Stress your body’s way of protecting you from threats. But in our hectic world it has become a card-carrying killer. Melting away stress is the answer.
Stress can hit us in so many forms that it can be very overwhelming to the body and its physiological functions. A lot of the time, we do not pay attention to the signs or, more importantly, we do not allow ourselves the time to check in with ourselves to discover our bodies are overwhelmed.
Stress can hit us in many forms. You could be driving on your way to work and a car swerves in front of you, almost causing an accident. Our reactive minds respond in such a way that anger develops, blood pressure rises, breathing becomes shallow, and an almost electric jolt strikes our stomachs. We attach ourselves to the anger and let it build within us. Over time, we do calm down, but that stored anger can affect us on so many levels, causing an imbalance within our bodies, creating tension. This is just an example but we have so many stressors from emotional stress, physical stress, environmental stress, to name a few. How do we combat some of these stressors, you may ask? Well, the first thing is to ALLOW and give yourself permission to take some time out and check into yourself so that the tension can be released.
Below is a step by step exercise that I like to call “Melting Away Stress”. Preferably you will be lying down, but if location does not allow, you may do the exercise seated.
- Lying down, I would like you to take three deep breaths so that your lungs are filled with oxygen. You are going to breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. As you breathe in, observe your body without reacting. As you breathe out, feel yourself melting into the ground.
- After you have completed your three breaths, I would like you to take a breath in and hold that breath for eight seconds, while tensing your feet at the same time. After eight seconds, let your breath out, let go and just let your feet melt into the ground.
Take another breath, hold for eight seconds and tense your ankles. After eight seconds, let go and feel your ankles melt into the ground.- Inhale, hold for eight seconds while tensing your thighs. Pay attention to your thighs. If a thought comes in, let it pass and bring your focus back to your thighs. After eight seconds, let go and let it melt into the ground.
- Inhale, hold for eight seconds while tensing around your buttocks and groin area, then let go and let it all melt away.
- Moving into the midsection area, tense for eight seconds while holding your breath then relax and melt all the stress away. Feel free to confirm to yourself that you are calm and at ease.
- Moving into the upper chest and back area, tense for eight, hold, then release, and feel all tension disperse into the ground.
- Moving onto the arms and hands, hold your breath for eight while tensing. Imagine that the stressful energy is flowing out of your hands and give it to the earth. Relax and melt away.
- Coming to the neck and head area, tense all muscles in face and neck area, hold for eight seconds, and completely relax.
After completing the tensing and relaxing exercise, I would like you to take three deep breaths as we did in the beginning of the exercise and allow yourself to go deeper.- Now, imagine a warm, golden wave of light flowing through your body. Visualize the light entering the feet, moving through your ankles, thighs, hands arms, buttocks, groin area, midsection, upper chest, neck and face. As the golden light passes through each section, observe any leftover tension throughout the body and let it go with your breath.
- Say to yourself, “I allow myself to be at peace. I allow myself to be at ease. I allow myself to relax.”
- Let it all melt away.
You may find yourself falling asleep during the exercise, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing as maybe your body deserves the rest. Some will feel energized, while most will just have a sense of calmness and peace within themselves. Get rid of that saying, “I don’t have the time.”
Various teachers say that we only have now, this moment. The past is gone and the future is yet to come. We choose our thoughts, and whether we want something to affect us on a negative or positive note, is up to us. Do you want the mind to be the controller of you or do you want to be in control of your mind? Embrace the moment and live in the full experience of life.
I give you permission to be stress free.
