This is basically the second of two-parts on being overwhelmed by all the stuff in your life. So, if you haven’t read “Overwhelmed, under whelmed, Or Just Whelmed…?” I’m going to ask that you read it then come back and read this.

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We can’t avoid all stress, in fact some stress in our lives is a good thing, but when it begins to impact our lives negatively we need to deal with it and learn to reduce it.
We can learn to counteract these negative effects and evoke what is known as the relaxation response. This is a state of deep rest that is the exact opposite of the stress response.
You’ve heard of the ‘fight or flight’ situation where a situation causes your body to be flooded by chemicals that make you choose whether you fight or flee.

Well, this is called the stress response and is usually triggered when you are in a truly emergency situation. The same ‘crash’ that occurs after one of those situations is the same as what your body is having to deal with when it constantly senses that it is in the same circumstances.
This is why being under a lot of stress makes you feel always run-down: you ACTUALLY ARE because your body isn’t being allowed to recover from each episode.

Bringing your system back into balance through the relaxation response with things like walking, deep breathing, relaxing your muscles, reframing the situation in your mind will slow your heart rate, lower your blood pressure, and allow you to deal with the stressors that originally caused the problem.

Increased energy, less susceptibility to illness, being able to focus and solve problems easier, higher productivity and motivation… oh, add in relieving aches and pains, all of these are the results of working on, and mastering the relaxation response.

The feeling of being overwhelmed can come from the buildup of a lot of little things in your life all coming together at the same time or it can happen all at once with one or two major events occurring at the same time.

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No matter how it happens, the feeling of being engulfed by life’s responsibilities and burdens can become very taxing and stressful.

As I’ve said before: it’s time to take a break (even if it is only for a few minutes), step away from it all and take a deep breath.

Go for a Walk

Taking a walk when you are stressed will not only get you out of the stressful situation and give you some perspective so you can go back in a new frame of mind, but it will give you a little exercise.

And… exercise can be a great stress reliever in itself, since it helps you blow off steam and releases endorphins.

Sit back and take a deep Breath

Ok, you’re at work and can’t leave or you are in a situation where going for a walk isn’t possible… all is not lost!

Why breathing exercises? Because they provide more benefits than just relaxing you.
Anxiety and stress can be reduced symptoms caused by breathing exercises.
Anxiety and stress increase your heart and breathing rates and increase your body’s demand for oxygen. Learning to control your breathing rate can be very helpful.
Breathing exercises can also improve how well you do during physical activities, as well.

Breathing exercises help keep your chest muscles active. They also allow you to get more oxygen with each breath and to breathe with less effort.

Breathing exercises can go a long way to making you feel better.
These can you feel better right away. By getting more oxygen into your body you will begin releasing physical tension and clearing your mind a bit.

These are two ways that breathing exercises can benefit you, and you can do them anytime or anywhere, even if you can’t easily get up for a walk.

There are a lot of people in sedentary jobs where they spend their days in a have to drive and getting out for a walk isn’t feasible and learning breathing exercises are a good alternative for relieving stress.

There are a vast number of breathing exercises that you can use. The breathing exercises I do are fairly simple and consist of stretching as much as I can (whether I am sitting or standing), then:
In a relaxed position with my knees apart:
Slowly inhale through my nose, counting to three in my head.
Making sure to breath as deeply down into my abdomen and expanding my diaphragm as much as possible, I hold this air for about a five count.
I then let this air out through my mouth, counting to three in my head as it leaves my lungs. Repeat several times. That’s it!

I do this as often as possible, and one nice side effect is that since I travel to cities that are over a mile above sea-level, this allows me not to get light-headed when I am there. Just a nice side benefit.

At the end of this post you will find links to just a few of the vast array of sites where you can find out more about breathing exercises.

How about taking a Mental Break

A quick few minutes of peace and quiet as you visualize a calm place in your mind can be a nice way to restore some peace of mind. A memory, a few moments of looking at pictures, even a few stolen moments of looking up a dream destination on the Internet will allow you to slip away. It’s easy to do, and can relax you both mentally and physically and allow you to better deal with and in turn lessen the effects of stress in your life.

Look at the situation differently

Sometimes the way we look at a stressful situation can intensify the stress that we feel. If we can train ourselves to put it into a different perspective–one that causes us less stress: how would that change its effect on us?

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As I have said before stress, even negative stress can be used for good: It can be a motivator to propel us to move out of the situation we are in, but if it is not recognized and controlled it can defeat us instead of being the impetus we need to grow.

Walk, breath, take a little time for yourself, re-evaluate your situation, and take another step on your path to growing the life you deserve!

http://cas.umkc.edu/casww/brethexr.htm
http://www.amsa.org/healingthehealer/breathing.cfm
http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/aha/aha_breathex_sha.htm
http://www.energiseforlife.com/tony_robbins_breathing_exercise.php