The best way to tackle high stress situations is through full and conscious breathing.
When we are not present in our bodies,
Our thoughts can carry us away,
Making stressful situations almost debilitating.
Luckily,
When we have awareness to focus on our breath and body,
We can bring ourselves back into the present moment,
Bringing us clarity.
So let's honor our breath now and how it brings us in the present moment by taking five significant and purposeful breaths.
One,
Fully inhale,
Expanding your belly and chest as much as you can,
Holding it for a moment,
And then exhale,
Feeling a wave of relaxation sweep over you.
Two,
Inhale,
Filling your entire breathing system with fresh oxygen,
Hold it,
And exhale,
The wave of relaxation gently sweeping over you.
Three,
Inhale,
So that you are brimming with air,
Holding it,
Soaking in oxygen,
And exhale,
Your body relaxes in different areas without any effort.
Four,
Fully inhale,
Filling these breaths,
Purifying your entire body,
Exhaling,
Just notice how you're feeling.
And five,
A beautiful breath coming in,
Hold it,
Feeling invigorated from oxygen,
And exhale,
Allowing relaxation to sweep over you.
Now just take note of how you feel at this very moment.
You now have an abundance of oxygen.
This is how we are created to feel.
Breathing deeply and fully is an expression of self-compassion.
Let the flow of your breath become natural,
And notice how abundance fills.
Very good.
Now I'd like you to visualize yourself standing in a big field.
No one else is around.
Everything is calm and peaceful,
And you are surrounded by beautiful nature.
Go ahead and sit down in this mat,
Noticing the beauty all around you.
You are fully relaxed.
In the distance,
You see dark clouds closing in.
As the sky grows a little darker,
You see that a small storm is forming,
And you feel some raindrops falling down.
Imagine that this storm is your stress.
It could be a mild stress,
Which is some rain and a little wind.
It could be a very high stress with extremely strong winds and lightning and a very heavy rain.
In this visual,
We are going to face a very strong,
Full storm,
And make ourselves stronger.
So as you feel the storm getting stronger and is blowing,
You sit there in the mat completely unfazed by it.
The storm cannot hurt you here.
You have a choice to react to the storm with fear.
This storm is harmless in this visualization.
Your stress is our reaction to fear,
Whether the fear is real or not.
Action to all these things.
Sometimes you can't help it,
And stress will take over in a matter of seconds,
And we must handle it properly,
Or it will handle us.
So just like sitting through the storm in the field,
Stress cannot harm you if you know that it simply passes you by.
What matters most is your own reaction to the events around you.
Really embrace the stress now,
And fully let it exist without fighting it.
Without fighting it.
You see the storm of stress in front of you is very dark.
As the storm clouds get thicker,
Raining down with fury,
You decide to get up from where you were sitting and slowly start walking towards it without fear,
Nor just pure confidence that you are safe and in control.
You get closer and closer as the storm draws near and the wind blows with tremendous speed.
The winds and rains have no effect on you.
It is really easy for you to step forward,
And only your clothes are flopping around.
As you look forward,
You see the eye of the storm,
And around that eye,
The winds and the rain are extremely powerful and strong.
Yet you have zero worry as you step inside of this eye.
You are standing now inside the center.
Everything is calm and peaceful here.
You look around from within the eye of the storm and see all the chaos around you,
But inside here it is calm,
Peaceful,
And even cozy.
This is your space,
Your safe spot.
And so when the stress has fully taken over you,
You have a chance to let it blow over without a fight.
Just sitting right in the middle,
Witness your body in the center.
Any stress is just a storm surrounding you.
Please come back to your safe space,
No matter what is going on around you.
Very good.
Now you notice the storm is losing its power,
Dying down slowly.
The rain is easing up,
And it's only now drizzling.
You see the clouds drifting away as the sky gets brighter.
The sunlight peeks through the clouds as they pass by,
Then eventually burst out with great intensity,
Shining a beautiful light all around you.
You see birds coming out and they start singing.
You see butterflies and bees buzzing around the flowers that are blossoming now after the heavy rains.
Everything is beautiful now.
This moment represents you being in a beautiful state of mind where stress had no control of you as you let it pass you by.
Now we are going to take three nice deep breaths in,
Slowly bringing ourselves back to the present moment.
One,
Nice full breath of fresh energy.
Two,
Breathing,
Taking in all that you learned here today.
And three,
Taking another helpful breath,
Allowing the memory of your strength through the storm to be present in your mind right now.
And then just go ahead and exhale.
Very good.
Please feel free to use this session or technique whenever you find yourself in a high stress situation,
And you'll be amazed at how you can ride out the storm of stress.
You got this.
Take care.
