regain your balance “in the heat of the moment”

4 Stress Busting Tips
By Psychic Yemaya

As we see children growing up and learning, their biggest obstacle is usually their own frustration, and that’s true of adults as well! When we’re stressed out or frustrated, we don’t handle things well. We’re in danger of overreacting or lashing out, and perhaps doing something we’ll regret later. Your body is in danger from stress as well—these are the things that can shave years off the healthy quality of your life. Each time you stress out, you’re causing perhaps irrevocable damage to small blood vessels, synapse structures in the brain, or the tissues around the heart, etc, etc….

So how can you regain your balance “in the heat of the moment”?

I study how to modify behaviors as well as different therapies or programs to deal with them. One of my favorites for dealing with stress in the moment is “H.A.L.T.” This system suggests that when you’re too hungry, angry, lonely, or tired you need to be very careful of your emotions, and reactions (hence…H.A.L.T.) and the second you are aware that your stress is building or your getting irritated…you stop what you’re doing (to the best of your ability) and reset and calm yourself.

How do you reset?

1. Take a moment to go to another room, or excuse yourself for a bathroom trip. Perhaps go outside if you can. In other words, step away from the source of stress if you can.

2. Stop your mind from churning. Focus on s-l-o-w, even breaths in and out, count as you breathe in, and again as you breathe all the way out. Lengthen each breath until it’s as long and deep and slow as you can go. This actually forces your body to calm down which is half the battle!

3. Before you think through the situation, or even consider it, you need to center. This spiritual term is about pulling your energy back into your body. Focus your awareness on the flow of energy around your core, your spine; your chakras. More advanced students can use the associated chakra colors, or tones, to balance each of the seven points (you can look them up on Wikipedia!). If you’re just learning, simply being aware of pulling your energy back into your core, along with the focus on slowing your breath is enough.

4. Grounding is also a spiritual term about feeling yourself attached to the ground (earth, gravitational pull, solid foundation) below your feet. By shifting your focus to where your body touches the earth, you are attaching to something around you that is much bigger and denser… like letting your negative emotions go into a much bigger container, and drawing the calm and positive energy from that space… into yourself!

Now deciding how to handle the situation will be easier. When something is bothering you, talk to someone about it! If you don’t feel safe talking to someone in your life, find a professional that will be a confidential listener.