Stress And Anxiety - Take Charge Of It!
by Tim Webb
Have you ever noticed what occurs when you are suddenly
thrown into a high tension situation?
Does any of this sound familiar?
* Raised pulse
* Short faster breaths
* Shallower breathing
* Feelings of losing control
* Limbs twitching and/or shaking
* Feeling hot and clammy
OK, there may be more, but I think they are a
good start.
If you answered no to all of them then, CONGRATULATIONS,
you don't suffer from stress (or any human emotion) at
all!
Seriously though, such feelings are often the reason why
people suffer from stress and anxiety in their everyday
lives and, this is the point,
EVEN WHEN THEY ARE NOT IN STRESSFUL SITUATIONS!
The stress they feel regularly in pressure environments
does not leave them and this leads to extended periods of
tension, headaches, poor and shallow breathing, and often
leads them to indulge in vices that exacerbate the problem.
Unfortunately this is the nature of society and, short of
retiring to a mountain top for a life of solitude, it
cannot easily change.
Not everyone can simply leave their jobs for
example,
it is not always that simple.
Alright then, what CAN be done?
Essentially, we need to spend some time re-training our
responses to stressful and anxious situations. In a nutshell
we need to develop AWARENESS of how we feel and which
situations require a different response.
Obviously, this takes time.
Here are some practical steps to help alleviate stress
related problems.
1. Practice becoming AWARE of when you need to apply
different physical and mental responses. Meetings,
interviews, and suchlike are obvious examples. How
about while driving, many people are unnecessarily
tense and stressed, and because it is such a common
thing to do, we are not even aware we ARE overtly
stressed while doing it!
2. Re-train yourself to breathe differently in hard to
handle situations. Inhale deeply through your nose
when anxious as opposed to reverting to shallow,
fast, and erratic breathing. Now the important part.
Allow the exhale to be LONGER. This will aid in
preventing hyperventilation and will bring with it
a feeling of calm control.
3. Check your body for muscular
tension. Mentally scan
down your body and feel for undue tension. If you do
feel it, address it, and combine attempts at relaxing
the relevant body part with your exhalation. Literally
breathe out your mental AND physical stress and tenseness.
Let it go!
Remember, you can learn to use such methods under everyday
stress just like you can learn (and apply) anything. While
many people resort to vices that really just make matters
worse, deep breathing and all that it entails allows a
person to go within oneself at any given moment and find
a healthier solution to the problem of anxiety and
stress.
(c) Tim Webb 2005 All Rights Reserved
Tim Webb is a fitness instructor, Ju Jutsu instructor and competitor. He specialises in easily accessible deep breathing exercises that combine breath and mind together. His site http://www.BreathForSuccess.com offers a product that provides deep breathing exercises for invigorating yourself, stress and anxiety reduction, and highlights how your breath can be tied in with your goals to move you towards them in record time!
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