Your 15 Minute Stress Buster

OK, as I promised in my last blog post here is a simple fifteen minute routine for you. But first the disclaimer. This is what I consider for myself as the "bare minimum" to maintain the balance I need on a daily basis to handle the stress in my life. So I use this kind of routine as my emergency maintenance routine. It comes in handy when I'm on the road or like this morning when I had to get up and drive my teenage son to the airport at 4.30am and don't have time for a more complete practice. I find the best time for this routine is immediately after I get out of bed in the morning.

What you will see below is several segments of the routine with some suggestions as to what to put into that time. The choice of exactly what you do is up to you. There are several options for each segment listed in my book in various places, particularly in the complete yoga and meditation routine sections.

This routine is based on these ideas. First and foremost is the idea that it is good to get our blood flowing and air moving in and out of our lungs. Secondly, as our spine is the main energy conduit of our bodies, we can get all systems working better if we move the spine in all possible directions. Although these kind of activities (getting blood and breath moving and stretching in all directions) have a positive physical benefit, we can get double the benefit if we perform them with the utmost level of awareness and self-attunement. Detailed ways to master these aspects are also included in the book "Turn Stress into Bliss". Finally, there is the idea that we are in a better position to handle our daily lives in a more calmly focused way, if we set an intention to do so. So given all that here goes!

Michael Lee's 15 Minute Daily Stress Handling Maintenance Routine

Minutes 0 to 5: Jump around! Any way you like. The purpose is to get blood flowing and breath moving. You can do jumping jacks, you can make your arms into propellers, you can dance wildly, do scissor kicks in the air, or whatever. Being more of a yoga nut, I do squats with loud and deep breathing, I do a forward hang and shake my head while making the ugliest face I can muster, I open my mouth as wide as it will go and let out a roar like a lion and shake my body like a rag doll being severely mishandled by a rambunctious three year old. The aim is to move as many different parts of your body as vigorously as you can while breathing deeply and having fun. By the end of 4 minutes you should be starting to feel a little tired from all the movement. When this happens it's time to stand still and take slow deep full breaths in, and let them out with a "Hahhhhhhhhh" sound. (Falling out breath which is described in more detail in my book.) The conscious awareness part of this exercise is to observe yourself as you go. What do you notice? Sometimes I notice myself censoring my movements. Sometimes I notice that I am more or less vigorously than usual. Sometimes I notice myself trying to answer the question "why?" about whatever I'm noticing. What I like to do is let go of any judgments of myself regardless of what I notice myself thinking. I just say to myself "So what!" and come back to the exercise.

Minutes 6 to 10: Moving the spine in all directions. Backbend, forward bend, side bends, and twists in both directions. Do one or two of each and hold for two or three deep breaths at the edge with a pause for two or three deep breaths between each. Most any yoga book or my book "Turn Stress into Bliss" will give you detailed directions for these if you need them. Beginners tend to hold the positions for less time and do two repetitions. I prefer to do just one of each posture and hold for a little longer making sure to breathe fully and deeply in the holding position and when entering and leaving the posture. Again, practice with awareness. Observe yourself and use your observations to try non-judgment and detachment. (Both great stress handling tools that you can take with you into your daily life)

Minutes 11 to 15: Meditate. Sit comfortably, breathe gently and become the witness. As I don't find meditation all that easy I use a simple mantra. It is "I watch myself breath in, I watch myself breathe out" and repeat that over and over. If you are worried about time, set a timer. I don't worry about it if I go a minute or two more or less and can judge five minutes pretty easily once I do it a few times. Again, be the witness to your whole state of being as you sit and meditate At the end of your meditation there is one last thing to do. Set your intention for the day. "Today, I see myself going about my day………..(describe)". Make it positive rather than negative. For example: "I see myself going about my day with calmness and serenity" rather than "I see myself not getting into any fights today." Also don't forget to give yourself your absolute permission to not be perfect. Make room for not being 100% with whatever you might want to create in your day. Remember there is always tomorrow and Rome wasn't built in a day.

There you have it. Be inspired and do good things for yourself every day. And if you like what you read in this blog, please do me and your friends a favor by sending them the link.

A 2009 WITHOUT STRESS - A GIFT FOR YOU

Wouldn't that be nice? No more raised voices, no more anxiety at work, days full of joy and happiness, no more money worries, and lots of time to do the things you love.

Is a life without stress possible? Can we live out our days without all the tension?
How great it would be to have some magic bullet (legal of course) that would let us reach this state. Does it exist?

Well the answer is 'probably not'. So then why bother trying? Well, I do believe we can make a significant difference. Sure, there is no magic bullet. Sure, there will always be some tension in life. In fact we probably couldn't live very well without a little tension now and again. But the kind of stress that slowly kills us, creates disease, destroys our relationships, makes each day a misery, creates headaches and aches and pains in our body – that kind of stress we can do without and we can go a long way towards eliminating from our lives.

And there is a magic bullet for this. Well kind of. It comes in the form of a gift we can give to ourselves each day and any one can do it.

It is the gift of time. Yes, time. In order to effectively manage stress in our lives requires us to take the very first step and give ourselves the gift of time.

How much time? Well that depends on how much you can afford on the one hand, and how committed you are to changing the way you manage the stress in your life. Like all gifts, it would suck if you gave yourself an hour a day and then took it away a few days later because you couldn't afford it. So be realistic. How much time can you afford to give yourself each day that you will not take back under any circumstances?

If I were really stressed out, I might be motivated enough to give myself an hour a day for a period of time.

That's what is asked of you if you take the self directed program "Turn Stress into Bliss" that is outlined in my book bearing that title and which you can buy right here from this blog. That program has been proven to work for most people most of the time. In just eight weeks you could go from pain to no pain if its stress related. You could also go from stressed out to blissed out if you follow the program all the way.

But an hour a day! That's a lot to give for some of us. So if you can't do that hour, how about just 15 minutes? Can you afford that? And if you gave yourself 15 minutes a day, how would you use it?

As my New Year's Gift to you, in my very next blog post I will outline a simple 15 minute body-mind routine for you.

So stay tuned, and in the meantime think about when you are going to receive this gift. For me and most people the very best time is first thing in the morning after we get out of bed. But choose a different time if it works better for you - as long as you get that full gift each day uninterrupted. That might mean turning the clock forward 15 minutes or using some other trick to make sure you get it.

Think about it. You make the time, and I'll give you the recipe.