Relieve Stress: 20 Quick Techniques

By Katrin Schubert

Through 20 easy, calming techniques including acupressure, breathing exercises, and guided imagery, readers will learn how to relieve stress in 5 minutes or less.

Stress is a normal part of life. Work pressures, family expectations, and even recreational activities can become demanding. Activities to help prevent stress, such as meditation, yoga, or exercise, are beneficial but might be difficult to incorporate into a busy day.

In this quick guide, you will learn twenty easy techniques, including acupressure, breathing exercises, and guided imagery, to relieve stress in five minutes or less. Illustrations will show you how to apply specific science-based techniques in common stressful situations and how to effectively use these techniques in your daily life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hazelden Publishing
• Release date: Mar 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781616496401

Book preview

TECHNIQUE 1

Square Breathing

Lucia was sitting in the waiting area of her doctor’s office. Two weeks earlier, she had found a lump in her breast and was now waiting to hear the results of her medical test. She was terrified. For the past few weeks her mind had been cycling through the same thoughts like a spinning top, leaving her unable to focus and trapped in fear. Her breath was shallow and she felt a nervous sweat breaking out over her body. She was afraid she was going to faint.

Applying square breathing by using a table top in the waiting room turned out to be the perfect technique to help Lucia calm her mind.

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Julie used this technique to slow down her busy mind. Here is how she described the results:

When my mind is busy with the ten thousand things in my life—the calls I have to make, the bills that need to be paid, the tires that need rotating, the cat that needs to see the vet, my child who needs help—I have trouble falling asleep no matter how tired I am.

I start breathing the square, and when I closely pay attention to my eye movements and align them with my breath, my busy thoughts vanish. It feels as if my brain is taking a deep breath because it gets a break from working so hard on all my