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Two Powerful Techniques To Gain Control Over Stress

The following 2 methods are simple yet very effective in managing stress. Here the power of your imagination is utilized to give you the skills to

1. Decrease or remove general stress and anxiety
2. Provide you support in blocking your stress

Anxiety as an object

This technique is very easy to do. First pick a situation that makes you feel a little anxious. Next take that feeling of stress and/or anxiety and give it a shape, as if it were an object. Maybe a square or a sphere or a big blob. Choose the object you want your anxiety to be represented by. Now take all the feelings of stress and anxiety and put it into that object.

Now you test. First increase the size of the object. Does this make you feel more stressed? Now decrease the size of the object, do you feel better? If you do, then you have linked the little anxiety/stressful situation you had chosen to this imaginary object. Now allow the object to get smaller and smaller till it just disappears. Feel great!

A Mental Shield to Block Stress

Often we will pick stressful vibes from our surroundings or negative people around us and it will get us feeling negative as well. This is perfectly normal in any community of people. You can however, use the imagery of a shield to protect yourself to a greater and greater extant, from stressful situations, giving you an edge in dealing with stress.

First, a little tip on body posture. If you are with someone you feel a bad vibe from and you feel drained of energy, one method that works is to cross your legs. This is body language that your unconscious understands as "closing yourself off". In the study of body language, when a person crosses their arms and legs they closing themselves off to the outside. You can take this knowledge of unconscious behaviors and use it consciously to close yourself off from negative situations. So as not to be obviously cutting anyone off, cross your legs at the ankles not the knees. The effect for you will be the same. Use this with the shield for maximum effect. Though the shield itself will be enough for most situations.

Second, you want to create the imagery of a shield with the properties of how you want to feel and react.

1. Lay down with your back straight and allow each muscle group to relax till you have deeply relaxed your entire body.

2. Breathe deep and slow telling yourself that with each exhale you are relaxing deeper and deeper. Then while paying attention to your breathing imagine relaxing on the beach. Visualize the beach until you can actually feel as if you are there as this helps relax your mind and body. This is a basic meditative state of mind.

3. In your meditative state of mind, visualize yourself surrounded by a 'bubble' of protection. Of a color that makes you feel safe and protected. Visualize yourself surrounded by this bubble, 2 feet away from you on all sides(above and below). If you feel more comfortable with 3 or 4 feet of distance, that is fine. Now vividly imagine the following:

(a) A time when you felt wonderful
(b) A time when you felt confident
(c) A time when you felt alert and ready.

Recreate each memory vividly enough to be able to fill your entire bubble with the feelings you are recreating. Recreate vividly each state listed above, separately and then combine them, so you feel confident, alert and overall just wonderful.

4. Now, staying inside your shield/bubble, visualize a situation that had been slightly stressful. Watch it unfold as if in real time. Notice that the stress of that situation can be kept outside your shield. So you continue to feel good.

5. Finally, mentally go through several situations where you had been stressed before, keeping your shield as a barrier between you and the stressful situations. This will get you used to distancing yourself from negativity, keeping your own positive state intact.

Remember

The brain believes the imagination to be real. Practicing this technique regularly (in a meditative state), will give you the ability to handle previously stressful situations with greater ease. I recommend that you do it at least 3 times a day for 3 days once to properly get the feel for it.

Author: Abbas Abedi