Mindful Breathing

This audio is a quick three minute stress management technique that coaches you through mindful breathing. Mindfulness is a state of mind in which you focus completely on your most immediate experience. In this exercise, the focus is on the full experience of your breathing.

When doing any mindful exercise, it is important to very gently bring your focus back to your experience if distracting thoughts occur. Do not try to get rid of the thoughts because that interferes with mindfulness. Instead, just gently refocus back to the exercise.

Muscle Scan

This audio is a quick two minute muscle scan to help you be aware of where you are feeling muscle tension. As you become aware of tension, you can then focus on letting those muscles relax. Too often when people are feeling muscle tension they don't take the time to be aware of their experience so the tension is not addressed.

You can use this exercise throughout your day to relieve your muscle tension. The more you use it, the more bodily awareness you will develop and will more naturally relax your muscles.

Tense and Release

This audio is a very quick muscle relief exercise. All you do is tense all your muscles until they are very tight and then suddenly just release all the tension with a sigh. Then allow yourself to feel the relaxation flowing into your body and relaxing your muscles.

You can use this exercise throughout your day to relieve your muscle tension.

Stretching

This audio is a quick two minute stretching exercise to increase blood flow throughout your body. As the blood flow increases you will experience tension release in the muscles and overall body relaxation.

You can use this exercise throughout your day to increase your relaxation and reduce the effects of stress on your body.

When I ask clients what they do for daily relaxation I usually get responses such as:

"I relax by watching TV every night."

"I have a glass of wine."

"I read a book."

"I go out with friends."

"I go to the gym and work out."

"I find gardening relaxing."

"I like to fish."

Although each of these activities may be perceived as relaxing and may even have an element of mindfulness, they don't provide the brain and body with the deep meditative relaxation we require. In fact, most of these activities are stimulating to the brain or the body rather than quieting.  READ MORE...

 

As you may realize as you read the articles on this site, the underlying core issue for many problems resides with irrational thinking styles. That, of course, is the basic premise of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). We develop styles of thinking based upon our learning experiences, our parents' thinking, and societal/community beliefs and expectations.  READ MORE...

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