Stress Management

Everyday, from the moment we wake up till we go to sleep, we are bombarded with different forms of stress. Waking up to a sharp, loud alarm clock, followed by a coffee to wake up, followed by morning traffic... these are all stressful events that occur before the workday even begins!

Learning stress management is an essential skill in our modern world. This instructable will guide you through the basic techniques you will need to manage your stress.

Why Is It Important To Learn Stress Management?

Stress is the number one cause of medical problems in the world today. Scientific Studies have shown that stress is a factor in weight gain (Obesity), coronary heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, insomnia, accidental injuries, cirrhosis of the liver and even divorce rates. Stress has also been shown to aggravate diseases like multiple sclerosis, diabetes, herpes, a type of obesity, ulcers and much more.

For a complete collection of stress management and stress relief techniques visit my stress management website.

Step 1: Progressive Relaxation With Binaural Beats for Stress Relief

Learning to relax each muscle at a time is the fastest way to attain deep relaxation. The following video is designed to be used with head phones as it contains something called binaural beats that automatically reduce your brainwave frequency helping your body relax. These binaural beats are overlaid with relaxing sounds and instructions for relaxation. Just put on your headphones, sit in a comfortable position, close your eyes and the audio will do the rest.

To learn more about how binaural beats work visit this page.

Progressive Relaxation for Immediate and Long Term Stress Management

Tip: Breathe slow and deep while you listen to this audio to help oxygenate your blood which increases physical relaxation - This audio is designed to be used with headphones.

Do NOT operate machinery while listening to this recording as it will relax you deeply. For best results sit in a relaxing chair, use stereo headphones and close your eyes to help your body relax deeply.

Step 2:

Breath control is the fastest and most effective way to relieve the effects of stress for 3 reasons:

1. When anxious the breath becomes shallow and constricted and doing a deep breathing exercise reverses its effects by bringing more oxygen to your blood.

2. By consciously focusing on a breathing pattern your attention is off the thing that made you feel stress in the first place.

3. By practicing a breathing exercise you are doing a form of meditation which increases your awareness and actually makes you smarter.

General Breath Awareness Tips

Remember to breath slowly and deeply on each inhale and exhale.

Gently inhale and exhale through the nose.

Keep your head neck and back completely straight.

Stay within your comfort zone. Do not strain.\

Practice breath awareness for 8-12 minutes/twice a day or longer.

Your nervous system will completely refresh and rejuvenate itself from regular practice.

Mastering a breathing technique gives you the ability to manage your stress whenever you need to.

The following is a video guide to a simple breathing technique called Pranayama.

It involves inhaling for a count of 4, holding your breath for another count of 4, exhaling for a count of 4 followed by holding your breath for yet another count of 4. A basic 4 - 4 - 4 - 4 pattern. If you have greater lung capacity you can do this for counts of 5, 6 or 7. Always keeping the ratio the same, i.e. 5 - 5 - 5 - 5 , or 6 - 6 - 6 - 6 and so on.

The following video guides you through the pranayama technique as a beginner. After practicing you can increase your inhale/exhale duration according to the figures above.

Step 3: Meditation for Stress Management and Stress Relief

Meditation is probably the most powerful & effective method we know of for stress management. It has been on the cover of Time Magazine , the film director David Lynch promotes transcendental meditation and Dr. Herbert Benson has made a name for himself with three meditative techniques that invoke "the relaxation response".

Using the alpha meditation training recording below you can go into a meditative state that would normally take weeks, maybe months of practice. In fact, the sound technology used for the meditation training recordings on this page use the same sound technology touted by others as the key to "meditating deeper than a Zen Monk"

About Meditation and Brainwaves

Researchers have discovered that certain brain wave frequencies correspond to different levels of activity. You can read more about it in another article by Time Magazine called "Alpha Wave of The Future".

Beta 14-30Hz Alert - You tend to do waking activities at this frequency

Alpha 7-14 Hz - Relaxed with Alert Attention - A Basic Meditative State

Theta 4-7 Hz - Deep meditative state- most people fall asleep in theta.

Delta 0.5-4 Hz - Deep sleep

The following meditation training tracks have a background frequency of about 10 Hz. This is to help train you to enter an Alpha state AT WILL enabling you to manage stress easily.

Note: Do not operate any machinery when listening to this meditation track as it is meant to relax you. You will hear the sound of bells towards the end of the track to let you know that the meditation session is finished. The bells ring twice. Once to let you know the track it about to end and then a short gap so you can mentally prepare yourself. The final bell signals the end of the track.

To learn more about binaural beats and meditation audios visit my instant stress relief audios page.

Step 4: Acupressure for Instant Stress Relief

One of the most exciting developments has been in the research of the Chinese acupuncture system.

Acupuncture is based on stimulating certain points on the body that, the ancient Chinese say, help with the flow of energy throughout the body. This flow of energy is said to run along an unseen system called "The Meridians". Acupressure uses the same points as acupuncture but without the needles. Just the pressure of your fingers are enough to stimulate the meridian flows of your body.

A study done by a French researcher, Pierre de Vernejoul, has been reported in the book Vibrational Medicine by Richard Gerber MD as follows:

Radioactive technetium 99m (a harmless substance) was injected into the acupoints of patients, and the isotopes uptake was followed by gamma-camera imaging. De Vernejoul found that the radioactive technetium 99m migrated along classical Chinese acupuncture meridian pathways for a distance of 30 cm in 4 6 minutes. Injection of isotope into random points on the skin, were unable to demonstrate similar results, suggesting that the meridians were a unique and separate pathway.(Note: edited a few technical terms)

In Japan many companies actually use a machine to detect physiological imbalances of the meridians. Developed by Dr. Hiroshi Motoyama, this machine is used to diagnose and treat potential diseases. It is called the AMI Machine, short for Apparatus for Measuring the functions of the meridians and corresponding Internal organ.

Acupressure is a quick and easy to do. And with a little practice you can apply it at any time for immediate stress relief - here is some instant stress management. By the way, regular use of the following techniques will reprogram your body's reaction/response to stress.

Using the picture for this step as a guide apply the following instructions for proper use of the acupressure technique: (you can also view the picture here).

1 Neurovasculars for Stress Relief

Combine light pressure with your fingertips on your neurovascular points while doing deep and slow Diaphragmatic Breathing. You can enhance this by putting your thumbs on your temples. An alternate method to doing this is to put your right palm on your right point and left palm on the left point. Hold lightly and breathe deeply. When you get stressed the blood drains from your forehead and holding the neurovasculars while breathing helps to bring this blood back up. This will increase the oxygen to your brain and help you think clearer.

Note: Using this one technique when you are feeling under allot of stress can help you feel better really quickly. Just hold the acupressure points and breathe deeply followed by the following&

2 The 3 Thumps to Increase Energy

After practicing the above technique do the 3 thumps to increase your energy levels. The 3 thumps include the remaining 3 points labeled on the diagram above;

K-27 points are in the slight depression just below the 'ball' of your collar bone. Use the middle finger of the right hand to vigorously massage the left point, simultaneously doing the right point with the left middle finger. Massage in circular motion while breathing deeply for 3-4 minutes. This helps meridians that get scrambled with stress to flow in their natural paths.

Thymus Point is about 2 inches below your K-27 points, in the center of your chest. Use 4 fingers to tap vigorously. Tap for 2 minutes with each hand. Stimulating this point will boost your immune system.

Spleen Neurolymphatic Points are one rib below where your breasts end. Trace a line from your nipples to where the skin of your breast joins your chest. One rib below most people will find a sore spot. Tap vigorously using 4 fingers bunched up. Use your right hand for the right point and vice versa. Do this for about 1-2 minutes while breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. Doing this will increase your energy level and boost your immune system.

IMPORTANT: If you feel sick then your spleen points might be so badly blocked that massaging them might make you throw up. First touch the points lightly and then exert more pressure till you can feel it but hold it comfortably. Some people may need to lie down and lightly hold each of the pressure points in turn for about 5-10 minutes while breathing calmly and comfortably.

Learn more about stress management at my website.