KIN 370 Stress Management for Healthy Living

Quick Mini-Relaxation Strategies

You can do these exercises while taking notes in a class, while waiting in check-out lines, at stop lights, in the midst of studying or taking test, on the john, while waiting for some who is late.

Do these regularly and they might become automatic after awhile. But, learning to master stress is like learning any other skills - practice, practice, practice.

So, take 10 or 15 seconds every hour or so and do it - even if you have to tie a proverbial string around your finger as a reminder.

Quickie Relaxer

1. Close your eyes and draw your attention and concentration inward.
2. Smile inwardly with your mouth and eyes.
3. Say to yourself "Alert mind. calm body."
4. As you exhale, let your jaw, tongue, and shoulders go limp.
5. Feel a wave of warmth and heaviness sweep down to your toes.
6. Enjoy the feeling of peace an relaxation that this brings.
7. Open your eyes and resume normal activities.

3-Second Relaxer

Take deep breath. Hold it for 3-seconds. Then, as you let it out, all at once, let your jaw and shoulders relax. Hang loose and continue breathing easily. Do it once again, if you wish.

Really Fast Progressive Muscle Relaxation

• While seated, tense yourself all over, a part at time.
• Pull your toes up to tense some of your leg muscles,
• tense your thighs,
• your buttocks,
• take a deep breath and hold it,
• tense your arms and fists, your jaw,
• close your eyes tightly.
• Hold it for 5 seconds, then let go all at once, and feel the tension leave your system.

Heavy and Warm Feet and Legs

• Just imagine that your feet an legs are getting heavier and heavier and warmer and warmer.
• It's almost as if you are wearing some lead boots.
• Feet and legs, heavy and warm, heavy and warm.

(Note: Heaviness and warmth go along with relaxation and just focusing on the feet helps many persons. Perhaps another part of the body works for you. EXPERIMENT!!

Breathing Your Tensions Away

Gently focus your attention on your feet.

• As you take in a slow, deep breath,
• imagine collecting all the tensions in your feet and legs,
• breathing them into your lungs and
• expelling them as you exhale.

Then, with a second deep breath,

• imagine collecting all the tensions in your trunk, hands and arms,
• expel that tension.

With a third one,

• collect and expel all the tensions in your shoulders, neck and head
• expel that tension.

Note: With practice, some persons are able to collect tensions in the entire body in one deep inhalation and expel them.

Ideal Relaxation

• With your eyes closed, take a moment to create, in your minds eye, an ideal spot for relaxation You can make it anyplace real or imagined.
• See yourself in comfortable clothes.
• Now, once you have created it, go back there for 15 seconds whenever you feel the need to relax.

Idea: Mine is down an escalator and into a room with a super comfortable overstuffed chair with walls and ceiling lined with a calming rug-like material and favorite music playing.

Cool Air In - Warm Air Out

• With your eyes closed, focus on the tip of your nose.
• As you breathe in, feel the air coming in your nostrils.
• As you breathe out, feel the air coming out of the tip of your nostrils.

Note: Perhaps you can even feel that the air coming out is cooler than the air going out. Just be aware of air in , air out.

FIRST, SMILE: Super 4 S Exercise

• First, smile! Yes, smile and make your eyes sparkle.
• Then take a deep breath.
• As you let it out,
  • let your jaw hang slack,
  • shoulders sag and
  • forehead smooth out.

Smile

Slack Jaw

Sag Shoulders

Smooth Forehead

Note: This breaks up a lot of the tensions we make in ourselves. When we are under stress - our faces get hard looking, our breathing is only at the upper part of our chests, our jaws and shoulders are tense and our brows are wrinkled.

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May 1999