Stress Reduction....

Relaxation Skills and Mindfulness Meditation Practices

• Breathe Deeply: Practice deep abdominal breathing to calm your body and mind. Slowly in and slowly out.

 

• Slow Down: Slow down your lifestyle and find ways to nurture yourself with nutrition, setting limits and minding your boundaries. Avoid exposure to known stressors when possible.

 

• Process Emotions: Journal. Discharge emotions and thoughts by confiding in a trustworthy friend or family member.

 

• Release Stress: Engage in physical exercise.

 

• Reframe: Use positive, rational thinking to change how you view emotionally charged events and issues.

 

• Change Patterns: Try acting differently in the face of a daily stressor or finding distractions such as walking, reading, listening to music, and using humor.

 

• Know Your Body: Learn to listen to your body and identify what is happening inside you.

 

• Accept Temporary Emotions: Stay with the feelings in your body and tell yourself that the emotions will pass and are not permanent. Feeling states, even overwhelming ones like anxiety, fear, anger, shame, and sadness are not permanent and will pass.

 

• Distract yourself by doing something different: Take a non-critical, more impartial stance.

 

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