| There are many ways to manage your stress. I am | | | | body. |
| going to give you a few tried and tested techniques | | | | Imagine you have a balloon in your tummy. |
| for you to use anywhere and at any time. | | | | Breathe IN and FILL the balloon. |
| Firstly, what happens when you are stressed? | | | | Breathe OUT and DEFLATE the balloon. |
| Your fight or flight instinct kicks in. What is my fight | | | | Secondly, sedating the fight or flight instinct. |
| or flight instinct?! | | | | The neuro pathways connected to this instinct lie |
| In the early ages when we hunted for our food and | | | | behind your ears. You need to sedate it by running |
| came across very dangerous animals we needed an | | | | your fingers over it. Place your fingers on your |
| inborn resource to give us a chance against the much | | | | temples. Move your hands down the back of the |
| bigger animals. A sudden surge of adrenaline | | | | ears (as if placing hair behind ear) and massage from |
| throughout the body which will either make us | | | | top to bottom. DO NOT move from bottom to top. |
| stronger and more reactive in our fight with the | | | | DOWN ONLY. Repeat 5 times. Simple, yet very |
| grizzly (fight) OR it will give us the power and speed | | | | effective. If it felt good you needed it! |
| to run from it (flight). | | | | And lastly, getting the blood back in your head to |
| But we do not hunt anymore. We live in our | | | | allow you to think clearly again. |
| comfortable houses instead of caves and we are | | | | On your forehead just above your eyebrows you'll |
| rarely faced with situations where we are in dire | | | | feel 2 slight bumps. These are called neurovascular |
| need for this adrenaline rush. | | | | points. Place you fingertips flatly over them and just |
| We still possess the instinct, though, and | | | | hold the position and breathe. You will feel a slight |
| unfortunately it hinders us when we need to think | | | | heartbeat under your fingers when the blood has |
| when we are stressed. | | | | returned. |
| As soon as the "fight or flight" kicks in, 70% of the | | | | And one last technique you can use: |
| blood from our heads rush to the rest of our body in | | | | Close your eyes and imagine floating out of your |
| order to fight or run. This causes your head to go | | | | body. Float up and out and imagine seeing your |
| fuzzy and thinking clearly becomes unnecessarily | | | | timeline underneath you. Your past is off to one side |
| complicated. | | | | and your future another. Keep floating up, up and up |
| You need to sedate the "fight or flight instinct" and | | | | until your entire timeline is less than a meter long. If |
| you need to get your breathing and blood flow under | | | | still stressed continue floating upwards into space until |
| control. | | | | your timeline is about an inch long. Stay there for a |
| How?! | | | | few minutes and just realise how small the issues |
| Firstly, breathing... | | | | appear from here. When you are ready, come back |
| It is one of THE most important things we do. If we | | | | to now and float back into your body. Take a deep |
| are inefficient at moving enough oxygen through our | | | | breath and open your eyes. |
| bodies we can easily be living at only 50% of our | | | | Hopefully you are feeling a bit more relaxed now. It is |
| capacity. Deep tummy breaths are the best. Breathe | | | | very important to learn to manage and relieve our |
| in and allow your abdomen to draw the air into it and | | | | stress. Practise the methods, share them with others |
| expand. Exhale by pulling your stomach muscles into | | | | and go and have FUN! |
| your spine and pushing all the "dead" air out of your | | | | |