Rapid Network

When you are stressed, your body kicks into "fight or flight" mode. This causes your body to pour out adrenaline and noradrenaline. What you end up with is a vicious cycle of anxiety, irritation and a worsening of any body aches and pains. This vicious cycle can worsen if you are stressed day after day.

You can also be susceptible to a stress related medical problem like premature aging (including memory issues), various immune responses, cardiovascular problems (including high blood pressure and heart disease) and various types of inflammation. Continuous stress has also been implicated in other diseases, such as cancer. But the good news is that any health problem that is caused or made worse by stress can be improved with a strong mind-body approach to stress relief, like these 3 ways I am going to show you now.

The 3 ways to rapidly eliminate your stress can be easily worked into your day. Start with 3 minutes a day and work up to 10 minutes a day. You'll enjoy the feeling of relaxation so much that it will not be a chore to integrate these 3 ways to stress relief into your life. The rapid elimination of your stress will be addictive - you will switch into a calming cycle of relaxation instead of the usual vicious cycle of stress you have been experiencing.

The 3 ways to eliminate your stress rapidly

We have learned that it is so important to get rid of the vicious cycle of stress, both for your short-term stress relief and for the long-term health issues. All three ways of rapidly eliminating your stress work to break the pattern of your everyday, stressful thoughts. This is key - breaking that stressful thought pattern puts you into a mindful state where you can enjoy the present moment, no matter what you are doing. By starting to use these 3 techniques immediately, you begin to reduce the cortisol and adrenaline release in your body, you will feel calmer and you will be relaxed and in the present moment.

The first way to rapidly eliminate your stress:

"Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Become aware of the stillness deep within you" Joan Z. Borysenko, PhD

The first way to start eliminating your stress is to count your breaths for a minute. I know, I know, I too used to hate breathing exercises. But this works so fast that now I love it. And it only takes a minute. You can handle a minute of concentrated breathing, I promise. You can practice this at a red light, in a (boring) meeting, while standing in line at Starbucks, while waiting for your teenager to answer you, etc. It will calm your brain activity, decrease your blood pressure and increase your ability to concentrate. All good things, right? Give it a try right now and you'll see how quick and easy it is.

Close your eyes, if you can (not if you are in the car!). Breathe slowly and naturally. Inhale, and as you exhale, count "one". Inhale slowly again, exhale and count "two". Repeat till you get to the number 10. It helps if you picture the number in your mind while you are exhaling.

Another way to do this is to silently repeat a word or phrase while exhaling. A good one is "peace and calm" or just even the single word "peace". So inhale slowly and as you exhale, silently say "peace and calm". Inhale slowly again, exhale and repeat "Peace and calm". Continue until you feel like stopping. You can do this up to 5 to 10 minutes when you have the time, but just one minute does the trick of calming down your brain and your body.

The second way to rapidly eliminate your stress:

"An absence of negative thought brings forth a positive feeling" Richard Carlson, PhD

The second rapid way to eliminate your stress is by dropping your stressful thoughts. It has been discovered that it is not what you are thinking about that is so stressful; it's that you are in the act of thinking at all. A wonderful, quick-to-implement stress reliever is to stop thinking and just be present in the current moment. The best way to stop thinking is to 1) realize you are thinking a negative, stressful thought and 2) quickly drop it. How to drop the thought? By picturing a red Stop sign and silently saying "STOP!" (The advantage to being in sales and driving around so much during the day is you can even yell "STOP!" at the top of your lungs when you are alone in the car!) This "stop and drop" technique of stopping negative, stressful thoughts in their tracks is a minor miracle because it is so easy and works so well. The trick is to catch yourself thinking, usually either past thoughts or about the future. Anytime you are not in the present moment and enjoying what you are doing, you are probably thinking. Maybe you are thinking of what you said at the last sales call. If you start mentally stressing yourself out because you forgot a feature and/or benefit to tell the potential client, just realize you are thinking and "stop and drop" by picturing that stop sign and saying "STOP! to yourself". This is also a great exercise to teach your kids. Even kids as young as five can do this technique of "stop and drop". It's a wonderful way to help your children cope with stress while they are still young.

The third way to rapidly eliminate your stress:

"Pay attention on purpose" Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD

The third way to eliminate your stress is through mindful relaxation. We have all developed habits of inattention, distraction and absence over the years. Modern society and digital media haven't helped. How many times during lunch with a colleague have you checked your Crackberry, uh, I mean Blackberry? Have you ever checked the "E Channel!" app while nodding your head during your kids' stories about school? This endless busyness and hurrying weakens our concentration and our ability to connect deeply. We are so used to quick bites of information that we are losing are "attention muscle". Don't you feel like you have "attention deficit disorder" some days? You race from one call to the next, answering phone calls and texts from the office and your spouse and grabbing fast food to fill up on before the afternoon sales meeting. Modern culture encourages us to practice not being present. But, as you already know, being present is just a breath away. The most basic way that you can touch the peaceful place inside of you by being mindful. The easiest and quickest way to mindfulness and present moment relaxation is to progressively relax your muscles. This doesn't have to take long. A minute's worth works great. If you have the time, you can listen to a CD or MP3 and take a 20 minute relaxation vacation. But let's practice the one minute version right now.

Find a calm spot. You can even pull your car over and rest your head back. Close your eyes. Now you are going to progressively relax all of your muscles, one area at a time. Begin with your feet and contract all of the muscles in both feet and toes. Now relax them and take a deep breath. Contract all of the muscles in both thighs. Now relax them and take a breath. Contract your abdomen and torso muscles. Breathe in and out then relax those muscles. Contract both of your arms and shoulders. Relax your arms and drop your shoulders down and breathe. Now your neck, head and forehead. Scrunch them all up and now relax and breathe. Take your time with this - a minute is quite a long time when you are doing this technique.

Conclusion

Now that you have practiced the 3 ways to rapidly eliminate your stress, which is your favorite technique? It would be great to practice your favorite one at least three times a day. And we are only talking a minute at a time, at the minimum. Three minutes a day. Anyone can fit that in, especially if you look for little areas of time that are built already into your day. Traffic lights, lines like at the grocery store, before you order lunch if you are alone, in the restroom at the office. There are ways to fit this in if it's important to you. And I hope it is. I don't want any woman to be stressed out, miserable and prone to a stress-induced disease. Let me know which technique works best for you!