The holidays are here! YAY! Not always huh? With all the extra planning, shopping, and spending; not to mention the bills bills bills and all the extra cooking and cleaning. Don’t forget that we still have our everyday stressors and workload. Just kidding, I know your coworkers and family won’t let you forget. Meeting deadlines before a holiday break can add so much pressure and load. Ugh, why do we do this to ourselves?!  Whose idea was this? Am I right?

No matter how organized and prepared we think we are sometimes stress will hit us like a brick wall in the middle of our day. When this happens, having a few techniques up your sleeve to instantly reduce your stress can help you productively continue your day.

These techniques won’t address the underlying causes of stress or help reduce stress in the long run. That said, they will help you feel better immediately and will help you feel less stressed overall if they’re practiced regularly. 

• Deep Breathing

Deep breathing helps bring more oxygen to your brain and also stimulates your body’s toxin-removal system. Done regularly it’s not only good for your emotional health but good for physical health as well. I started using this practice years ago but seeing Charlize Theron explain it in the movie Long Shot helped me fine-tune the technique. She explained it’s a navy seal technique to help calm them under extreme duress. If it can work for that level of stress it’s bound to work for ‘minor’ issues as well. Here’s how:

Take a deep breath, counting to 4 as you breathe in. Then hold your breath for twice the amount of time you breathe in, and then exhale to the same count as your ‘in’ breath. For example, count “one, two, three, four” slowly as you breathe in for a four-count breath. Hold your breath for eight counts, then breathe out for four counts. You can count out loud if you need to. You might get some weird glances from your coworkers but who cares, we’re focusing on our breathing, not their stink face, right?

This deep breathing technique has been proven again and again to reduce stress. Do ten full breaths before moving on.

• A Five-Minute Stress Meditation

I know you’re thinking “Really bitch?” Yes really! It took me years to understand the concept of meditation. But once I understood what it was really about, it became much easier. I also realized I had been practicing short meditation for years as a coping mechanism without understanding it. Meditation has long been used to reduce stress. The process takes just five to ten minutes.

It’s important to remember meditation is all about non-resistance. Have you ever tried to tell yourself just to think about it only to become even more fixated? Yeah, that doesn’t work. Try accepting the present moment as it is, rather than resisting it or wishing it was a different way. Let’s ALLOW the current moment, and experience the now as it is without changing or resisting it in any way. 

We call that radical acceptance. Letting catastrophic thoughts flow through you and not holding onto them. I know, easier said than done. Imagine, if you can, the thoughts of cars passing at a stop light. Let the cars go by. You wouldn’t run out into an intersection telling the drivers to stop, would you? No, or at least I hope not. Playing in traffic isn’t the answer! You sit at the red light and watch them take their turn, and then proceed when the light turns green and start heading to your intended destination. Right? 

So a “stress meditation” is simply allowing yourself to experience your stress. A lot of stress can be compounded by resisting the stress itself. By allowing yourself to just sit there, experiencing what you’re feeling without resisting it can cause the stress to just flow away. This technique will work wonders for some people, but it may not work for others at all. Try it a few times for yourself to see.

• Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Scientists have long ago found that the link between mind and body is a two-way street. When you’re stressed, your body tenses up. But if you tense up your body, you can also induce stress. The same works for relaxation and stress reduction. By relaxing your body, you can also relax your mind and emotions.

Start by taking a deep breath in and exhaling. Then pick a muscle in your face, such as your jaw muscles, and tense it as strongly as you can. Hold it for 10 seconds, then relax your muscles. Have you seen those tiktoks of people reminding you to unclench your jaw? I get called out with those every time.

Repeat the process for the whole head area, then move down your body. Strongly tense your neck, shoulders, triceps, biceps, hands, chest, abs, back, buttocks, thighs, calves and feet. Move through every muscle group in your body, progressively tensing it and relaxing it. By the end of this process, your whole body will feel like rubber. Okay, maybe not but you’ll likely be feeling only a fraction of the stress you were feeling when you began the process.

Spend some time practicing these tricks then pick one that you can “default” to and use anytime you feel stressed. Everyone is different, just pick the one that you notice works best for you.

The holidays will be over soon and then a new year starts. Let’s do our best to get through this, and leave it behind us as we look forward to new experiences in 2024. Keep an open mind. I’m rooting for you! Give me a call and schedule an appointment if you need some help getting closer to the best version of you! There is a Book with Me tab at the top of this page! Click it! XoXo