Perfect Poise, Perfect Life
Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life
By Noel Kingsley
Publisher Hodder Mobius
AVAILABLE HERE

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Dealing with stress

I've been working with a number of clients on coping with stress, particularly in relation to business situations or performance on stage. Whenever we are put on the spot and expected to perform in some way or another, the focus is inevitably on us and we can feel the demands of the situation quite acutely. In such cases it's essential that we are breathing easily and fully.

Being put on the spot to perform a presentation or attend an important interview can be very demanding and the cause stressful symptoms. We all know that preparation is the key to being successful in these situations so most of us will give time for this. If we can extend this attitude to prepare ourselves physically by releasing unnecessary tensions, improve our balance and poise, then we will be giving ourselves some fundamental support. It is simply not possible to perform to our best if we are stressing our body with postural habits and interfering with our breathing.

We can diffuse stressful symptoms by taking calming drugs, but it’s obvious that this is not ideal and it would be so much better if we did not get stressed in the first place. A lot of what I've written on this blog site is relevant to dealing with stress. We should prepare ourselves physically. Poor posture detrimentally affects our breathing and stressful situations can make it worse. If we’re not breathing efficiently, we will get an imbalance of chemicals in the body that will add to our sense of stress. Then we’re in a vicious cycle. We’ve got to make sure that we’re breathing fully and easily.

In order to ensure that we are coping with stressful situations as best as we can, we should work on our posture, our breathing and our voice. The following simple exercise is something that can be done anytime, and will be particularly helpful just before going into an important meeting.

To stimulate your breathing and to calm you down, try the following:
Sit or stand upright and ‘think’ your neck loose. Without taking a special breath, breathe out quietly through your nose as much as you can to empty your lungs. Empty them completely, but avoid collapsing your posture. Stay upright. When you have expelled as much air as you can, release the tension around your ribs to allow them to expand and just let the air come in naturally. Do not suck or sniff air in. Try to let it come in naturally without effort. When you do this procedure well, you may find the air comes in, in two stages i.e. your lungs will replace what you expelled, then you may get a small amount extra. When you have completed this little procedure, breathe normally for two breaths then repeat the whole process again, up to 4-5 times. Do not continue to breathe this way. It is simply an exercise to stimulate your breathing. If you feel dizzy or faint, stop immediately. This is not a method of breathing so should only be performed as an exercise 3-4 times. Return to normal breathing afterwards.

Do this little exercise periodically through the day and it will help keep your ribs moving and you may find it helps you breathe more freely generally. Oxygen is so important for the healthy working of our body, but so is the elimination of toxins. Detox diets are fine, but some toxins can only come out through your mouth as a gas. Lactic acid is a real culprit for feeling stress as any excess building up in the body as a result of muscular effort or tension is not dissipated or expelled from the body unless we are breathing efficiently. Breathing out is just as important as breathing in. Don't try and control it, just let it happen. So, to stay calm.....keep breathing!

Posted by Noël on May 31, 2007 6:28 AM | Permalink