Relaxation Techniques for Stress Reduction

by Gayle Kimball
Author, Energy Healer and EFT Practitioner


Reprinted here on Nurturework with the authors permission.
Stress causes the body chemistry to change in response to a perceived threat or challenge. Many of us get addicted to the adrenaline rush of fast-pace rushing; it’s been called the most common drug addiction. Stress was “one of the most serious health issues of the 20th century,” according to the International Labor Organization.

Long-term stress contributes to heart disease, high blood pressure, increased cholesterol, depression, divorce, and workplace accidents and injuries. Chronic stress impairs the immune system, leading to disease, which costs employers money. Around 25% of the workforce suffers from excessive stress or anxiety (www.stress.org). As much as 80 percent of disease and illness is initiated and aggravated by stress. Stress alters the body’s chemistry and is linked to heart disease, arthritis, type 2 diabetes and certain cancers (according to a study of caregivers of relatives with dimensia). Stress hormones encourage formation of fat cells and craving sugar and fat. Even wounds take longer to heal when we’re stressed, about 40 percent longer in an Ohio State university study of dental students. Research shows that tumors transplanted into rats living in stressful situations grow more rapidly. Candace Pert explains that stress causes the largely autonomic processes that are regulated by peptide flow, such as breathing, immunity, digestion, and elimination, to collapse down to a few simple feedback loops and upset the normal healing response. Meditation, by allowing long-buried thoughts and feelings to surface, is a way of getting the peptides flowing again, returning the body, and the emotions, to health.

Adrenal glands sit on top of the kidneys and secrete hormones that get the body ready for fight or flight. Chronic secretion of these adrenal hormones (such cortisol) is taxing. Signs of distress include: irritability, fuzziness, fatigue, anxiety, stuttering, difficulty sleeping and concentrating, grinding teeth, upset stomach, headache, sighing, heart palpitations, skin rashes, loss of sexual interest, back pain, nervous tics, stuttering, crying, anxiety, forgetfulness, allergies, feeling tense, hurried, pressured, difficulty concentrating, loss of humor, withdrawal, hopelessness, frustrated, tired, eating too much or too little, digestive problems, irritability, high blood pressure (over 120/80), smoking and drinking to calm down. Observe how you react to driving in rush hour, waiting in a long line, getting a yellow light, etc. Change your attitude to amusement, don’t look at your watch. Do positive self-talk, avoiding “awfulizing,” “magnifying,” “catastrophizing,” “overgeneralizing,” “polarized thinking and habitual urgency and “hurry sickness.”

Trauma can lead to post-traumatic stress syndrome characterized by anxiety, nightmares, insomnia, flashbacks, etc.

Solutions: Herbs, etc.

To support the adrenals, vitamins B, C, pantothenic acid, magnesium, calcium and zinc. Selenium helps with anxiety (found in Brazil nuts). Avoid sugar, coffee, tobacco, and alcohol. B vitamins are found in leafy green vegetables, oatmeal, and whole grains (avoid wheat).

To relax with calming herbs try chamomile, cinnamon, fennel, gotu kola, lemon balm, licorice root, passionflower. Other herbs are ginseng, valerian, hops, oatstraw, motherwort, marshmallow, and skullcap. You can also wear a talisman with valerian root, pansy, rose, and agelical root. Animal research indicates that Rhodiala rosea reduces levels of cortisol, the stress hormone.

Tonics include ginseng, gynostemma, chaga, rhodiola rosea. The amino acid L-theanine is said to stimulate alpha waves for relaxation. To energize, American ginseng, dong quai, licorice and ginger.

Support the immune system with astragalus, eleuthero, garlic, mushrooms (cordyceps, maitake, reishi, shitake), probiotics such as yogurt.

Stress (adrenaline) causes blood sugar levels to fluctuate, triggering cravings and anxiety. Don’t eat sugar; eat complex carbohydrates.

To aid digestion, bromelain and pancreatin and other enzymes. Also, pepermint tea.

Drink eight glasses of water, between meals to not dilute digestive fluids.

Curl your fingers around the other thumb, squeezing for three minutes to balance energy. Also rub your ears.

Physical

If your muscles are relaxed, you can’t be tense.

Take deep breaths from your belly. Count to 10 with the in-breath, hold, and with the out-breath, blow out any tension or worry as if through a straw. Exhale any discomfort out into the stream of your breath. Stretch and roll your spine.

Crunch up your shoulders and face tightly and count to six. Hold your breath, then release your breath and tension while counting to six again. Release your jaw as well as your shoulders. Make a fist, then open it and allow any tension to flick out from your fingers. Shake out leftover tension by shaking out your hands and feet, stomping, or doing the twist. If you have time, tighten and relax each muscle starting from your feet up to your face, telling the muscle to be warm and heavy.

Massage your face, scalp and shoulders (tap, rub, stretch the skin, or gently pull the hair at the roots). Rub your gums through your cheeks. Circle your jaw. Try massage, acupuncture, reflexology, and yoga. Students of these practices often need people to practice on.

Rub your feet, hands, and ears which contain many reflexology points connected to various organs. If you find a tender spot, repeat pressing and breathing into it. When rubbing the feet, think of them side by side as representing the body, with the arches representing the spine. The toes are linked to the head, the organs descending down the feet. With over 7,000 nerve endings in each foot, it’s useful to give them attention. You can combine this with essential oils, as the feet absorb them very quickly.

Do progressive muscle relaxation, tensing each muscle group, then thinking my muscles are heavy, relaxed, comfortable, warm, smooth, at ease, calm. Breathe deeply.

Apply essential oils to alleviate stress: chamomile, fir, grapefruit, lavender, rose, verbena, sandalwood, geranium, etc. They’re available along with flower essences at natural foods stores or on line.

Thinking Patterns

Changing your attitude and self-talk is a major tool to reduce stress Your reaction to a stressor is what counts. As Mark Twain said, ”I have had a great many troubles in my life, and most never happened.” Much earlier, Epictetus observed, “People are disturbed, not by events, but by their view of those events.” Be amused at the challenges you’ve selected. People with "hardiness” and “internal locus of control” handle stress better; they view problems as challenges and the opportunity to growth rather than as a threat and believe they have control over their lives. Use positive self-talk. Richard Bach said, “There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hand.”

Say No and delegate when appropriate. Avoid negative people and situations. Set realistic goals. Give up perfectionism. Decide what you must do, would like to do, and think you should do but don’t really have to do.

Turn off the television, a major “time guzzler,” and beware of “time-deepening,” doing many things simultaneously under pressure. Screen your phone calls, don’t answer during relaxing times such as meals.

Social support is a major antidote to stress. Identify sources you have now and could cultivate at work, home, and in the community. Talk to a friend on a headset phone while you’re cleaning your home. Hug a pet, tree, family member, or friend.

Keep a journal to get stressors off your chest.

Communication skills make all the difference in getting needs met. Don’t blame. Stick to how you feel and suggest solutions. Read about effective communication skills, as in Everything You Need to Know to Succeed After College.

As humans, we need purpose. Write down your goals for the next six months, year, five years, so on. Write your obituary as you would like it to read. See if you need to change course to be true to your values. Do you live to work or work to live? Ask, “Who am I?” What do I want t be proud of on my death bed?

Slow down to avoid “hurry sickness.” Don’t over-schedule and allow plenty of transition time between events. Schedule in time to do grounding and relaxing hobbies such as gardening or crafts.

Do important and difficult tasks during your peak energy time.

Procrastination is our worst enemy. Divide up a task into smaller parts and do one each day.

Create a master calendar for the month with all due dates. Prioritize your list. What you don’t have time for, delegate to others, say no, and pay others to do. Swap with others (such as you take my kids to play with yours this weekend, and I’ll take yours next weekend).

Ask how important is the thing that’s worrying me going to be a month from now? List your values and priorities and stick to them. Is time with family or cleaning most important?

Draw with crayons the colors and energy of your stress level now. Brainstorm the causes of stress. Common problems are too much to do in too short a time, perfectionism, self-criticism, an unsupportive work supervisor, conflict with family members, and work/family strains. What can you change?

Brainstorm lifestyle solutions to relieve stress, i.e., exercise, massage, belly breathing, prioritizing lists, and asking for help.

Since time pressures are a major cause of stress, identify how you spend time. Take a paper with a circle on it. Draw segments of the pie according to percentage of time spent on various roles. Does how you spend your time reflect your values and priorities?

Give yourself and others more praise than criticism. Look for the positive lessons in a challenging problem. If you didn’t do well, think about what you learned from the experience rather than beating yourself up.

Visualizations to reduce stress follow. Imagine a secret garden of your own where you can plant flowers and trees, create ponds and waterfalls, and watch wild animals move around your garden. See it change with the seasons as you visit month after month. When you want an answer to a question, go to your garden, sit on your favorite bench under your special tree, and ask the wisest creature in your garden to sit by you on the bench with an answer to your question. See a scroll with the answer in the animal’s beak, paw, or mouth.

The Institute of Heart Math (www.webcom.com/hrtmath) developed a stress-reduction technique.

Freeze Frame to Reduce Stress

1. Freeze frame the stressful feeling, as you would put a video on pause.

2. Shift your focus to your heart by imagining you’re breathing deeply through it, for at least 10 seconds. Keep your awareness here rather than on the problem.

3. Remember a positive time, as when you felt deep love, caring, fun, forgiveness or appreciation, and experience that feeling. Don’t visualize, as this takes you to your head, just sense and feel. This memory causes the heart rate to move from an erratic to a coherent rhythm in entrainment.

4. Using your intuition and common sense, ask your heart what would be a more effective response to the situation that would reduce stress? Listen to the answer.

Create a new grounding cord and release worry or stress down into mother earth to recycle. Bring in a gold sun radiating calm and enjoyment.

Think about your day as a song, and set the tempo and mood you want as you get ready in the morning.

Laugh: collect jokes, cartons, and funny videos.

Meditate, pray.

Relax at Work

Do stretches, such as head roles, interlace your fingers and stretch your palms away from you while relaxing your shoulders then turn the palms toward the ceiling, rotate your writs, circle your shoulders, lean forward in your chair touching your head to knees, fly reaching your arms up and down, do the runner’ stretch and push ups against the wall. Do knee pull, waist bend, and finger fan. Keep a yoga mat at work to stretch on the floor. Get an exercise ball to roll around on when you’re talking on the phone. Elevate your feet.

Take a break such as a short stroll outside, and talk with friends.

Do progressive relaxation of each muscle, breathing into it, draining tension into the exhalation.

Rub your palms together and rest them over your eyes, visualizing black velvet cloth for two or three minutes to relax your eyes.

Take a fun lunch break instead of doing errands. Bring healthy snacks to work. Eat a healthy breakfast to keep your blood sugar even.

Change art and fresh flowers; listen to music on headphones.

Post affirmations and inspiring quotes.

Keep a stash of toys: kaleidoscope, silly putty, jacks, sock toss, yo-yo, dart board, nerf balls, crayons, hand puppets, percussion instruments, etc.

Stick to your priorities. Leave your concerns about work at your workplace when you leave.

Listen to calming music or a book on tape during your commute to work, rather than the news.

Handle each piece of paper just once: respond, toss, file, or refer it.

Set time limits on meeting agenda items, start on time, have the last person to arrive take minutes. Be an anthropologist and notice the dominance struggles, power games, ego boosting, coalitions, etc.

Turn problem-solving into a game.

Relax commuting to and from work with an audio book or music. Review your successes.

Find out your Feng shui abundance corner and put something valuable there - no waste paper basket.

Gayle Kimball has a Ph.D in Religious Studies and is a Professor Emerita and author of 11 books including "Energy Tools." She has also created CDs and videos. Gayle trained at Chico Psychic Institute, and conducts workshops in Emotional Freedom Technique, kinesiology, hypnosis, healing, energy psychology, etc. Visit her webdisplay at http://gkimball.byregion.net

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