Hanley - Stress Less

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First Adams Media trade paperback edition APRIL 2017

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Interior design by Michelle Roy Kelly

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Cover design by Stephanie Hannus

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ISBN 978-1-5072-0193-0

ISBN 978-1-5072-0275-3 (ebook)

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Dedication

For Lillian and Teddy, who teach me how to be a little bit more present every day.

Each day is an opportunity to live your best day. Each day you have the chance to find your peace, your purpose, and to feel good about yourself. These goals (and many others) are absolutely possible if you take charge of your stress. So, the next time stress develops in your life, instead of ignoring it or pushing it down, take the time to look inwardly and ask yourself, What can I do to change it? How can I stress less?

After all, everyone has stress, but it is how you choose to cope with it that can make all the difference in your daily life. This helpful guide will give you 100 stress-reducing techniques that will not only calm your body, but your mind as well, and allow you to live your life to its fullest.

Inside youll find relaxation and calming exercises from meditation to yoga to visualization that can all be accomplished in ten minutes or less. These techniques help you shine the light of awareness on your stress, so you can recognize it, deal with it effectively, and get on with your day.

Youll also discover motivational quotes with each exercise to give you hope, inspiration, and sometimes a bit of laughter (all proven stress-busters!). Use these quotes to give yourself a little boost during the day when you feel stress starting to creep over you.

The majority of the strategies shared here will help you to focus more on yourselfyour body, mind, and soulas a way of shifting your attention away from the things that stress you out. The wonderful paradox is that by focusing on yourself, you also help the people around you.

If you do what it takes to up your contentment and clarity, youll expose the folks around you to less stress, and youll inspire them to cultivate their own sense of calm too. Its a lovely ripple effect that just keeps going and going. And it all starts because you picked up this book.

Heres a way your breath can come to your rescue. Try this:

As you inhale, imagine calm pervading every cell of your body, carried in by your breath.

As you exhale, visualize every iota of angst youve got being drawn out of your body where it can evaporate into the air.

Repeat as many times as you like, but know that even one of these breathsdone with intentioncan create a noticeable change.

Many people feel theyre bad at meditating, but if you can count to 10 you can do this.

As you sit someplace quiet, breathing normally, count each out-breath. When you get to 10, start again at 1.

When you realize that youre on 27 or that you stopped counting altogether, start again at 1.

Counting your exhalations gives your mind something tangible to focus on, which can help with the Am I doing this right? thoughts that so often pop up.

To really make this practice goof-proof, set a timer for five minutes so that you dont have to wonder how much longer to keep going.

Whats the most relaxing place on Earth for you? Is it in front of a fire in a mountain lodge, or on a hammock near the ocean?

Close your eyes and imagine yourself there, wherever it may be. Really experience itwhat can you see, smell, taste, and hear? How does your body feel when youre there?

Because your brain cant perceive a difference between real and imagined relaxation, you can enjoy a truly restorative mini-vacation even if you cant hop a flight or take time off.

Stress can make everything feel urgent, which makes it hard to decide what to do next.

Step out of the swirl by sitting still long enough to take a nice full breath, in and out.

Then ask:

What do I most need right now?

Whatever answer bubbles up, resist the urge to question or dismiss it. Instead, honor it the best you can in this particular moment.

Asking helps you see that you know more about what you need in any given moment than you might think you do.

Think of a situation thats been weighing you down.

Got it?

Now imagine everything about this circumstanceyour boss, your computer, the report youve been working on for weeksall encased within a big balloon that youre holding the string to in your hand.

And then see yourself letting go of the string and watching the balloon float up and out of sight. (If that doesnt seem to work, take an imaginary pair of scissors and sever that cord once and for all.)

When you find yourself thinking about it again, remind yourself that youve let it go.

If you want to change your relationship to stress, youve got to do a little investigating into how it affects you. Because you cant change a habit you dont know you have.

Where do you hold stress in your bodyis it in your jaw, your shoulders, your gut?

What kinds of things do you do to copesnapping at the kids, yelling at other drivers, eating chips, checking your phone?

This exercise isnt about looking for reasons to beat yourself up. Rather its about noticing your personal warning signs so that you can start to take countermeasures before your stress level is at eleven.