Time Out
Basic Relaxation & Stress Management Techniques
These basic relaxation and stress management techniques will bring you the renewal and refreshment you need to enhance your performance in the moment and over the long term.
Relaxation & Stress Management Technique #1: Quick Pause
This four-step technique takes less than 60 seconds and is guaranteed to calm you down while bring body, mind and spirit back to the moment.
- Take a moment. Stop what you are doing. Turn your watch-wearing arm upside down so you can't see the time.
- Take a pulse. Use your free hand to zero in on the pulse in your watch-arm wrist.
- Take a breath. Make it a deep one. Lift your shoulders, filling your lungs on the intake. Drop your shoulders and push out the air on the exhale.
- Take a look. Scan your present environment from one side to the other and come back to yourself.
Relaxation & Stress Management Technique #2: Diaphragmatic Breathing:
Focus on breathing at a natural rate. Allow the tension to leave your body as you exhale. Allow relaxation to enter as you inhale. Imagine air as a cloud or lungs as balloons. Use the words, 'in' and 'out' in your mind as you breathe. For deeper relaxation, count backwards from 10 to 1 or imagine yourself descending a long set of steps.
Relaxation & Stress Management Technique #3: Deep Muscle Relaxation:
Beginning at your forehead and proceeding down the body to the toes, tense and relax each individual muscle group twice in turn. Order of motion: forehead; eyes and nose; lips, cheeks and jaws; hands; forearms; upper arms; shoulders; back; stomach; hips and buttocks; thighs; feet; toes.
Relaxation & Stress Management Technique #4: Sensory Awareness:
Take yourself on an imaginary guided tour of special calm and quiet places. Begin by focusing on your breathing. Take a walk through the woods on a crisp autumn day, through the city in the rain, through several of your personally favorite places in the world. Move from the imaginary world back to the present.
