Stressed? Use this one minute cure

Have you ever felt like your thoughts are going a million miles an hour and you can’t seem to just focus on one thing for more than a moment? It makes you feel anxious because you feel like you’re missing something but you just don’t know what that is, and you feel like you’re running out of time…

I get this feeling when I’m trying to do too many things at once. Most of the time I’m trying to multitask – writing something here, posting another thing there, checking my e-mail, answering the phone.

The easiest thing to do is just breathe.

When you’re feeling anxious and stressed, you’re probably holding your breath or breathing shallowly. If you don’t get enough air in your lungs, you literally become out of breath. There’s not enough oxygen in there. Your stress levels rise and you feel tightness in your shoulders and neck. The tension builds and your adrenals start working overtime in fight or flight mode.

Look at this – you’ve completely stressed yourself out just by forgetting to breathe.

You’ll only need a minute to do this exercise. Take a step back from whatever you’re doing and focus on your breath.

Breathe in – and let your lungs fill with air. Hold it in for a second.

Breathe out – let everything out, pushing all of the stale air from the bottom of your lungs out.

Breathe in – feel your body drinking in the nourishment from the breath.

Breathe out – release and relax.

Notice how you feel. A little more relaxed? Calmer? More at peace? Try this the next time you feel stressed out and let me know how it works for you.