Stress Management - 3 Easy Ways To Reduce Stress

3 Easy Ways To Reduce Stress

Stress, America's #1 health problem, is a leading cause of major illness. In fact, heart disease, high blood pressure, and depression are just some of the harmful effects of stress. Research has shown that releasing stress and learning how to relax promotes a healthier, happier, and more fulfilling life.

Here are 3 easy ways to reduce your stress fast.

1. Breathe Deeply

Take 3 slow deep breaths. Taking the breath from your diaphragm, through your nose, holding for about 2 seconds and then slowly exhaling through your mouth. Why slow deep breaths? Because when we are under stress, we tense up, constricting the oxygen to our body. Taking slow deep breaths brings oxygen throughout our body resulting in feeling centered and releasing stress. Giving your body much needed oxygen will release tension and stress fast.

2. Meditate

The purpose of meditation is to relax and to release stress. Meditation allows the body to relax and permits a means to release the "chatter" in your mind. It is important for you to know that there is no right or wrong way to meditate. Meditation is simply a form of concentration and focus; it is a process that quiets the mind. Since much of our negative stress is caused by our own thoughts, this is an especially useful method.

Here are steps for a popular, quick, and easy guided mediation:

1. Get into a comfortable position and close your eyes.

2. Take 3 deep breaths.

3. Visualize all the stress in your mind and body as a cloud of gray smoke. Allow this cloud to be released through the crown of your head. Imagine the gray cloud floating into the sky and disappearing. Feel the weight of the stress being releasing out of your body and into the cloud. Allow your shoulders to drop and continue until you have no more gray smoke or for about 10 minutes.

4. Imagine a healing white light that has surrounded your body. Feel the warmth of this light and allow it to infiltrate your body. Slowly open your eyes.

3. Try Hypnosis

This technique involves sitting comfortably with your eyes closed while listening to suggestions. Hypnosis is relaxation, focus, and suggestion. Using these three elements your mind and body will enter into a deeply relaxed state that gives you an overall sense of well being and tranquility. Hypnosis is one of the oldest and most natural modes of healing dating back to 1000 B.C. . In 1958 the American Medical Association approved the therapeutic use of hypnosis. This brought mainstream recognition that hypnotherapy was a valid and legitimate form of healing. During this time hypnotherapy was respected and accepted.

Meditation & Guided Imagery are techniques that use the natural power of the mind in creating what you want in life. Einstein estimated that we only use 10% of our brains. In practicing Meditation and Guided Imagery, we have access to the other 90%. Since thoughts are one of the most powerful possessions we can have, it is important to keep the thoughts and images positive. Meditation and Guided Imagery works because the Physical Universe is energy, this energy is vibrating at different speeds. Energy is magnetic causing similar thoughts to attract other similar thoughts. What we dwell on, we will attract. Thoughts and ideas are high vibrating forms of energy and are very powerful. Form then follows ideas. This is the reason that thoughts and ideas in Meditation and Guided Imagery particularly must be in a positive form.

Here are some steps to make Meditation and Hypnosis more effective.

1. Desire- You must have the desire to make a positive change in your life.

2. Belief- You must believe in the power of the mind.

3. Acceptance- You must accept the process of Meditation and Hypnotherapy including the results.

4. Set you goal- Decide on what you want and be committed to it.

5. Create a Clear Idea or Picture- Create the vision in your imagination and make it clear.

6. Focus on it often- Keep the images of your goal in your mind as often as possible.

7. Give it Positive Energy- Keep your frame of mind and thoughts positive.

8. Look For the Positive Changes- Look for the subtle ways Meditation and Hypnosis are changing your life, and believe in the magic of life!

Marla Sloane, Ph.D. is a successful author and speaker. Her Positive Affirmation subscribers have reached world-wide proportions and her book: "The Masks We Wear and How to Live Without Them" is at the heart of her teleclasses; From Ordinary to Extraordinary?Unmask Your Potential; teaching individuals to remove limiting masks and labels. Marla has also produced Trilogy of Meditations for your Mind, Body and Spirit, which is distributing nationwide and in Europe. Dr. Marla Says?is a very popular Internet advice column giving answers to her reader's questions.

Marla has an extensive background in psychology and clinical hypnotherapy. She has written numerous articles about releasing stress, how to find your authentic self, and the importance of living in your truth.

You can contact Marla at: Marla@marlasloane.com You can visit her web site at: http://www.marlasloane.com

Car Insurance Rates | Dental Insurance | Health Insurance | Home Owner Insurance | Life Insurance Quote

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |

Stress Management: 5 More Things To Clean Out Of Your Mental Closet
ResentmentsA wise friend once said that holding onto resentments is like trying to crush a sandspur between your fingers. You might eventually do it, but it sure is going to hurt you in the process.Life tip: Forgive. Release yourself from the pain and focus on the future.Procrastination"I'll do it later" has to be the biggest con job we can run on ourselves. Procrastination fosters the belief in "someday," which never comes because it just isn't on the calendar.Life tip: The next time you are tempted to procrastinate, simply put it off. Procrastinate about procrastinating. Do it now, procrastinate later.RationalizationsWhile excuses hold us back from doing the things we know we need to do, rationalizations sear our conscious to allow us to do the th...(related: Stress Management)

9 Warning Signs Of Stress
Stress is the nastiest 4 letter word you ever met. Don't stress, I know it is six letters but it packs the wallop of the meanest 4 letter word you ever heard.Stress can affect your health and keep you from being all you can be to borrow a phrase recently made popular by the U.S. Army.Psychologists, scientists and those who study this particular beast say its origins may be physical, financial, environmental, social or emotional. I say that covers everything in which we as humans engage so to bypass a long discourse, let's just say stress is all around us and manifests itself through one or more of the aforementioned categories.Given this is true, there must exist commonalities that are recognizable so, if we choose, we can deal with it regardless of its particular origin. Of course, the medical types may disagree and...(related: Stress Management)

What Is Stress?
Stress is an interpretation of an event or circumstance which is understood to be a threat. It can be any force or pressure put o...(related: Stress Management)

How To Put An End To Loneliness
Loneliness and separation are the real illness of our times. While we urgently need true communication, instead we often find withdrawal, games and lies. This is so widespread it is taken as...(related: Stress Management)

A 2-minute Stress Buster
Meditation seems to have arrived in the mainstream of late, and for good reasons. As reported in a 2004 issue of Time Magazine -- brain imaging shows that meditation actually shifts your brain's activity from the right side of your brain, over to the left side.So what?Such a shift calms your brain's often overworked "rational thinking center," and reduces the stress response.This shift of activity to the left side of the brain immediately allows you to be less stressed -- and almost instantly far more relaxed and mentally focused.The following is a quick and easy seated meditation for rapid stress reduction, relaxed alertness, greatly increased energy and mental clarity....(related: Stress Management)

Stress Control: Tough Leadership Vs. Easy Does It
Tough leaders are usually seen as ogres. Theirexacting demands and high expectations add tostress levels. And their obsessive compulsivebehavior can have a negative effect on results ifthey don't understand how to control stress to getpositive results without serious negativereactions.The same kind of leadership challenge can be foundin the Army. Management at all levels are facedwith the decision of "tough leadership" or "easydoes it" in preparing troops for combat and on thebattlefield.Good military leaders work hard to balance theencouragment of positive stre...(related: Stress Management)

Create Reserves For A Stress Free Life
One of the ways I have avoided a lot of stress the last two years is to have a stockpile of birthday and all occasion greetings cards in my filing cabinet. When you work at home like I do, you try to have the least interruptions to your day as possible. These cards have saved the day on many occasions. I get them when I am out shopping, I look for the ones I love and sometimes I am able to make the most of sales and cut price items by buying them in bulk. Of course I make sure I also have a big reserve of stamps to go with them.There are many ways to avoid those extra stresses of everyday life by thinking about what yo...(related: Stress Management)

Break Up Your Day And Become More Productive
Often, in today's fast paced world, we forget to take a break during our working day. We simply figure we will get much more done if we eat on the run, have less or no breaks, and work more hours.The real truth, though, is that this is counter productive and ruins the health of those trying to cram more into their day. Quality of work deteriorates and often people succumb to illness due to lack of focused physical activity and poor diet normally brought on by consumption of convenience food.I regularly hear the sa...(related: Stress Management)

High Stress Means Low Self Esteem
Do you have the desire for a stress free life? Most people do. After all isn't this why most people are working so hard, to achieve just that? Sounds like a paradox doesn't it, "I'm working hard to achieve a stress free life"?Ironically, by the time you think you've gotten there, the "stress" you've endured as a result of all that work has likely taken such a toll on your health that you are not far from the end of your life. So is a stress free life actually a myth, is it even possible? In order to answer this we need to look closely at what we mean by the word "stress".I will propose a very simple definition that you are welcome to try on for size. By "stress" I mean the emotional, mental, phyiscal and spiritual pain one feels when they are not where they desire to be in any given moment. Now by "wher...(related: Stress Management)

Relieve Anxiety With Hypnosis
There are two types of anxiety:*Situational*Existential.Most of us experience both kinds.Situational AnxietyCommon examples of Situational Anxiety that provoke an inner trembling are:>Writing an exam,>Asking someone for a date,>The boss calling us into her office,>Entering hospital for a serious operation.This kind of anxiety is easily relieved with hypnotherapy. Situational Anxiety is a response to stress. Since you define what is stressful you can change your definition, and your response, with hypnosis.That's because your response to situations is under your control. The control increases the more you use your hypnotic...(related: Stress Management)

Understanding Your Stress Levels
In order to understand stress better, it is a good idea to understand that there are different stress levels. These levels vary in the form of stress they take and they can often provide an indication of how to treat the stress. Furthermore, there are tests available that can help people understand their own, particular brand of stress and, with this knowledge, they can also understand themselves better. Then, with this information, a complete stress management met...(related: Stress Management)