Almost everyone gets stressed out during this busy holiday season. However, stress suppresses the immune system, so the last thing you want to be during the holidays is stressed because it leaves you vulnerable to illness.
There is one very simple thing you do all the time, and when done mindfully, can reduce stress. You can do it anywhere, anytime, for a couple minutes or even a half-hour. It's simple, easy, effective……have you guessed what it is?
Yes, it's breathing.
Breathing mindfully is one of the best and fastest ways to reduce stress whether you are caught in traffic or a long line at the checkout counter of the department store or have just arrived home at the end of a hectic day.
Breathing mindfully means paying attention to your breath, to follow the breath as you inhale and exhale. You need not intentionally breathe deeply though you may find that you are breathing more deeply as you practice, and that's good because it can help relieve muscular tension. Breathing shallowly deprives your muscles of much-needed oxygen and they become tense as a result. Just breathing slowly and deeply can relieve a lot of tension in your legs and back and shoulders.
To practice: as you inhale (through the nose only, please) follow the path the air takes, and feel the coolness in your throat as the air travels to your lungs. You may pause to enjoy the sensation if you like, but pausing isn't required. As you exhale, you will pay attention to the breath as it leaves your lungs and warms the throat, and here you may exhale through the mouth if you like.
To add an extra mind-body dimension of stress relief and relaxation, as you exhale, set the intention to relax simply by repeating "I am relaxed" as you practice, and may even be a little playful by emphasizing different words as you say it, first emphasizing "I" then "am" then "relaxed." If you are a visual person, you may also visualize the release of all your tensions, just watch them leave your body as thought they were riding the crest of a wave of breath, and say good-bye to each as they leave: "Good-bye, work stress, good-bye traffic jam," and so on.
The more fun you have with this practice, the more stress it will relieve and the faster you will feel better!
We all know how feeling happy is one creative way to wellness, and that feelings of gratitude are very powerful creators of wellness as well as happiness. It seems that some scientists have confirmed it: Gratitude increases happiness
This is an article that was run in Bottom Line Secrets Newsletter of November 19, 2009
Science Discovers the Secret to Happiness By Robert A. Emmons, PhD University of California, Davis
Surprise: Research suggests that becoming more grateful could make each of us 25% happier -- and that being happy is the key to a longer, more successful life.
Our lives do not just seem better when we are happy -- they actually become better, according to a 2005 analysis of hundreds of psychological studies. Happy people tend to have longer, more loving marriages... are healthier... live an average of seven to nine years longer than chronically unhappy people... and have more successful careers. According to one study, happy college graduates had annual salaries $25,000 higher than unhappy graduates 16 years after graduation.
While an endless procession of self-help gurus have claimed to know the path to happiness, psychological studies generally have failed to confirm that proposed happiness strategies actually work.
One notable exception: Research conducted in the past decade appears to indicate that we can become happier by feeling more gratitude.
Bottom Line/Retirement asked psychology professor Robert A. Emmons, PhD, of the University of California, Davis, for more information...
What is "gratitude" to a psychologist?
In simple terms, gratitude is our affirmation of a benefit that we have received and our recognition that this benefit has come to us from outside of ourselves.
You say that becoming more grateful will make us happier. How do we know that it isn’t the other way around -- happiness creates gratitude?
Our research suggests that increases in happiness do not lead to increases in gratitude, but that increases in gratitude do in fact increase happiness. We designed a study to test this. Participants were divided into two groups, each of which were initially equally happy. Members of one of these groups were asked to write in a journal the things that they were grateful for, which made them more conscious of and grateful for the good fortune that came their way. At the end of the study, the journal-keeping group was 25% happier than members of the group that did not keep gratitude journals.
Why does feeling gratitude make us happier?
Primarily, I believe, it is because gratitude increases our sense of connection to other people. Having strong relationships is the single best predictor of happiness, and our relationships become stronger when we acknowledge the support we receive from those around us. Acknowledging the support we receive from others provides us with confirmation that we have value in other people’s eyes. Gratitude also buffers us from envy, resentment and regret, emotions that inhibit happiness.
Why do people often have trouble being grateful for what they have?
Lots of reasons. Most of us are fortunate to have pretty good lives, so our default reaction might be to take the benefits that come our way for granted. Consumerism and other cultural pressures can foster a sense that we deserve even more than we have. Our desire to see ourselves as self-sufficient makes it difficult to admit that someone else has helped us. And admitting gratitude can create uncomfortable feelings of indebtedness.
Can we consciously choose to become more grateful and thus happier? Yes, I do believe it is a choice. Chronically unhappy people do not greatly differ from happy people in terms of their life circumstances -- they just approach life with a different set of attitudes. Unhappy people tend to see themselves as victims of their past, and feel entitled or exaggeratedly deserving when good fortune comes their way. Happy people are thankful that good things happen to them -- even though their lives might be no better than those of the unhappy people next door. We cannot always alter the events of our lives, but we can alter our attitudes.
What, specifically, can we do to become more grateful?
Make an effort to speak about your life using words of gratitude even if you do not feel very grateful. Though it seems counterintuitive, we can become more grateful by forcing ourselves to feign gratefulness that we do not initially feel. Speak in terms of gifts and givers, not regrets and setbacks. Refer to yourself as blessed or fortunate, not deserving or lacking. Say that you live in abundance, not in need. For example, say "I feel so grateful when I can sleep through the night," rather than "Most nights I wake up every few hours."
Incidentally, if you are struggling to get to sleep at night, don’t count sheep, count your blessings. Grateful people sleep better and longer than ungrateful people, and wake feeling more refreshed.
What is the secret to being grateful in the face of struggle or tragedy?
The secret is not to wait until tragedy strikes. Become more grateful while your life is running smoothly, so that gratitude becomes an ingrained part of your "psychological immune system." That will make it easier to view difficulties as temporary and surmountable setbacks, or even as opportunities in disguise.
A grateful person mourns the passing of a close friend, but he/she also feels lucky to have known the friend as long as he did, and is glad that he has so many other friends remaining.
Many prayers are expressions of gratitude. So, do religious people have an advantage when it comes to actually feeling gratitude and being happy?
Yes, to some degree. One of the foundations of virtually every religion is that people should give thanks to God and to each other. Religious texts and religious teachings typically provide models of how to be grateful, such as prayers of gratitude and rituals of giving thanks. Spirituality appears to be particularly helpful for maintaining a grateful outlook in the face of suffering and adversity.
Bottom Line/Retirement interviewed Robert A. Emmons, PhD, professor of psychology, University of California, Davis. A leading scholar of positive psychology, he is author of Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier (Houghton Mifflin).
That's the end of the article.
So, if you want to be happy which leads to wellness, one of the things you can do is start a gratitude journal and before you go to sleep at night, record two or three things for which you are grateful. You will sleep better, feel better, and feed that happiness that creates wellness!
Have a Great (and Grateful!) Week.
Michelle Providing a source of inspiration and wellness through the unity of Mind, Body & Breath.
