with a friend that makes you laugh, and you will find that the simple route to deal with stress in your life starts as simply as one step at a time!

Deal with Stress Today – A STRESS Tip You Can Use NOW!

donnam — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 03:12:56 +0000

Did you know that you can deal with stress right now with the simple act of breathing deeply. You can reduce the intensity of stress you are feeling by BREATHING deeply right NOW? Take a moment . . . and breathe deeply several times.

Try it Now – Here’s How!

DO IT THIS WAY: As you breathe in, breathe down very deeply as if you are by-passing your lungs and breathing into the pit of your abdomen. Think of this as breathing deep into your tail bone then breathe out slowly. This will help you to become aware to breathe deeper than usual.

We tend to hold in stressful feelings with the shallow breathing. Think about when you are in traffic and someone cuts in front of you. Do you step on the brake, gasp, and hold that experience in that breath? Feel some fear? Most do.

So in other words, when we are startled we breathe in the stressful experience. We do not know that we can deal with stress and breathe it out too. As we hold in many emotions we actually hold them in with our breath. Over time this contributes to very shallow and ineffective breathing. We unintentionally create a container of stress within our bodies.

So do this throughout the day . . . Take several deep breaths as you feel stressed … Take several deep breaths as you think of someone or a situation that is uncomfortable.

Deep breathing has become one of the most effective means to deal with stress and move towards a peaceful existence. Give it a try. Try not to underestimate something simple that can work. There is nothing to lose.

If you care to, let me know your experience. Please leave your comment below.

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