Helping You Love Yourself into
Success and Less Stress!
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Stress Relief from the
Inside Out, Part III:
Fall Back to Being
by Ilenya Marrin,
DSS
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Stress Relief
Fall Back to Being
In Part I of this Stress Relief
series we briefly explored the Stressed Out Lifestyle, and in Part II we
applied a simple concept to gain a bit of altitude in observing your stressful
situations.
Looking at life as composed of three things, being, doing
and having, provides an uncluttered foundation for exploring stress relief
options in your own life. I first encountered this idea in 1981 from Wally
Minto, author of the Alpha Awareness Results Book, and adapted it to
helping people find stress relief and cultivate the power of personal peace.
Now that you have the concept of Being, Doing and Having, you can begin
to apply some new stress relief strategies to your own unique situations.
Beginning below and continuing throughout this article series are
several of my favorite approaches for creating stress relief. They are
inter-related and as you work with one or two, other areas of your life may
start settling down. If you start with items from the "Being" column, you'll be
in good shape.
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| Being |
Doing |
Having |
Breathing
Observing
Understanding |
Working
Giving
Receiving
Spending
Time
Spending Money |
Peace
Love
Joy
Truth
Happiness
Health
Wealth
Relationships
Things |
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Breathing: A Way of Being for Stress Relief
1.
When you feel tense or stressed you tend to take shallow, rapid breaths, or to
hold your breath. Instead, for instant stress relief, take gentle deep breaths
and pay attention to your breathing.
Simply watching the breath
is an ancient meditative practice that can help you relax in the midst of
stress. Just pay attention to the flow of air in and out of your nose and
lungs. Notice the rising and falling of your abdomen.
A
minute or two should help you find stress relief in the midst of tense
situation. The beauty of this process is that no one needs to know you're using
a stress relief process!
Observing
for Stress Relief
2. Another stress
relief technique is this: very gently observe your situation and your
stress. Just observe. (It's important not to judge what you are noticing.) This
means to look from a neutral viewing point.
As you observe without
judging, you'll begin to gain new awareness. You'll see connections and cause
and effect relationships you might have missed before. You don't need to do
anything in this phase except notice. Be aware.
As you step back from
stress in order to observe the situation or your own internal state, you
automatically move to a neutral state that is stress free. You open up in the
moment to natural stress relief.
New Understanding for Stress
Relief
3. New awareness plus
your open-mindedness leads to understanding, the third item in the
"Being" column. To encourage yourself to approach your stressful situations
with an open mind, and to open up to stress relief, you can tell yourself "I am
willing to see this (or experience this) differently."
Often, just
mentally reminding yourself that there are different ways to view your
situation, will promote stress relief.
Along with some relaxation and
stress relief, you might or might not have some instant revelations of
understanding as you sit quietly breathing or observing. You might find
yourself saying "Hmmmm," "Aha," "I get it," or "Maybe that's it," in a mellow
sort of way.
Or you might find that you gain your understanding later,
as you are walking through your life. You'll be conversing with a friend and
all of a sudden you get the connection about what is creating your stress and
how you might make some different choices for stress relief.
Gaining understanding for stress relief is more than just
intellectually grasping the situation. It is the "aha" of clarity in which you
know about or experience the stressful situation in a new way. At this point,
you have more options for new choices. New choices may enable you to solve
problems and bring stress relief.
The next
three articles in this series address stress relief strategies based on Doing
and Having, plus a summary. We'll continue to explore how you can create stress
relief for yourself from the inside out.
For email tips on stress
relief, sign up for my fre.e newsletter, Seventeen
Simple Stress Solutions.
Go to
Stress
Relief from the Inside Out: Part IV: Balance Your
Doing
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Copyright
2005 Ilenya Marrin, Power Of Personal Peace. Stress relief, stress reduction,
stress management, inner peace.
73 Prim Road #115
Colchester, VT
05446
Info@powerofpersonalpeace.com
www.powerofpersonalpeace.com
http://lovingyoursuccess.blogspot.com
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