Nature’s Best Stress Busters

Nothing stresses you out more than learning that stressing out can wreck your health. Sure, you can go to a fancy spa and get the stress pampered, kneaded, or otherwise coaxed right out of you. Or you can go to a doctor and maybe get it medicated out. But we prefer these natural destressors:

• Tighten your muscles.Then let them relax. By doing this muscle by muscle, you can help relieve the physical stress stored in your body. Start at your root (your feet): Tense the muscles of your feet and then relax them. Then move up your body, doing the same with each muscle group.
• Breathe.Most of us do this in a way that’s shallower than a celeb gossip magazine. Deep breathing helps modify the messages sent from your body to the brain via the vagus nerve, the longest nerve coming directly from your brain. Regulating this allows you to block some of the bad stuff you’re feeling, preventing stress from doing its dirty work. Relearn how to deep breathe by lying down, putting your finger on your belly button, and making it move away from the floor when you inhale. Repeat this 10 times a day for 10 days, and you’ll have it mastered.
• Pose.Try a few yoga poses. You don’t have to be able to twist yourself into a pretzel to reap the benefits. Just focus your mind on the movement you’re doing or holding. This frees your body and helps you learn to free your mind to allow ideas pass through it without attachment. If we could bottle that, we’d call it Teflon for stress.