Ending The Stress Epidemic


	Ending The Stress Epidemic By Lisa Collier Cool for Ladies Home Journal (excerpts)

Everything You've ever thought to do to stop stress - relax on the weekend, plan a vacation, - is all wrong. Instead, you have to tackle tension in the moment it strikes. Here, fast and easy ways to feel good.

Stress Soothers

Although overload is often inescapable, it doesn't affect everyone the same way. The key to coping is to shed stress as it happens. Here's how:

Take frequent muscle-relaxing Pauses

Don't let stress build up for hours. Take a minute or two, whenever you need it, to erase stress with progressive muscle relaxation (that staple of yoga classes), in which you tense, then relax, one group of muscles at a time. Working from your head down to your toes, start with your face, where a remarkable amount of tension builds. Squeeze your eyes shut, clench your jaw, hold your breath and scrunch your face as tightly as you can for several seconds. Then exhale and let everything you just tensed go limp: your forehead, cheeks, jaw. Continue the process with each group of muscles until your whole body feels loose.

Breathe And Visualize

Put a dot of White-out or Liquid Paper on your clock or wristwatch, suggests Robin Gueth, founder and director of the Stress Management Center, in Marin (County), California. "Each time you notice the dot, take a couple of very deep breaths, where you bring the breath all the way doen into your belly, then slowly exhale the tension out of your body. You'll be amazed ay how quickly it makes you feel more calm and centered." Also spend a little time doing absolutely nothing, Gueth adds. Close your eyes and be very quiet. Stop thinking about undone chores, and just imagine a peaceful landscape, waves breaking on the shore, or a tree with its leaves fluttering in the breeze.

The Stress Management Center is located at 1165 Magnolia Ave. in Larkspur. They can be reached at 415-461-2288 or on their website at www.SMCmarin.com