Unless you have gained some skill at Mindfulness, you may not know immediately what thoughts you are thinking. To access your thought process it is often more useful to start with noticing your feelings.

When you are aware of feeling badly or stressed, take a moment to reflect on what you have been thinking about. Chances are you have just had a series of distressing thoughts that have triggered negative feelings. Feelings of fear, frustration, tension, overwhelm, panic, annoyance, apathy, and so on are triggered by your thoughts that define what the event means to you. Once you identify the thoughts that define the situation for you, you can apply Technique #2 to let those thoughts go and replace them with neutral or more positive outlook.

What if you are not aware of all the feelings you have about the situation? This may be the case if you aren’t comfortable experiencing and expressing feelings. Many people react to stress by pushing down or numbing out their feelings believing that this will relieve stress. This couldn’t be further from the truth!

Feelings cannot be eliminated, they can only be delayed! Your emotions are an important part of your stress-handling mechanism. Your emotions, and any physical sensations are your body’s reactions to your thoughts. Entertain thoughts or a belief you are under attack – your body will react with feelings of fear – whether the threat is real or not.

To use your emotions to identify when you are having negative thoughts about an event, you must sharpen your awareness and listen! Ironically, listening to your body and acknowledging emotions can give immediate relief all by itself. Awareness of your emotional state is the first step to shifting your mind set.

To deal with stress effectively, get busy reflecting on your body sensations, feelings and the thoughts that are triggering those sensations Meditation Technique #2). The adage, “Don’t just do something, stand there!” applies here. Rather than trying to change what you can’t control in your environment, change what you can control – your perspective on the situation.

Mindfulness Meditation Technique #3:

Do this often.  Focus on your body and notice any sensations. By sensations I mean where in your body you feel tension, stress, or pain.

Then focus on noticing your sensations.  When I say noticing I also mean observing it and accepting it.

Often when we notice a tension or ache we generally are bothered that it is there.  Therefore we tend to reject it or resist it.  If we resist it, it will continue. What we resist…persists. Here is a good tip: accept whatever you feel as it is.

Our bodies are talking to us through feelings and sensations.  By acknowledging that you accept that the pain, or tension is there, it will have permission to leave you. Give it a try!

Be mindful of your inner world of sensations. Mindfulness Meditation will transform your stress to peacefulness and even joy. Practice, practice, practice and let me know how it’s going for you.

Make your daily practice easy with Donna Marie’s Relaxations for Inner Peace audio  program of guided meditations, soothing music and sounds of nature. Go now to our De-Stress Store.

Related posts:

1. Deal with Stress with Mindfulness Meditation
2. Mindfulness Meditation Techniques to Deal with Stress – Part 1
3. Mindfulness Meditation Techniques to Deal with Stress – Part 2

I revealed that while most people are aware only of the event and their action or reaction to the event (that they interpret as stress,) in actuality, there is much more going on. In our experience of stress there are other intervening, often unconscious, steps of thought and emotions that come before the action we take, or our physicalresponse to a stressful event.

In this article, I will focus on how the thoughts we think contribute to the experience of stress and how Mindfulness Meditation can help you to manage the thoughts that contribute to your experience of stress.

Mindfulness is the ongoing practice of bringing your focus to the present moment as much as possible throughout your day. It is the practice of awareness of your thoughts, emotions, your body and the surrounding environment.

The key is to practice this awareness without thoughts of judgment or criticism of self, others or situations. To manage your thoughts about your experience you must first be aware of them. Once you are aware of inner negative comments (we all have them), mindfulness meditation practice helps you to let them go and refocus on simply observing what is happening both in your body and around you at the moment.

Mindfulness Meditation Technique #1, described in Part I of this series, teaches you to refocus on your breathing.  By refocusing on this simple activity, you begin to free your mind from distractions associated with Past thinking; i.e. thoughts of yesterday, last week, last year, etc., and with Future thinking; i.e. thoughts of what may happen; both negative and positive, especially worry.

Freeing your mind from Past and Future thinking is important because stress originates from fear-based thought patterns that we have been unconsciously conditioned to think. Fear thoughts are learned over our whole lives from those who are closest to us.

Recent studies  also point to fetal experiences being formative too. As we were growing in the womb we experience the stress reactions of our mother as our own. If a mother experiences much stress during her pregnancy, chances are the child would have integrated that experience.

Mindfulness Meditation Technique #2:

Throughout your day take multiple 60 second breaks to practice focusing on your thoughts about your environment. Notice everything you can with your 5 senses. Keep your thoughts focused on looking, seeing, hearing, feeling.

What do you see around you? Notice colors, shapes, people, sensations. Notice your thoughts about everything you see. Practice seeing without judging right or wrong.

This practice can be done in a car, at work, at play, with others without interfering with your activities or really anyone else knowing.    You are merely shifting your focus. Play this mental game right now.

Focus on the task that you are doing right now in this moment. For example, if you are writing or typing, notice that entire experience. How do your fingers feel as they strike the keys? How do the keys sound as you type? Notice any tension in your body and so on. Stay focused on exactly what you are doing. When you move on to the next task, notice everything about that too.

Mindfulness is a very effective means to experience calm, inner patience and confidence, and to access clarity.  However, like other teachings we must become a student and practice daily.

Make your daily practice easy with Donna Marie’s Relaxations for Inner Peace audio program of guided meditations, soothing music and sounds of nature. Go now to our De-Stress Store.

Have you tried this exercise? What is your experience? Please share below.

Related posts:

1. Can’t Focus? Mindfulness Meditation will Deal with Stress at Work
2. Use Mindfulness Meditation to Deal with the Stress of Job Uncertainty
3. Mindfulness Meditation Techniques to Deal with Stress – Part 1

I’ll be focusing on one technique at a time. Before I introduce the first technique, I’d like to give you a little insight into how we typically experience stress and especially how we learn to respond to stressful events in life.

When you are feeling stressed it is because you feel that you cannot control outcomes that you would like. Most of us aren’t really aware of the actual causes of stress. We experience all manner of negative feelings – stress, discomfort, anger, sadness, frustration – in response to events, situations and the behavior of others in our lives.

Most of us believe that external events, situations and behaviors “cause” our distress, and therefore they must be controlled, managed or eliminated somehow in order to reduce our stress. We soon discover it’s not possible to manage all of the things in our lives that bother us. So, we become discouraged believing that we must either put up with ever increasing stress or numb out in some way (often with alcohol or food  – also known as “Happy Hour.”)

Here’s a little model I use to show how stress really works. Instead of the external situation directly causing our stress there are two intervening steps to consider:

We often become aware of stress when we notice our actions or the reactions in our bodies.

We miss the whole intervening process of observation, thought and meaning making, and emotions. It’s not the event, itself that causes stress, it’s our take on it, which then tells us how to feel about it and ultimately how to respond.

Focusing on the negative, distressing aspects of an event or another person’s behavior, or interpret situations as threatening,  causes the stress hormones to flow freely. On the other hand, if you manage your thoughts to be at least neutral or find positive aspects of the situation you will experience far less distress.

You have no control of the many situations going on around you that seem to be the cause of your stress.

However, the one thing that you do have control  over is how you decide to think about those situations.  That is the bottom line.

Managing your thoughts is tricky if you haven’t even been aware of having them. That’s where Mindfulness Meditation comes in. Mindfulness helps you to slow down long enough to become aware of what is happening in your mind, body and emotions where you have more control. Mindfulness meditation helps you to become aware of how your body responds to stress, the emotions you are having and of the thoughts that trigger your emotions.

Mindfulness Meditation Technique #1:

Sit down (right now) and take 5 deep breaths.
Now focus on your breath going in and out.
Notice it without identifying it as “Am I doing this right or wrong?”  Many people stay in their heads when first doing this, so practice on noticing your breathing as is goes in and out, without judgment.

Simple? Easy? Yes it can be.  Practice is the key.  Do this throughout your day.  Set an hourly timer if you want to remind you of this practice.

Doing frequent deep breathing sessions will help you focus in the moment and allow you to notice your thoughts, emotions and tension in your body.

In the next article I will discuss how long held beliefs shape our stress reactions and the second Mindfulness Meditation Technique.

Make your daily practice easy with Donna Marie’s Relaxations for Inner Peace audio program of guided meditations,  soothing music and soundDe-Stress Store.

Check out  Donna Marie’s upcoming experiential workshops at http://www.dealwithstresstoday.com/events-calendar/

Related posts:

1. Deal with Stress with Mindfulness Meditation
2. Can’t Focus? Mindfulness Meditation will Deal with Stress at Work
3. Use Mindfulness Meditation to Deal with the Stress of Job Uncertainty

Maybe you have forgotten how to enjoy your life? You are not alone. Many people feel that their lives have become routine, and that the stress in their life may be piling up around them. The wonderful thing about stress, however,  is that it can be removed as easily as it was created. By taking a few small steps every day, you can deal with stress in a positive way, and find your way back Buy Viagra to the life you deserve to be living.

The first thing you can do is to take a look at your emotional and spiritual self. Do you have an outlet for your emotions? Holding in emotions on a day to day basis creates an environment where stress thrives!

There are many ways you can combat this. You can try finding a trusted friend to talk to. You can purchase a journal and make sure you write down your thoughts and feelings on a daily basis. You can seek help from a professional therapist if there are deeper issues you need to address. The most important way to deal with stress is not to hold back your emotions, but to express them.

It is also important to take a look at your spiritual self. Whether you believe in a specific religion, a higher power, or just a feeling of connectedness, delving into spirituality in some format can remove a lot of stress from your life. Knowing that there is a master plan within the universe can remove some of the day to day worries.

The next thing to tackle can be any fears that you have. Fear can be paralyzing sometimes, and can grow in intensity if not dealt with. Begin by tackling a small fear, and slowly expand to larger ones. Enlist a support system if need be. Fear can create much stress in your life and should be tackled appropriately.

If you know that there are changes you need to make in your own life, but fear seems to be holding you back, take a risk and push through the fear to change your life. You will be glad you did,.

Finally, make sure that you have a sense of humor about life. Things will not always go your way, but taking the time to relax, and appreciate the joy surrounding you can do wonders, even for a bad day. Step by step you are moving closer to living the life you want to live.

Related posts:

1. Deal with Stress Today – A STRESS Tip You Can Use NOW!
2. Four Simple Ideas to Deal with Stress Right Now
3. Five Important Ways to Deal with Stress in the New Year

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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