Tips & Techniques

Are you stressed? Are you feeling overwhelmed, unappreciated, angry? Are you experiencing difficulty meeting multiple job responsibilities and target dates? Are you juggling personal and business responsibilities? Are relationship issues overwhelming?

Here are some quick and easy suggestions to reduce stress right now:

• Pay attention to your body, feelings, thoughts and intuitive self!
• Acknowledge personal stress cues and symptoms!
• Recognize your tolerance!
• Pause! Breathe! Detach! Relax! Take a mini-vacation!
• Change your internal environment!
• Physically release and focus (dance, walk, yoga, work-out).
• Conduct internal "traffic control" several times a day.
• Meditate and center yourself.
• Embrace your personal power and spiritual connection.

Set SMART Goals: Specific • Measurable • Action • Realistic • Timely

Breathe Deeply - Take 3 cleansing breaths by inhaling deeply through the nose, belly rising. Sustain the inhalation, then exhale (through mouth, belly deflating), making the exhalation forceful and sustained, like a sigh. This temporarily changes your physiology and can be the beginning of a sustained centering, relaxation or meditation sequence.

Walk - A five-minute walk can begin to shift your mood. Fitness walking for longer time periods has additional benefits!

Listen to Music - It can definitely be a mood changer!

Eat Mindfully - An ever-present challenge to the busy person! Take time out to eat a healthy meal or snack. Mindful eating aids digestion and gives you time away, improving productivity in the long-run.

Take a 'Mini-Vacation' - Lie down or put your feet up and just be!

Say No - Don't overextend yourself!

Take a 'Joybreak' - Do something different that you enjoy such as reading a magazine, calling a friend, writing a thank-you note, stepping outdoors!

Stretch - Yoga or office yoga releases physical tension and clears the mind!

De-Clutter - Decrease 'visual noise'!

Lift Weights - It will boost your metabolism too! (Hint: Keep light weights in the office.)

Allow Time - Performance has variables and interruptions are inevitable!

Think Positive - Let go of self-sabotaging language and worry!

Smile and Laugh - Proven to ease anxiety and reduce stress!

Foster forgiveness of self and others, dissolve anger, and create inner peace by regularly practicing a loving-kindness meditation.

Additional Resources

Yogilates - Yogilates® was created in 1997 by certified Pilates instructor and personal trainer Jonathan Urla. It is a method of exercise that integrates the core strengthening and alignment principles of Pilates with the practice of hatha yoga.

Online Yoga Resources offers yoga mats, equipment, news, information, and more.

Yoga Finder claims to be the largest yoga directory in the internet. It has a large assortment of resources, articles and listings pertaining to all facets of your yoga practice.