Your Strategy to transcend stress
If you’re not doing some form of stress management, you will sabotage all of your best efforts with diet, exercise, and supplements.
If your physician or other healthcare provider says you must reduce your stress, ask what methods they recommend. Perhaps they’ve heard of heart rate variability, Valerie is certified in Heart Math and has an active practice particularly with referrals from doctors. Christopher’s holistic life coach training mentorship is a natural for stress relief, be it situational or life stress.
What’s your plan?
You have choices, some are better than others. It depends on your unique situation.
Here are some guidelines to consider choosing your personal stress management strategy. Some items are repeated from paragraph to paragraph, post to post. Maybe your mind will be drawn to the repetition and get your attention!
Find an option for stress management that works for you.
There are a number of different clinically proven ways to manage stress, from yoga to deep breathing to biofeedback. Below are several points to consider, and a few options for specific techniques.
Start small. If you’re new to meditation, start with just five minutes each day. Gradually increase that time as you become more accustomed to the practice.
Make it a priority. Consider putting it on your calendar, just as you would any other important task for the day.
Be gentle with yourself. It’s okay if you miss a day, and it’s okay if you don’t feel like you’re “good” at it.
Choose a mix of practices. Some days sitting still on the cushion may feel near impossible, and yoga or another movement-based practice may be a better fit for the day.
Try progressive relaxation, or mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). There is a free guided body scan at http://www.buddhanet.net/audio-meditation.htm
For about $20 you can purchase four guided meditations by Jon Kabat-Zinn (the pioneer of MBSR) at http://www.soundstrue.com/store/guided-mindfulness-meditation-3947.html If sleep is a significant issue, consider the Sounder Sleep System for about $40: http://www.soundersleep.com/marketplace/?category=audio
Biofeedback is another option that some people prefer, since it provides a more tangible measure of how we modify our physiological response through relaxation. There are many options available that work with a tablet or smartphone, such as the Heart Math InnerBalance and/orEmwave2, BioZen and Quantum Life.