Home
>
Stress Management
>
Adventures in Relieving Stress

Adventures in Relieving Stress

Whether we are at work, traveling, or at home, we've all had bad days. Those stressful times can be difficult, but important, to shake. Your mental, emotional, and physical health depends on you to find ways to relax and regain equilibrium. I'm going to be sharing some practices that you can do to help throw off that stress and reclaim your Happy Self in no time!

First, let me explain a little bit to you about Stress Chemicals. Stress and other forms of negativity affect your sympathetic nervous system and endocrine and hormonal systems. Stress sends nerve impulses to the adrenal glands, which in turn puts a number of different chemicals into your blood stream. They affect the pituitary gland, which causes yet even more chemicals to be released. These chemicals include corticosteroids, such as adrenaline and noradrenaline, other hormones, and neurotransmitters. All the chemical reactions can turn into a vicious cycle making it harder to clear yourself from them and the damage they cause.

The good news is there are a broad variety of tools you can use to relax your mind and body to relieve the stress chemicals before they cause too much harm. Let's go on an adventure and try a variety of activities to find what works best for you!

My favorite thing to do to help me get back to my Happy Self is to take long hot baths. Bathing works to clear the stress chemicals from our topical bodies, relaxes our muscles, and it feels wonderful! Epsom salts, Bath Salts, or Sugar Scrubs are perfect agents to use. I also use aromatherapy products such as candles or incense. Soothing music is a beautiful touch as well.

Another important thing to do is to Move Your Body! Yoga, Pilates, or any stretching exercise will help release the stuck stress chemicals from your muscles and spine. Any sort of stretching will do, touch your toes and reach up high into the air, as high as you can reach and then bend back down to touch your toes again. Even one minute of stretching is beneficial. Try to take several mini stretch breaks throughout your day. Take a walk, dance, jump up and down, do whatever you can think of to just move, even if only for a couple minutes a day out of your hectic schedule. You'll be amazed at how this increases your energy and gives you more stamina against stress.

Good breathing practices are critical. Of course, you HAVE to breathe. Good breathing takes some practice and will give you the most benefit of how the oxygen circulates through your bloodstream. Use good breathing to replace stress chemicals with clean energy. This helps your body tremendously and helps your mind react with more stability. The simplest method I've found is to breathe in slowly and steadily. Try it! Take three nice deep breaths, through your heart. Now, focus on your diaphragm filling up like a balloon each time you inhale and deflating softly with each exhale. Allow this process to be very natural and steady. This is the perfect practice that you can do anytime, anywhere. I encourage you to practice this one as often as you can think of it. I find rush hour is a particularly good time for me to work on breathing techniques!

Visualization techniques are another great practice to focus on from time to time. Don't worry if you can't actually SEE what you are trying to visualize. Every person sees things differently. What's important is your intention. For example, think of your favorite desert; really think about it, the way it tastes, the texture, and the colors. How are you doing at imagining that? That imagining is exactly what visualization is. You are all ready an expert! Let's put that expertise into motion with some visualization exercises. Find a relaxing area, sit or lie down, any position works wonderfully for this. When your comfortable, imagine a ball of bright white or very bright blue light as a little spark that starts in the area of your sacral chakra (Your tummy area), allow it to grow into a flame. Allow that flame to grow within you and outside of you. Let the flame fill your whole space and imagine it "burning" out all negative blocks or murky feeling areas. Now, imagine the flame blowing out of you and disappearing into the distance, taking all the negativity with it. Now breathe! You can also do simple visualizations of your favorite Happy Places. The beach, a beautiful sunset, or a loved one always works well for me. Whatever your very own special Happy Places are, spend some time and go there in your heart and mind and notice how refreshed you feel after your "journey".

One last I'll leave you with for now is to begin a journal. Use it to record where your stresses come from, what you did to relieve yourself from it and how that turned out for you. You'll be able to use your journal to fine-tune the methods that work best for you. While you are doing this, remember to mix it up a bit. Try practicing visualization or breathing techniques as you soak in a nice hot bath, or when you are stretching. Mix all the techniques up to find your own variety of stress relief tools. Then, when those yucky, stressful days hit, you'll be well prepared to handle them with ease!

Tracy Togliatti is a Holistic Practitioner specializing in Energy Psychology and Reiki. She offers a free service at http://www.happyher.com/advice/index.shtml

disinfecting cleaning services Arlington Heights ..

In The News:

Malicious Chrome and Edge extensions collected browsing history, keystrokes and personal data from millions of users before Google and Microsoft removed them.

Google's new Call Reason feature lets Android users mark calls as urgent before dialing, displaying an urgent label to recipients using Phone by Google app.

Medical history made as surgeons successfully restore sight to legally blind patient using world's first 3D printed corneal implant grown from human cells.

Data brokers aggressively collect your holiday shopping data to fuel scams and targeted ads. Learn how to delete your digital profile before 2025 starts.

Scammers are sending fake MetaMask wallet verification emails using official branding to steal crypto information through phishing links and fraudulent domains.

Learn what background permissions, push notifications, security updates, auto-join networks and app refresh mean to better manage your phone's privacy settings.

Criminals test stolen data by applying for deposit accounts in victims' names to prepare bigger attacks. Learn why banks won't share fraud details.

New study of 10,500+ kids reveals early smartphone ownership linked to depression, obesity, and poor sleep by age 12. Earlier phones mean higher risks.

A phone phishing attack compromised Harvard's alumni and donor database, marking the second security incident at the university in recent months.

AutoFlight's zero-carbon floating vertiport uses solar power to charge eVTOL aircraft while supporting emergency response, tourism, and marine energy maintenance.

A new phone return scam targets recent buyers with fake carrier calls. Learn how criminals steal devices and steps to protect yourself from this fraud.

New Anthropic research reveals how AI reward hacking leads to dangerous behaviors, including models giving harmful advice like drinking bleach to users seeking help.

The Fox News AI Newsletter gives readers the latest AI technology advancements, covering the challenges and opportunities AI presents.

Holiday email scams, including non-delivery fraud and gift card schemes, spike in November and December, costing victims hundreds of millions, the FBI says.

Holiday visits offer the perfect opportunity to help older parents with technology updates, scam protection and basic troubleshooting skills for safer digital experiences.

Swiss scientists create grain-sized robot that surgeons control with magnets to deliver medicine precisely through blood vessels in medical breakthrough.

Researchers exploited WhatsApp's API vulnerability to scrape 3.5 billion phone numbers. Learn how this massive data breach happened and protect yourself.

Travel companies share passenger data with third parties during holidays, but travelers can protect themselves by removing data from broker sites and using aliases.

Xpeng's humanoid robot moves so realistically that crowds believed it was fake, marking a major advancement in robotics technology ahead of 2026 commercial launch.

Researchers discover phishing scam using invisible characters to evade email security, with protection tips including password managers and two-factor authentication.

iPhone and Android users can reduce battery drain and data usage by restricting Background App Refresh to Wi-Fi connections instead of mobile networks.

Scammers nearly stole an Apple account by exploiting the support system with authentic-looking tickets and phone calls, users can protect themselves with safety steps.

FoloToy restored sales of its AI teddy bear Kumma after a weeklong suspension following safety group findings of risky and inappropriate responses to children.

Threat intelligence firm Synthient uncovers one of the largest password exposures ever, prompting immediate security recommendations.

Viral video shared by Elon Musk shows Tesla's Optimus humanoid robots performing tasks from cooking to construction, garnering over 58.5 million views on social media.

Adventures in Relieving Stress

Stress Management