10 Great Techniques to Beat Stress

"Your Biography Determines Your Biology" – Carolyn Myss

I love the quote above.  It’s quite deep, even in its conciseness.  If you’ve ever watched young children play, you will notice that their limbs move fluidly.  Watch a child run, and you will see what I mean. 

I live just a few houses in from an area where a lot of street joggers go because there is a bicycle path up and down the street.  In fact, I’ve watched a couple of road races come through as well this summer.  When adults jog, it’s nearly always more stiff.  For myself, my posture is terrible.  I’m about as fluid as the Tin Man gone a week without oil. 

So what happened?

Quite literally, the weight of the world has stooped me and many other adults.  We lose that fluidness due to repeated stress and tension.   For me it’s gotten worse as I age.  As adults we are bombarded by tragic news on the television, unreasonable deadlines at work, expectations from children, family, friends and coworkers…it adds up over time till you feel like Atlas trying to hold up the world…but you’re no Atlas and neither am I.

So I’ve been searching and trying out the best techniques to shake the stress off, return the fluidness, and try to fix the damage to my physique of a thousand.  With that being said, I am not a doctor nor do I play one in the blogosphere, and so with any advice I give regarding physical exercise, you should consult your own physician first. 

1.  Back Bridge.  If you don’t know what one is, the easiest way to do it is to lie on your back, place your hands palm down near each ear, pull your heels up to your buttocks and pushup on with your hands and feet.  Hold the posture for as long as you can.  A deep, core stretch such as this does wonders for relieving stress that manifests in the body.

2. Yoga – of any kind.  You certainly don’t have to do a half hour program like they have on TeaVea.  Just knowing a few postures that you can do in five minutes will provide you tremendous benefit.

3. Meditate – I have a number of meditation audios that I love.  I’ll do a separate post on those soon.  I’ll often pop one on and just fall asleep to it, then wake up refreshed.  But you don’t need any props to meditate.  Just close your eyes and focus on your breath for five minutes. Imagine a cool flow of blue water enter the top of your head and travel all the way to your toes on the inhale, then exhale the water as it cleanses your impurities. Helps relax you and helps break the cycle since you are focusing on something else (your breath and the imagery).

4. Write in a journal – Spill those thoughts out, don’t let them fester.  This is a technique I have been using for years and it is my favorite de-stressing technique. 

5. A corollary to number 4 is write a song (or paint a picture if you are a visual artist).  I sometimes just sit down with the guitar and easily lose an hour tooling with a new song in my head. 

6. Go for a swim – With the support of the water, you’re posture problems are less of a hindrance.  Let the fluidity of the water relax you and get some terrific exercise in the process.  My community pool is $3 for the whole summer.  That’s a couple pennies a day.  I picked up Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way To Swim Better, Faster, and Easier from Amazon this week and can’t wait to start implementing it.

7. For those who are water-averse, go for a run or bike ride. If you choose running, read ChiRunning: 'A Revolutionary Approach to Effortless, Injury-Free Running first so that you can learn how to economize your energy when you’re pounding the pavement.

8. Acupressure – Google “Acupressure Massage Techniques”.  You’ll find a bunch of links and free info on freeing up your energy by self massaging certain pressure points on your body.

9. Better yet, treat yourself to a professional massage once a month. 

10. T’ai Chi – I’ve only begun to get into this, not in a formal class sense, but via videos I’ve found by searching T’ai Chi on YouTube.  Lots of great stuff and definitely a way to release negative energy.  It’s sort of a combination of Yoga and moving meditation and it’s terrific for strengthening your core as well as your arms and legs. 

There are dozens more, of course.  I’d like to hear from the rest of you about what your techniques are.