Managing Stress pt.3

This is the Third arti­cle in this series. You can find PART 1 HERE and PART 2 HERE. 

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Nor­mal­ly on a post like this I would write about the amaz­ing teach­ers and prac­ti­tion­ers of the DeROSE method around the world. But instead, I am going to write about a side effect from our net­work. Trav­el­ing… Aero planes… Air­ports… Cus­toms and immi­gra­tion. In these past three weeks I have trav­eled a lot. It is great… And it is also a pain! Long lines, uncom­fort­able seats, loud nois­es, dif­fer­ent time zones, stress, exhaus­tion, 24 hour news chan­nels and hotel rooms. Trav­el­ing can be one of the most stress­ful times in a per­son­’s life.

In this arti­cle I am going to start with the first tier of tips to man­age this stress and to expe­ri­ence the tech­niques of the DeROSE Method. These tips require around 5 min each, a total of 10 min­utes out of your day which could real­ly change your response to stress.

The first tip is regard­ing your phys­i­cal body and the sec­ond will be regard­ing your emotions.

When you arrive at your hotel room, espe­cial­ly if your flight took more than 4 hours, take care of your body! The time in the same posi­tion plus the stress will tight­en up your mus­cles. Even if you go to the gym, your body will not per­form in the same way. So prac­ti­cal tip: stretch your body when you arrive in your room. All you need is 5 min­utes. Pay close atten­tion to your spine and use its full range of move­ments.

1st minute
Take a moment and straight­en your spine. Spend 30 sec­onds bal­anc­ing your­self in one foot and then the oth­er. If you can do it with your eyes closed.

2nd minute
Lean your body to your left. Be care­ful not to twist your hips. All you need is 30  sec­onds to each side.

3rd minute
Sit­ting down with your legs crossed, bring your left hand behind your back sup­port­ing your back and being your right hand to your left knee, twist­ing your spine. Stay in a com­fort­able posi­tion for the fist few moments and then exhale to give your max­i­mum. Once again. 30 sec­onds is all you need for each side.

4th minute
Stretch your legs in front of you and rest your body for­ward. Try to touch your fore­head on your knees whilst keep­ing them straight and locked in. Aim for com­fort. After 30 sec­onds return and lie down fac­ing the ground. Bend your knees and hold onto your ankles. Then give your best effort to push with your thighs rais­ing your knees and tor­so off the ground. If you are able, try to look at the ceil­ing of the room. All you need is 15 seconds.

5th and final minute.
If you are able to exe­cute an invert­ed posi­tion do so now if not, just lie with your back on the floor and raise your feet above your head. If you are able stay the minute in this position.

This rou­tine is valid for any­one, not just those trav­el­ing. But for the trav­el­ers this will be par­tic­u­lar­ly wel­comed! If you do this short rou­tine you will notice that your body will per­form much bet­ter for the rest of your trip.

The sec­ond tip is for anoth­er aspect of pres­sure, the emo­tion­al pres­sure. The objec­tive of this short tech­nique is to bring more aware­ness and con­scious­ness to the way you breathe and through this process take a few steps towards improved self esteem and con­fi­dence. Note this is not a ther­a­py, if you suf­fer from any con­di­tion seek pro­fes­sion­al med­ical help. This tip, much like the DeRose method, is not a form of ther­a­py — we would not be qual­i­fied for that! — it is indeed a way to boost your performance.

So before you start check a couple of things:

1) blow your nos­trils and make sure they are not obstruct­ed. For the entire­ty of this tech­nique we will ask you to breathe exclu­sive­ly through your nostrils. 

2) you body’s posi­tion does mat­ter. Try to find a place where you will not be inter­rupt­ed, where you can sit down and where you can keep your back straight — don’t lean back on the seat. Also pay atten­tion to the posi­tion of your neck and keep it along the same line as your spine, in oth­er words, it is as if you want to be look­ing slight­ly up.

Now that you are set­up spend the first few moments at sim­ply notic­ing how you breathe. Try to inhale and exhale slow­er, using a greater capac­i­ty of your lungs. The next time you breathe try to pay atten­tion to each stage in your breath­ing: inhala­tion, reten­tion of the air whilst your lungs are full, exha­la­tion and reten­tion of your lungs empty.

Main­tain this breath­ing and when you next inhale project your abdomen out­wards, giv­ing you more room to expand your lungs. When you exhale con­tract your abdom­i­nal mus­cles to com­press your lungs. Your next breathe will have even more air than before. Con­tin­ue to breathe exclu­sive­ly through your nos­trils. Deeply and slowly.

If you are ready, increase the dif­fi­cul­ty. If you so not feel com­fort­able con­tin­ue exe­cut­ing this vari­a­tion until the end of the time. To increase the dif­fi­cul­ty add a rhythm. For exam­ple, use a mea­sure of 4 sec­onds for each stage of your breathing:
* 4 sec­onds to inhale;
* 4 sec­onds to keep your lungs full;
* 4 sec­onds to exhale;
* 4 sec­onds to keep your lungs empty.

All it takes is 5 min­utes. After this time, observe your­self and try to notice your state of mind, your state of being.