Tips for reducing holiday stress from the Institute of HeartMath

The holidays are stressful for a lot of people, me included. I’m totally stressed out about money, about getting all the gifts bought and wrapped, about finding time to address and mail Christmas cards, about the house being a mess, about the pile of work I have to do. The Institute of HeartMath, who makes the Wild Ride to the Heart game that I recently reviewed, has tons of resources on their website to help people like me learn stress-reduction techniques. You know, so I don’t explode.

In a recent survey, the American Psychological Association learned that while 69% of parents of tweens and teens say that their stress has slight or no impact on their children, a whopping 86% of children report that their parents’ stress bothers them.

“We don’t have to let stress deteriorate the quality of our lives when there are very quick and effective ways to manage it,” said behavioral psychologist, Deborah Rozman, Ph.D., who serves on IHM’s Scientific Advisory Board and is the author of Transforming Stress. “Taking a few minutes to learn one effective stress-reduction technique is a small investment of your time that can be invaluable for the countless moments ahead where stress will challenge us.”

APA and IHM say there is cause for national concern. “America is at a critical crossroads when it comes to stress and our health,” APA Chief Executive Officer, Executive Vice President and psychologist Norman B. Anderson said in APA’s online press release about the survey. “Year after year nearly three-quarters of Americans say they experience stress at levels that exceed what they define as healthy, putting themselves at risk for developing chronic illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes and depression.”

During the holidays – one of the most stressful times of year for millions of American families – the institute is offering several free resources, including a guided emotion-regulation technique and a popular e-book.

I know that might sound like a lot of new-age mumbo jumbo, but here’s the thing – it’s worth a try. I used to have terrible, horrible insomnia until one day about 10 years ago at the bookstore I saw a guided meditation CD that said it would help me learn to relax my mind so I could sleep. I’ve been practicing guided meditation regularly ever since and I rarely have insomnia.

So, if guided meditation can help with insomnia, I bet it can help with stress, too. The stress experts at IHM recommend adults use their Inner-Ease™ technique when they experience feelings of overwhelm and anxiety and need to reset to a calmer, more balanced emotional state. A more detailed version and guide for this technique are available in the free e-book, “The State of Ease,” by IHM founder Doc Childre. It is available for download in several languages at http://bit.ly/StateofEase.

HeartMath stress experts say their technique can help people shift from negative feelings to a positive emotional state – one of peace and ease. You can practice Inner-Ease with the following adaptation of this technique:

1. If you are stressed, acknowledge your feelings as soon as you sense that you are out of sync or engaged in common stressors such as financial worries, being stuck in holiday checkout lines, etc. Take a short timeout to do heart-focused breathing: Breathe a little slower than usual, and imagine you are breathing through your heart or chest area.
2. During heart-focused breathing, imagine with each breath that you are drawing in a feeling of inner ease and infusing your mental and emotional nature with balance and self-care from your heart.
3. When your stressful feelings have eased, affirm with a heartfelt commitment that you want to anchor and maintain a state of ease as you re-engage in your projects, challenges and daily interactions.

If you are at all stressed out about the holidays or anything else, I highly, highly recommend you visit the Institute for HeartMath website, and they are not paying me anything to say that.  The same person who sent me the Wild Ride to the Heart game sent me the press release about the holiday stress survey, and I just knew I had to write about it here.  I can’t be the only one feeling a whole lot of stress right now.  Try these links:

Download the FREE De-Stress Kit in PDF or Audio (highly recommended, it’s helping me through a tough time right now): PDF link

Watch the video Navigate Your Life With The State of Ease and learn a technique to reduce and prevent stress that you can use at any time.

Facebook page with tips for anyone who cares for a child: http://www.facebook.com/HeartMathMyKids

If you have any tips for getting through the holidays with as little stress as possible, please feel free to share them in the comments.   Let’s all have as stress-free a holiday as we possibly can.

Related articles

• Give the Gift of Less Stress with HeartMath’s emWave Personal Stress Reliever (prweb.com)
• Stress Experts Offer Parents, Children Free Resources During Holidays (prweb.com)
• Stress Management Tip #1: Breathe (barefootbarn.wordpress.com)

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