There is a method you can learn, just by reading this article to the end, which can take some of the pressure off this holiday season. It can help you deal with the stress and anxiety you may be experiencing.
Stress? It is a bundle of negative feelings that seem to surge up when the pressure is on!
Anxiety. Worry. Fear and panic attacks. Boiling anger. Tears of frustration. Deep grief and sadness. Extreme fatigue.
Put it all together, experiencing all of these feelings at the same time (and humans are good at that!) - and you have "stress"! You may not identify any of those individual feelings as an issue when the pressure is on. These are feelings that group together, surge up as if out of nowhere and ambush us - and we say, "I am SO stressed out!"
And a lot of people are feeling the pressure this 2011 holiday time. Unemployment or the risk of it. Tightening the belt just in case. Worry about making the mortgage and the rent, not to mention the credit card bills. And fulfilling the "traditional expectations" of providing a happy holiday to the family - filled with gifts, parties and special trips or visits - add to the stress and anxiety.
And that's just the economic concerns! What about your health? What about having time to get everything done at work, and for the family? Lots of people are just plain exhausted at year-end! What if something goes wrong... now?
There is a method you can learn, just by continuing to read this, for instant stress relief. It is how to de-stress completely and let go of anxiety and worry you may be experiencing this holiday season.
It is one of the ways I teach to let go of feelings that can overwhelm you. And what is stress but an overload of feelings that make you crazy, not to mention tired? Learn it. Practice it. Do it over and over.
Here it is. Keep your eyes gently closed for the whole thing once you have learned it, so that you can focus on Self.
1) Close your eyes for a quiet moment.
2) Think about an activity of the holiday season that makes you feel anxious [substitute worried; angry; depressed; frustrated - as the case may be]. Maybe an activity you haven't started yet, because "how am I going to have the time/money to do it?"
3) Now bring your attention to your body - especially your throat, chest and stomach areas. Notice if you have a clenching, a heaviness or tight feeling in one of those places, or a pushing (like a fist pushing from the inside out).
4) That clenching is the anxiety feeling! That is what is making you feel anxious!
5) Picture an imaginary door over the body area you feel the clenching or pushing. Open the door in your mind's eye. Let the clenching "energy" leave through the door. Watch it go! Allow it to leave.
6) Now? Just keep the door open for one or two minutes. Just say to yourself, "I'm letting this feeling which is just a trapped energy go free now."
7) Focus on keeping the door open; it's easy because it is just a mental decision - "I'm keeping the door open." Why? Feelings are just trapped energy - trapped in our body (in this case) and waiting for an opening (which you have just made) to leave through!
Well, is one time enough? No! Do this process every time the pressure-cooker-feelings come up!
Therapists have been using this process for decades, under a variety of names. "You feel it in your body/you let it go from the body" is basically how most feelings can be released - for good!
Most feelings? Yes, but I might go so far as to say, "All Feelings!"
So use this 7-step releasing process for any feeling that "grabs you in the body" - anxiety or fear, anger, frustration, irritation, worry, sadness, panic. Do this any time your throat gets tight, or you get a hard ball in the solar plexus - or find yourself clenching your fists or any muscles!
Release the pressure - keep the door open. And open up to a much more relaxed holiday season. No matter what is going on around you, you can use this method to stay calm, cool and collected!
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