(1)  Freedom to Relax:

“Sometimes I focus too much on what I can’t do or wishing I was different than I am. I forget about the things I can do. Like today I took my kids to the one place where I can let myself relax – in the woods – in the hills – in nature. That’s where I feel alive – free – energized. In the woods, in the mountains, I feel connected – to my body, my mind and to God.”

“Today the three of us hiked and ran up the mountains. We laughed and sang and shouted. I danced around them encouraging them to keep climbing. Later on the drive home, my oldest told me I love the extreme stuff and she loves doing it with me. My youngest said she had a ton of fun. I thought of the beach. Maybe it’s ok to be who I am. My daughters words echoed in my head long after they had said them.”

(2)  10 Natural Sleep Tips

1. Reduce Caffeine

2. Do NOT consume alcohol or nicotine before bed-

3. Always finish vigorous exercise 5 hours before bed.

4. Avoid heavy meals before bedtime.

5. Keep fluids to a minimum after 8PM.

6. Avoid stress inducing activity prior to sleep- e.g. emails, voicemails, paying the bills or stress inducing television programs such as the news, etc.

7. Establish a bedtime routine

8. Write it down

9. Create a restful environment in your bedroom

10. Utilize Relaxation techniques- light stretching, soothing music, aromatherapy oil, deep breathing, guided imagery, meditation. You can do any one or better yet a combination of these activities to release the stress of the day, relax your mind and prepare your body for sleep. Sleep experts highly recommend these stress relieving techniques because they work and because anyone can do them.

(3)  Get Less Done: Stop Being Productive and Enjoy Yourself

1. Take 5 minutes to go outside for a walk. Breathe the fresh air.
2. Give yourself more time to do things. More time means less rush.
3. After work, get outside, take in nature, run around if you can.
4. Play. Play like a child. Play with a child. Play when you work.
5. Give yourself a day off. Sleep. Watch TV. Eat bon bons.
6. At work, give yourself an hour off. Don’t try to be productive. Just have fun.
7. Work with someone who is exciting. Get excited about a project.
8. Take evenings off. Seriously, no working in the evenings.
9. Get a massage.
10. Breathe.

Photo credit.

My heart in your hands by aussiegall

When beginning a new job or getting married or other life challenges, extra stress helps to solve these experiences.  But often we experience stress that is non-productive and is robbing us of our energy.

Some and even great stress can be beneficial. The added energy from stress helps us to more to more and better solutions for our lives. Changemaker is aimed toward finding the repetitive non-productive stress that robs you of energy.

Since stress has been found to contribute to most of human illnesses, Changemaker encompasses mental, physical, emotional, behavioral, social and spiritual reduction techniques.

Your mind, body and emotions either work together to help you experience your life more fully or are each using energy in avoiding behaviors. The way to control your life is to control your thoughts and your words. So many of the techniques you will learn from Changemaker will introduce you to ways to stop over-reacting or avoiding behaviors.

When we were children, we often had to learn self-defeating or self-limiting behavior to appease our authority figures. Many parents confuse discipline with punishment. To avoid punishment, we often learn ways of avoidance or delay that rob us of our true being. So in continuing these behaviors we are using our energy non-productively.

We tell our bodies how healthy we want to be by the choices we make in using our energy. The Changemaker goal is for you to learn how to tell your body that you want to be completely healthy. By learning how to reframe your thoughts in order to choose positive thoughts, you are telling your emotions that you want to be healthy.

By learning convenient and easy ways to exercise, you are telling your body that you want to be healthy. By learning how to incorporate meditation, relaxation, visualization, and other coping techniques, we tell our minds and our soul that we want to be healthy.

You can learn all these techniques by using the Changemaker Blogs. Each blog is about an individual topic that you may choose to focus on.

Stress should lead you to exercise–

“Take a Break! A few quick tips -”

“Get up out of your chair or leave your workbench and walk over to an open window. Change your point-of-view. Breathe some fresh air. Go for a five-minute walk, either in the corridors of your building or out-of-doors. Call a friend and chat for five minutes. Close your eyes, clear your mind, and take an imaginary vacation – relaxing on a warm beach, deep-sea fishing on a beautiful yacht, or skiing down a gorgeous mountain.”

“These short, focused breaks can help reduce muscular tightness and physical stress, and also help your brain recharge so you can be more creative and productive!”

Making stress a positive:

“How to transform anxiety into something productive and positive? Here are some suggestions:”

1. Simplify everything you can. Pare down and get down to the bare bones in life. Eliminate as much of the “fluff” as you can.
2. Keep a complete calendar and list of everything you have to do and all appointments. Trying to carry all this information around in your head adds to frustration and a “muddled” feeling. Let it go, get it out of your brain, and record it somewhere else!
3. Relax when you feel stressed. Make a conscious effort to take deep breaths and physically relax your body.

Parragon Publishing

Blue-throated Macaws by Dave-F

ISBN 1-4542-216-5

Amazon link

This guide has four main sections: pilates, yoga, meditation and stress relief. Following are an excerpt from each section:

1) Pilates: “Pilates exercises have been designed to work the muscles of the body as efficiency as possible in the minimum time. These low-impact exercises treat the body as a whole and are very effective. There is therefore no need to spend hours each day at the gym: you need to practice only two to three times a week, and can start with 10-minute sessions and build up to longer ones slowly.”

Included in the pilates section are guidance in correct breathing, how pilates works, what to wear, learning how to center the body, the importance of good posture, getting into motion exercises, standing and sitting exercises, and exercises on a mat.

2) Yoga: “By allocating time every day to a sequence of yoga postures, you can help to purge the mind and body, and achieve a state of deep relaxation. This can result in greater self-esteem, because you will have a sense of achievement and an inner calm that will help to dispel the worries of the day. The deep breathing and physical exercise required for yoga will help you to deal with a raft of complaints, such as pain of the joints and muscles, anxiety, stress, postural problesm, and bowel tone and function problems.”

Included in the yoga section are the five principles of yoga (relaxation, exercise, breath control, a nourishing diet, and positive thinking and meditation). Also added are guidelines for practicing yoga, the seven chakras of the astral body, yogic breathing, warming up exercises, the standing postures, seated exercises, improving focus with the balancing postures, opening the heart and strengthening the back, and the inverted postures.

3) Meditation: “There is no doubt that the mind’s ability to analyze, discriminate, plan and communicate has helped us reach where we are today. Yet it can be a double-edged sword. Although the brain may help us to reason, to think creatively, and to relate to others, if we don not learn to switch it off it can overwhelm us. It can persecute us with fears about failure, our appearance, or the opinions others may have of us. Meditation can bring relief from those anxieties by helping us to silence inner chatter, to recognize and dismiss negative thoughts, and to create a feeling of peace and serenity.”

Included in the meditation section are suggestions for finding time to meditate, preparing to meditate, postures and breathing, relaxation, affirmations, mantras, standing and walking meditation, the chakras, visualization, meditation for healing, color and light, the power of sound, and meditations for stressful situations.

4) Stress relief: “For long-term stress relief and optimum well-being you need periods of mental and physical relaxation throughout the day. Relaxation is a set of easily learned skills that will teach you how to combat the effects of stress and restore the balance between body and mind to enable healthy, happy living.”

Included in the stress relief section are a strategy for relaxation, relaxing your body, breathing, reducing muscle tension, massage, restoring vital energy, relaxing mind and spirit, meditation, visualization, hypnotherapy, self-hypnosis, autogenic training, biofeedback, improving self-worth, setting goals, going with the flow, living for the moment, positive commuting, freedom from fear, relationships, diet, exercise, the world of work, relaxing at home, the world around you, getting a good night’s sleep, and natural remedies for relaxation.

Tags: breathing, chakras, exercises, meditation, pilates, relaxation, self-esteem, serenity, stress relief, yoga

Falun Dafa the Second by longtrekhome

Essential Stretch: Gentle Movements for Stress Relief, Flexability and Overall Well-Being

Michelle LeMay

ISBN 0-300-52893-8

Amazon link

Essential Stretch by Michelle LeMay with the ISBN 0-399-52893-8 is featured in this post. Michelle has spent years developing and teaching her stretch techniques. The table of contacts includes the basics, the blessings, the techniques (oscillations, breath, heart activation, meditation and centering), the stretches (full body, lower body and upper body), and five different routines depending on the user’s skill level.

The five routines are: (1) full body routine for getting started, (2) full body routine for the seasoned stretcher, (3) short and sweet routines, (4) daily stretches, and (5) mind your mind.

Her centering process includes several helpful techniques. Centering is the ability to “tune out” inner and external stress and get in touch with your quietness inside you. We each have this center but this technique needs to be strengthened in order to lower our stress level. Remember it is our reaction to stress that uses the most useless energy. We want to bombard our stressor. But the centering process helps to use our energy the only place that we can make a difference—on ourselves.

The techniques for centering that she includes are: (1) increase your self-awareness, (2) quiet your mind, (3) focus inward, and (4) create a positive shift. The positive shift uses clarity, letting go of burdens, self-love, peace, mind/body connection, and being happy statements to be included with your stretch.

Excerpt from the book:

“Essential Stretch is a simple movement technique. Anyone can do it—no matter what your age or fitness level—and everyone can benefit from it, even super-fit athletes and dancers. Unfortunately, when it comes to exercise programs, stretch has been placed on the back burner, or related to the category of exercise for the elderly. But research reveals that stretching is often the missing link in successful exercise programs, As you will see, it is becoming apparent that it may be the missing link in our lives.”

Tags: centering, energy, exercises, peace, positive, self-awareness, stress relief, stressor, stretch

Jon Kabat-Zinn

Web 1 by SWolfeN18W

ISBN 0-7868-8070-8

Amazon link

Jon Kabat-Zinn is the founder and director of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. He has created a program there that continues to be a leading force in teaching mindfulness to persons in high stress—heart patients, patients in chronic pain, patients with stress-related illnesses, prisoners, low-income, minority, etc.

The course there is called “Full Catastrophe Living”.

In a series of short narratives, Kabat-Zinn captures a concept to illustrate the following main ideas:

Part One The Bloom of the Present Moment

Part Two The Heart of Practice

Part Three In the Spirit of Mindfulness

Excerpt from the book:
“Guess what? When it comes down to it, wherever you go, there you are. Whatever you wind up doing, that’s what you’ve wound up doing. Whatever you are thinking right now, that’s what is on your mind. Whatever has happened to you, it has already happened. The important question is, how are going to handle it? In other words, “Now what?””

“Like it or not, this moment is all we really have to work with. Yet we all too easily conduct our lives as if forgetting momentarily that we are here, where we already are, and that we are in what we what we are already in. In every moment, we find ourselves at the crossroad of here and now. But when the cloud of forgetfulness over where we are now sets in, in that very moment we get lost. “Now what?” becomes a real problem.”

“If you sit down to meditate, even for a moment, it will be a time for non-doing. It is very important not to think that this non-doing is synonymous with doing nothing. They couldn’t be more different. Consciousness and intention matter here. In fact, they are key.”

Web 1 by SWolfeN18W

“On the surface, it seems as if there might be two kinds of non-doing, one involving not doing any outward work, the other involving what we might call effortless activity. Ultimately we come to see that they are the same. It is the inward experience that counts here. What we frequently call formal meditation involves purposely making a time for stopping all outward activity and cultivating stillness, with no agenda other than being fully present in each moment. Not doing anything. Perhaps such moments of non-doing are the greatest gift one can give oneself.”

Tags: meditate, meditation, mindfulness, Stress, stress reduction

Summer Dreamland by Mulberry24

Quiet Mind, Fearless Heart

Brian Luke Seaward

ISBN 0-471-67999-2

Amazon link

From the author—

“Current statistics suggest that 1/3 of the American population is using anti-depressants. Alcoholism, drug addiction, self-mutilation, and suicide are just some of the more popular ways that people cope with their stress today. Through these tactics, people merely avoid the problems at hand, rather than work to resolve them. For stress to be dealt with effectively, no matter how much pressure is bearing down on us, avoidance is rarely a viable option.”

“If you listen closely to people’s conversations, you might notice how they tend to be stuck: not processing every aspect of a given situation to make sense of it, but rehashing thoughts and feelings, which, in turn, only validates their stress.”

“In what is often called the Universal Law of Attraction, a critical mass of negativity forms, and like a magnet, our mental focus begins to attract more things to complain about. As a result, we get caught in a whirlpool of negativity, from which is is really hard to escape. In the words of Marcel Proust, “The real act of discovery is not in finding new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.” Attitude, once again, is the paintbrush with which we color our world.”

From Chapter 5: The Human Equinox: Six Ways to Bring Balance into Your Life—

1) Work life balanced with personal life

2) Freedom balanced with discipline

3) Mental stimulation balanced with quietness

4) Right-brain thinking balanced with left-brain thinking

5) Technology balanced with nature

6) Ego balanced with Soul

“Rest assured, behind every unresolved personal drama lies an overactive ego trying to control, manipulate, or dominate whatever it can.”

“At its most rudimentary level, the ego is the bodyguard for the soul, to serve in the role of protector. The problem comes when the bodyguard forgets its primary position, eclipsing the soul’s splendor, to dictate a policy of human behavior.”

From the introduction:

“In the spirit of one of my heroes, Joseph Campbell (The Power of Myth), a man who certainly understood the relationship between stress and spirituality, this book is divided into sections that resemble the classic template of what Campbell called “the Hero’s Journey.”

Part I: Into the Unknown frames our departure from the familiar into a brave new stressful world and the problems often associated with that departure.

Part II: Crossing the Threshold highlights the ageless wisdom of the dance between stress and spirituality and features several stories of

everyday heroes who perform the dance masterfully.

Part III: Life in the Balance contains abundant how-to advice to help you build a solid foundation or an action plan, using effective coping skills to victoriously meet the challenge of life’s stress and thus celebrate your own heroic qualities.

Part IV: Back Home Again brings you home to a hero’s welcome, with a few inspirational stories that promise that you, too, can complete the journey and return home as “the master of two worlds.”

“To support the theme of balance, sprinkled throughout the book are exercises, action plans, photographs, meditations, and poems to engage the right brain, help the left brain to process and reintegrate the information, and remind us of what we already know. It is my hope that Quiet Mind, Fearless Heart can reawaken your slumbering spirit, help you build a foundation of balance in your life, and enable you to regain a sense of personal homeostasis, so that the winds of change become the winds of grace that will allow your spirit to soar!”

Excerpt from “The Health of the Human Spirit”:

Twenty-one Strategies for Letting Go of Stress:

· A bird’s eye view: keeping everything in perspective

· Flexing the funny bone: comic relief

· Physical exercise: flushing out the stress hormones

· Decompression: the art of calm

· Do not enter: establishing healthy boundaries

· Respond, don’t react: taming that ego

· Seeking a balance: complexity versus simplicity

· Good vibrations I: turning off the TV

· Anger management: learning to fine-tune expectations

· Meditation: take five or even ten

· Adopt an attitude of gratitude: counting your blessings

(and curses, too)

· Good nutrition: avoid putting gasoline on the fire

· Empowerment: remember, you’ve got the goods

· Friends in need: having a good support system

· Back to nature: getting and staying grounded

· Diversify your interests: place your eggs in more than one

Basket

· Amazing grace: the healing power of prayer

· Reserving judgment: the power of acceptance

· Seizing the day: the future is now

· Forgiveness: the last frontier

Biting Off More by Balaji Dutt

When beginning a new job or getting married or other life challenges, extra stress helps to solve these experiences. But often we experience stress that is non-productive and is robbing us of our energy.

Some and even great stress can be beneficial. The added energy from stress helps us to more to more and better solutions for our lives. Changemaker is aimed toward finding the repetitive non-productive stress that robs you of energy.

Since stress has been found to contribute to most of human illnesses, Changemaker encompasses mental, physical, emotional, behavioral, social and spiritual reduction techniques.

Your mind, body and emotions either work together to help you experience your life more fully or are each using energy in avoiding behaviors. The way to control your life is to control your thoughts and your words. So many of the techniques you will learn from Changemaker will introduce you to ways to stop over-reacting or avoiding behaviors.

When we were children, we often had to learn self-defeating or self-limiting behavior to appease our authority figures. Many parents confuse discipline with punishment. To avoid punishment, we often learn ways of avoidance or delay that rob us of our true being. So in continuing these defensive behaviors we are using our energy non-productively.

We tell our bodies how healthy we want to be by the choices we make in using our energy. The Changemaker goal is for you to learn how to tell your body that you want to be completely healthy. By learning how to reframe your thoughts in order to choose positive thoughts, you are telling your emotions that you want to be healthy.

By learning convenient and easy ways to exercise, you are telling your body that you want to be healthy. By learning how to incorporate meditation, relaxation, visualization, and other coping techniques, we tell our minds and our soul that we want to be healthy.

You can learn all these techniques by reading the Changemaker Blogs. Each blog is about an individual topic that upon which you may choose to focus. I am including a complete list of all the Changemaker sites.

Lotus ceiling lights by Wonderlane

The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook

Martha Davis, Elizabeth Eshelman, Matthew McKay

ISBN 1-57224-214-0

Amazon link

“Stress is an everyday fact of life. You can’t avoid it. Stress is any change that you must adapt to, ranging from the negative extreme of actual physical danger to the exhilaration of falling in love or achieving some long-desired success. In between, day-to-day living confronts even the most well-managed life with a continuous stream of potentially stressful experiences. Not all stress is bad. In fact, stress is not only desirable but also essential to life. Whether the stress you experience is the result of major life changes or the cumulative effect of minor everyday hassles, it is how you respond to these experiences that determines the impact stress will have on your life.”

Contents

1) How You React to Stress

2) Body Awareness

3) Breathing

4) Progressive Relaxation

5) Meditation

6) Visualization

7) Applied Relaxation Training

8) Self-Hypnosis

9) Autogenics

10) Brief Combination Techniques

11) Recording Your Own Relaxation Tape

12) Refuting Irrational Ideas

13) Thought Stopping

14) Worry Control

15) Coping Skills Training

16) Goal Setting and Time Management

17) Assertiveness Training

18) Job Stress management

19) Nutrition

20) Exercise

21) When It Doesn’t Come Easy—Getting Unstuck

in between by notsogoodphotography

Stress Control for Peace of Mind

Linda Wasmer Andrews

ISBN 0-7607-6468-9

Amazon link

From the introduction: Yellow lights and red flags

Physical signs-headaches-backaches-tight neck and shoulders-jaw pain-heartburn-stomachaches-loss of menstrual periods-lack of sexual desire-constant fatigue-frequent colds

Mental signs-difficulty concentrating-forgetfulness-pessimism-constant worrying-indecisiveness

Emotional signs-irritability-hostility-anger-depression-hopelessness-boredom-loneliness-anxiety-restlessness-panic attacks

Behavioral signs-substance abuse-chain smoking-eating too little or too much-sleeping too little or too much-impatient behavior-temper outbursts-crying-constant rushing-failure to get things done-frequent accidents

Social signs-social isolation-lack of intimacy-conflicts at home or at work-loss of friends-intolerance of others

Spiritual signs-apathy-joylessness-job burnout-feelings of emptiness-loss of direction in life

Please note-Many stress symptoms can also be caused partly or wholly by treatable medical conditions. Be sure to get a checkup by your doctor.

The table of contents:

1. Self-Test
2. How to Stress Less
3. The Seven Tactics
4. Breathing and Meditation
5. Mental Approches
6. Eastern Methods
7. Yoga Methods
8. Exercise and Massage
9. Relaxing Pleasures

10.Coping Strategies

11.Stress Control Exercises

Resources

Index

Stress Control for Peace of Mind is easy to use as the book base is a spiral binding. Also many small thoughts, ideas and suggestions are given on most pages. The photographs showing the exercise processions, massage, and meditation are very helpful.

Badawn Beach Marina by Steve Conry

Move Your Body Tone Your Mood

Kate F. Hayes

ISBN 1-57224-275-2

Amazon link

Kate Hays has created what she called “the workout therapy wookbook”. In the introduction she requests that you adopt two actions from the beginning: 1) thinking of yourself as an investigator or searcher for truth, and 2) making a commitment to one form of sedentary activity—wring out your thoughts.

The table of contents reveals what this book suggests:

“But I thought therapy was all talk.” How exercise can be your therapy

1) Starting on your path

2) Why exercise is good for your head as well as your heart

3) “What’s in it for me? Getting started doing exercise

4) Designing your exercise plan

How to be therapeutic to yourself through exercise

5) Stress busing and mind calming

6) Getting up when you’re feeling down: overcoming inertia and

And changing your mood

7) Feeling strong and capable: self-esteem and competence
The poetry of the sunrise: clear and creative thinking

“Now what?” Maintaining your gains

9) Keeping going….and getting going again

10)“But it felt so good!”: Overcoming exercise

11)Is food eating you?

12)Being female, being active

Taking a “fearless inventory”: review and reflection

13)When exercise isn’t enough: exercise and therapy

14)A final exercise