Beat Stress When It Happens

Your Guide to Conquering Stress, Crushing Fear, and Living a Happier and Healthier Life

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Beat Stress Without Sacrificing Your Goals, Your Time, or Your Happiness

You face these challenges every day. You’re plugged in and constantly running. Your stress levels are higher than ever.

And yet somehow you’re supposed to keep going no matter what else is going on. Stress plays a role in many illnesses and other issues. You need a break, and you likely feel like everything will crumble if you slow down long enough to take one.

So how do you manage your humongous stress levels without sacrificing time? How do you take care of everything and still maintain a level of sanity and even strength and serenity? If you want to know, you’ve come to the right place.

Use Self-Communication to Sense Stressors and Release Them.First Listen to Yourself.

You have to recognize the stress. Build some internal listening skills to determine that it’s even happening.

Second, Talk to Yourself

Yes, it’s true. You have to talk to yourself and give yourself permission to stop and release some of the stress.

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How do you know you’re stressed out in the first place?

• You have to build awareness of it by doing mental physical check-ins with yourself. Stress isn’t just a mental issue. It’s a physical one, too.

• Check your breathing. Is it shallow? Are you breathing quickly?• Do you feel more irritable than usual?• Do you feel like everything is a burden?• Does every new thing feel like it's the last straw? • Does your body feel tense?

If so, we might be stressed-out and it's likely one of those stressors.

The following four super quick and simple techniques will help you de-stress no matter what you’re going through. And they take almost no time!

But before we got there, I need to ask. Can you let that hurried feeling go? Can you take a deep breath and imagine a cool waterfall or a lovely beach and sunset and just chill? If so, do that. It will help. For a deeper sense of peace, do these techniques. They’ll bring back your calm. They also have an almost magical ability to help you feel expanded and like you’ve got plenty of time to fit everything in.

Four of the most toxic stressors busy people like you have to deal with. Each one has a fast and easy-to-complete mission that’ll help you chill out, relax, and manage things better in the moment.

In The Moment – That’s The Key! The faster you deal with your stresses, the faster they’ll dissolve. So, it’s important to hone your awareness of when stress creeps up and creeps in. Keep checking in with yourself. Ask your innermost self if you’re irritable, unreasonably angry, easy to tick off, and frustrated right now. If you are, figure out what’s causing it by seeing what you have to do right now. Then, deploy one of the techniques below to handle them. These techniques are easy and quick but effective. Use them whenever you need to de-stress quickly.

Their design allows you to maintain a level of strength and preparedness to tackle what lies ahead. So, you’ll not only handle things, you’ll thrive! Are you ready? Here we go!

Have Courage! Just look at how far you’ve already come!

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If every day feels like it’s a do or die day, you might be stressed out by too many deadlines. If you’re constantly running from one fire to the next as you manage work, home, family, health, and all of the other demands on your time, you might have deadline fever. The key here is to stay on target while not getting anxious about whether or not you’ll finish on time. Why? Because the more you stress about finishing, the more of your energy is going towards that worry and not towards completing your projects and meeting your deadlines.

A Human Pace? Follow these steps to stay focused and beat your deadlines.

Before we go any further, can you renegotiate the unreasonable deadline? Remember that old chestnut: “A lack of planning on their part shouldn’t constitute an emergency on yours.” So, first and foremost a sane schedule would be optimal. Sometimes, we don’t realize we could do that very thing and get the schedule to be closer to normal human speed if we asked. So, if that’s a possibility, please try.

If operating at a normal, human pace is not a possibility and you need a quick breather while at the same feeling more confident in finishing, try this.

Are Ridiculous Deadlines Making You Nutty?

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The Deadline Crusher! Think of the next three small steps in this project. Don’t make them huge like, “I have to format the entire 300-page document.” Instead, make them three, manageable yet distinct steps. And come up with a two- or three-word description for each.

1. For example, “I have print the 300-page document,” becomes “print the doc.” and, “Call the event planner to confirm they changed the starting time,” becomes “Call the planner.”

2. Do this for each of the steps and write them in the order you want to do them.

3. Sit down with your feet flat on the floor. Put your hands in your lap, palm sides up.

4. Touch your thumb and pinkie finger together. Say, “I will.”

5. Touch your thumb and ring finger together and say the first thing on your list, (“spellcheck”).

6. Touch your thumb and middle finger and say the second thing (“print the doc”).

7. Touch your thumb and index finger (“Email client”).

8. Do it again and repeat three times.

9. Now you know what to do and likely feel calmer and more capable of shredding it.

Do this quick exercise for every deadline you encounter. Batch each project into manageable chunks of three smaller steps. Each one will feel more doable, and you’ll have more energy and a better plan to get it all done. You’ll also get the added benefit of knowing exactly what you need to do. Repeating it to yourself helps you remember, prioritize, and take action.

Too Much To Do!

Traffic!

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What Do You Do When You’ve Got Too Much To Do?This simple technique lowers your heart rate and can lower your blood pressure. And it only takes a minute. It also paves the way for changing your brain waves to theta. Ready to chill out for a few minutes so you can come back to your to-do list refreshed and recharged? Here we go! Sit down, put your feet flat on the floor, and your hands in your lap. Close your eyes.

1. Inhale for a slow count of 4. Hold for 4. Exhale for 4. Hold for 4. 2. Inhale for 4. Hold for 4. Inhale for 6. Hold for 6. 3. Inhale for 4. Hold for 6.

Exhale for 6. Hold for 6. 4. Inhale for 6. Hold for 6.

Exhale for 8. And hold for 4.

You should feel more calm and focused. Here’s a video tutorial to show you how.

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How to Stay Calm in Ludicrous Traffic Conditions

I know you’ve been there. You’re in a rush. You have to get to the bank or the store or to pick your child. But instead, you get stuck with thousands of other people all trying to get somewhere at the exact same time. Next time you’re stuck in the car, try one of these techniques depending on which type of traffic you’re stuck in.

First, no matter sort of traffic you’re stuck in, make sure your favorite dance song is on the radio. In fact, if you have any sort of commute, make yourself a playlist that contains your favorite songs to groove to. Make it at least three times as long as your commute. If the songs are playing and you’re stuck in traffic, open the windows and sing at the top of your lungs. (A good song for that is Pentatonix’s “Sing.”)

If you’re stuck at a light and you want to turn, here’s a super quick meditation that will get your subconscious mind into arelaxed and meditative state super quick. Watch theturn signal of the car in front of you. Now, compare it to the turn signal of another car in the line. (See this video example.) You’ll notice that sometimes, they’re in synch and blink on and off together and then they cycle until they’re opposite each other. Pay close attention to that synced/not-synced cycle as you go.

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This will help your brain go out of Gamma waves (the fastest brain waves and the ones that are involved in processing multiple amounts of stimuli at once) into Alpha or Theta waves (3 to 8 Hz which is what happens when you are in quiet, meditative states or are like falling asleep but still being awake) or perhaps even into Delta waves, which are the waves of deep meditation. This lets you be calm while still being alert.

I know what you’re thinking. “OK, but what if I’m on the freeway? There aren't any lights there.”

Don’t worry. You’re covered.

If you're just crowded in with a lot of other cars you might start to get super annoyed. Here's what you can do then. You can use car colors to calm your heart and mind. The wavelengths of colors correspond to certain feelings and ideas, and you can use those relationships to calm your mind if you’re sitting in a jam in rush hour.

Look in front and right around you. See which color the majority of cars are. Let's say the cars around you are mostly red. Red corresponds to an, “I am” statement. And you can say to yourself. “I am calm.” Repeat that statement while glancing at each red car around you.

The color blue corresponds to an, “I imagine” statement. If the cars are mostly blue, you can repeat, “I imagine a calm, blue ocean.”

Green corresponds to an, “I have,” statement, and you can repeat. “I have everything I need right here.”

Yellow corresponds to an, “I give,” statement. Say, “I give enough.”

For silver cars, say, “I receive the gift of joy.” For gold cars, say, “I give the gift of love.”

If you do that, you’ll calm your mind and lower your heart rate in no time. For a complete list of colors, go over to IzoldaT.com/carcolors.

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How to Handle Social Media Overload

If you feel saturated with all the TV, social media, texts, and other technology coming at you every minute, and you need to remove distractions so you can focus, here’s how.

You can certainly not use your phone and you can put it away. But there are times you’re running on fumes while trying to keep with all the notifications (which we could all use to turn off by the way). Here's a quick and ancient method to keep you from reaching for the phone. First of all, you won't be able to use the phone because your fingers will be busy.

If you want to maintain focus and remove distractions, try this technique. (Here is the video that will give you a little extra guidance.)

1. Stand (or sit) with your feet about hip-width apart and your arms at your sides.

2. Inhale and bring your hands together just under your belly button and interlace your fingers.

3. Exhale bring your interlaced fingers to your heart. 4. Inhale turn your palms outward and bring your interlaced fingers

overhead. 5. Exhale and bring your interlaced fingers back to your heart. 6. Inhale and bring your interlaced fingers back down to your belly button. 7. Exhale and release your fingers back to your sides.

Do this again and this time as you inhale and exhale, think the following words with the breaths.

1. Inhale and increase FOCUS as you bring your hands together and interlace your fingers just under your belly button.

2. Exhale and release DISTRACTIONS as you bring your interlaced fingers to your heart.

3. Inhale and increase FOCUS as you turn your palms outward and bring your interlaced fingers overhead.

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4. Exhale and release DISTRACTIONS as you bring your interlaced fingers back to your heart.

5. Inhale and increase FOCUS as you bring your interlaced fingers back down to your belly button.

6. Exhale and release DISTRACTIONS as you release your fingers and bring your hands to your sides.

Do this ancient technique anytime you need a break from the constant beeps, lights, and vibrations. Schedule a few minutes each day to check your social media sites and leave them alone for the rest of the day.

Consider turning your notifications off. Every single time, it beeps, whirs, or buzzes at you that someone has said something you get a little more distracted.

Ask yourself this critical question.

Do you really need to know right this minute who commented on what? Or can it wait? Can you keep living your life in the here and now instead of checking in? I encourage you to try it. You will be amazed at what happens. And do let me know what does happen. If you do turn off your notifications, after a week or two, do a check-in like the one from above. Are things different? Are you different? Have you gotten more done? How do you feel? Drop me a line and let me know. I have a feeling you’ll like how it goes.

Remember to build your awareness to recognize the instant you get stressed. Then, employ one of these techniques to nip it in the bud. You’ll feel calmer, healthier, more effective, and downright happy. And that is a great place to be!

Your Creative R(evolution)!

Leadership, Team-Building, and Stress Management Workshops and Seminars that Transform Lives!

Izolda Trakhtenberg, Speaker, Author, Creativity Enabler PO Box 1133 Greenbelt, MD 20768, USA IzoldaT.com, izolda@IzoldaT.com