Hints On Conquering That Stress-Filled Moment

Have you ever been faced with a situation that totally 100% stresses you out to where it completely overwhelms you? Today we go over a few practical and easy to use ways to handle that instant stress that catches you off guard.

Transcript

Namaste everybody.

Welcome to In the Flow with Laurie Albert.

What stresses you out?

Yeah,

Do you know?

Like what in the world,

Like what can happen that actually completely stresses you out?

So many things,

Right?

There's so many things that could stress us out,

Right?

From minute one of our lives,

You know,

We get stressed and we learn what stress is.

Whenever,

You know,

Whenever we're born and our bottom is tapped,

That's stress,

Right?

So we need to learn throughout the course of our lives how to deal with that,

Don't you think?

So today what I want to talk about is those few little things,

Those little things that just in the moment when we get stressed,

If we can remember to do them,

Can help cut that.

In that stressful moment it can help push it away,

Right?

You know,

I keep thinking about in terms of things that make your your blood pressure go up.

I know that sounds kind of silly,

But you know those things that make your blood pressure go up?

Like when you're,

I don't know,

For me,

Like if I'm driving,

This is an absolutely odd example,

But if I'm driving and I see somebody cutting people off and all that stuff,

I get like stressed for a couple of reasons,

But I won't get into that,

But I get stressed,

Right?

What can we do in those moments of stress or when somebody comes at you with a something that they were saying,

Whether they disagree with you or whether they're just yelling at you,

Whatever it is,

Right?

What are a few little things that we can do?

Well,

Number one is if you can just,

And you can do this in front of somebody or you could separate yourself and do this,

But take three deep breaths,

Right?

Because there's something about getting that oxygen in your lungs and throughout your body that creates a new,

Just a refreshing thing,

And it gets that oxygen to your brain,

Right?

So if you just take three really deep breaths,

Right?

And here's the thing,

You don't have to do it so that it's loud like that.

You can just do it where you just are breathing loudly,

I mean breathing deeply,

And you know,

Move along from there,

Right?

The second thing,

And this is,

I learned this from David G,

And this particular way to expunge the stress,

Is that a way of saying that,

Huh?

This particular way of expunging the stress is one of my favorite things to do because it's meditative and it's,

David G calls it a pattern interrupt because that's what we need to do when we're stressed,

When we're angry,

We need like a pattern interrupt,

An interruption into that train of thought,

And then we can get back to who we are,

Right?

So this is the 16 second sort of method,

Okay?

So what you do is you breathe in to the count of four,

So you breathe in one,

Two,

Three,

Four,

And then you hold your breath one,

Two,

Three,

Four,

And then you breathe out to the count of four,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

And then you hold it again with your breath out,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four.

So right.

So let's try that because this particular one never fails me,

Never fails me.

If I'm in a state and something's upsetting me or whatever and if I do this,

I am instantly brought back to my my own thoughts and who I am,

Okay?

So let's try that,

Right?

So I'll count and you breathe in.

So breathe in two,

Three,

Four,

Hold it two,

Three,

Four,

Now breathe out two,

Three,

Four,

And hold it again two,

Three,

Four,

And if you do that once,

See how it feels.

If you don't feel any different,

Then do it again,

But that's what's so great.

It's only 16 seconds.

It's not like it's a lifetime.

It's not like I have to go meditate for 15 minutes.

You know,

This is truly the pattern interrupt and that's what I love about it,

Right?

And you can do this without anybody knowing.

You can do this if you're in a meeting and somebody's stressing you out.

You can do the 16 second breath breathing exercise,

Right?

So that's like my,

That's my other favorite,

Okay?

Then the third thing that we can do is,

And if you have a tendency toward stress,

This next one really can work well for you,

Okay?

It's just a,

It's a mantra and it's,

What's great about mantras is you get to pick and choose what works for you.

You get to choose what words work for you.

Okay,

So my personal one that I love,

That I go to,

Right,

My one of my go-tos is,

All is well,

Right?

So if you just,

If you're in the middle,

You're in that meeting,

Right,

And somebody's stressing you out and your boss is like calling on you to say this and say that or whatever,

You can just go back into yourself,

Sit back,

Like change your posture,

Sit back just for a split second and say,

All is well,

Right?

And there's something that,

And again it's another,

As davidji puts it,

A pattern interrupt,

Right?

Because it interrupts that thought process of stress,

Okay?

So all is well and then there are other mantras that you can say to yourself,

Whatever life hands me,

All will be okay.

That's such a great one,

Right?

Whatever life hands me,

All will be okay.

Love that.

And then there's,

There's two others that I love,

But again you have to pick and choose what works for you,

Right?

I am whole and complete,

Right?

I love that one.

I am whole and complete.

And then another favorite,

And you're gonna want to sing along when I say this one,

Right?

Let it go.

I have to laugh because it's true and I,

You know what,

It's so funny because whenever I start to myself and I want to say let it go,

It instantly takes me to that song,

You know,

Let it go,

Let it go.

Seriously though,

Let it go is like such an amazing mantra.

Those Disney people know what they're talking about,

Right?

And this is the thing,

Anybody can do this.

If you are running this meeting and you have somebody sitting in the audience that is falling asleep or not,

Not giving you what you need,

If you're running this meeting and you're feeling frustrated,

You can step back and say all is well,

Right?

These are pattern interrupts.

And then of course we do our own meditation.

Now here's the thing about actual meditation.

If you can create a practice for yourself where you give yourself ten minutes a day,

Ten minutes in the morning,

If you can just start out that way for ten minutes,

That creates,

That creates sort of the mindset in the morning when you just use that and you start your day out with that ten minutes,

It sets up your day.

And you will remember some of those pattern interrupts.

You will remember the 16 second breathing meditation,

Right?

You remember all that.

So let's get ourselves comfortable because we are gonna meditate on this.

Okay,

So beautiful.

So let's let our eyes float closed after you get comfortable in your chair or you can be laying down.

I have been meditating.

My afternoon meditation,

I meditate twice a day.

My afternoon meditations,

I have been lying down and that actually feels really good like to just lay down and allow my mind because I don't have to sit upright and worry about my hands and because you know there are hand mooders you can do and there's all this stuff you can do but sometimes it's just easier just to lay down,

Right?

So whatever feels comfortable for you,

Okay?

So let your eyes float closed.

Let's take a nice deep breath in and release it.

Perfect.

Our mantra for today that we are going to tell ourselves,

It's like giving ourselves advice.

So our mantra for today's meditation is be here now.

Be here now.

One of Ram Dass's favorite things to say because it brings you into the present moment.

It takes away the stress of the past and pushes away the anxiety of the future and brings us to the present.

Be here now.

Be here now.

Let us sit with this mantra for just a few minutes in the stillness.

I will keep the time and let's begin.

Be here now.

Be here now.

Be here now.

Be here now.

Be here now.

Be here now.

Be here now.

Be here now.

Be here now.

Be here now.

Be here now.

And start bringing our awareness back to our bodies.

And feel the peace that we've just experienced that can take us through the rest of the day.

When you feel comfortable you can open your eyes.

Beautiful.

So I hope that today allowed you to recognize that the peace is within.

It's within us.

And at every single moment we have a choice.

So thank you so much for joining me today.

From my heart to your heart,

Namaste.