How to Stay Balanced During Stressful Situations

Written by Debra Cohen


Often we start to notice ourselves falling into anger, depression, self-pity or other responses to a work or home situation. Here are a few ideas to implement when in a situation where a knee-jerk reaction starts to arise.

Remember it is much easier to nip something inrepparttar bud than to deal with stress after it flowers into physical symptoms or a bad mood. If you get into a funk sometimes it can last for days and it's often hard to break free of it. When you can "catch"repparttar 101848 negative moment beginning you have a great shot at stopping it from taking you down. I've found these helpful for myself as well as my clients:

Breaking out of moods:

1) If you feel a certain "mood" beginning (i.e. depression, anger, discouragement) try to do something physical such as go running, swim, or even clean. It's good to do something that will tune up your nervous and glandular system. We need to breakrepparttar 101849 incarnations that set into our bodies. It is similar to stopping smoking after one cigarette rather than 20 years of smoking. Sometimes if you have a shoe and it is worn out on one side you'll see that if you put your foot in it, it leans in that direction. The mind followsrepparttar 101850 grooves it previously was tracing out. We haverepparttar 101851 power to "changerepparttar 101852 channel" and watch a different movie.

2) There are two breathing exercises from yoga that are very helpful to cultivate a neutral mind. One is called "Alternate nostril breathing" andrepparttar 101853 other is called "Breath of Fire". These are explained in detail inrepparttar 101854 booklet I wrote. You can also learn these from a yoga class or video or write: mailto:yogabreathing@sendfree.com

Communication Expert reveals 5 keys to self expression without limits

Written by Peter Murphy


Peter Murphy recently interviewed communication expert John Barker. John is a professional coach and author with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Arts and Sciences. He even served inrepparttar White House where he worked withrepparttar 101847 White House Communications Agency.

They discussed communication and uncovered some valuable insights that people can immediately apply to make measurable improvements in their lives.

PETER:

1 Nowadays more and more people are learning how to let go of limiting feelings to improverepparttar 101848 quality of their lives. When it comes to communicating effectively with other people what arerepparttar 101849 main barriers to effective and purposeful communication, and how can we let go of these limitations?

JOHN:

The barriers vary from person to person, however,repparttar 101850 most common one I encounter in working with people isrepparttar 101851 desire to change others to fit our expectations. There are many paths torepparttar 101852 same destination; if we release our desires we open up an infinite number of possibilities. So long as we agree onrepparttar 101853 destination we want -repparttar 101854 feeling we want - "the how" doesn't matter.

Any time we feel we want to change someone or something, this is a time when we can recognize and release our desire for control.

The other part of this, is that very often we are re-living past conversations. If we have had a conflict with someone inrepparttar 101855 past; if we hold onto that feeling we bring it torepparttar 101856 new conversation. We brace our self for dealing withrepparttar 101857 inevitable confrontation and we don't really hear what is being said inrepparttar 101858 moment. This is why it is so important and valuable to be able to release things as they come up.

PETER:

2 Very often in life we know what to say and yet get tongue tied and fail to follow through whenrepparttar 101859 pressure is on. What isrepparttar 101860 answer to this common challenge?

JOHN:

We become tongue-tied or freeze up due to our attachment torepparttar 101861 outcome. There IS no pressure, only attachment to feelings and outcomes. By releasing on our attachment torepparttar 101862 outcome and welcomingrepparttar 101863 experience as it occurs, we free ourselves to experiencerepparttar 101864 moment effortlessly. This experience allows us to perform at our best.

And, if a person does feel anxiety, stress or self-consciousness in a situation like this, trying to makerepparttar 101865 feeling go away only makes it stronger. I often userepparttar 101866 analogy of a big brother picking on a younger sibling. Why does he do this? To get a reaction. The bigger and betterrepparttar 101867 reaction,repparttar 101868 more we encourage it. But if we welcome what is going on, he gives up. It is not as much fun as gettingrepparttar 101869 reaction! And, he goes away.

The same is true ofrepparttar 101870 feelings we want to go away. If we welcome them and allow them to be, it is amazing how quickly that feeling will dissolve and be replaced with a feeling of peace and calm. And, sometimes we can even smile or laugh at ourselves about it because it is such a relief to just allow ourselves to be how we are.

PETER:

3 Dealing with difficult people can really stretch our patience and verbal flexibility. What are your top tips for handling these situations?

JOHN:

Release! Release! Release!

It is important to remain aware of, and release, our desire for security, approval and control as these feelings arise in our consciousness. It can also be important to recognizerepparttar 101871 other person's need for security, approval and control as well. Understanding allows compassion.

I know I've wasted a lot of energy in my life trying to change other people! It's an impossible job, really. And, it is amazing how often, when we stop resisting how people are, they just magically seem to make those changes we wanted inrepparttar 101872 first place.

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