Real Entrepreneur Mums RealMag Jan29 2018 | Page 9

My Top 5 Stress Busters 4. Colouring
1. Breathing There’s a reason there’s so many of these books
available for adults – its’ fun and effective! Use this
as an observational exercise - watching what you’re
doing, without judgement or criticism. This is a time
to leave your shopaholic at the door (you need only
one book and a pack of pencils. Not. All. The. Colours.).
Leave your inner critic to keep the shopaholic
company. Your colouring doesn’t have to be perfect.
It’s a great way to unwind and connect with your inner
child. You’ll notice your breathing and your muscles
relax while you’re doing something fun.
If you’re reading this, it’s safe to say you are
breathing, but are you breathing effectively? You
need to breathe deep down into your belly so that
your lungs expand outwards and downwards. This
is something that most of us need to relearn and it’s
easy to teach yourself. Lie down, put your hands on
your belly, and slowly draw an in breath down
towards your hands. Watch your belly rise and
fall. Slowly let all the air out again, emptying
your lungs. Once you master this, you can do
this any time you feel stressed, anywhere. It
instantly calms your body and mind.
2. Meditation
These days, there are many fantastic
apps out there to introduce you to
mediation. If you’ve tried meditation
and it didn’t work for you, I’m going to
give you a big hint that helps many
people to try again and keep trying.
Meditation is not about emptying
your mind. In the beginning it’s
perfectly normal to have thoughts
popping in and whizzing through.
Don’t give up. Eventually you will learn
to acknowledge those thoughts and
then just move them out of the way
until you can deal with them later.
And it’s so worth being able to do this
as meditation has been scientifically
proven to have significant
improvement on stress levels and
many other health conditions.
There’s many different types of
meditation and mindfulness, you
just need to find the one that
connects with you. If you’re not sure
where to start, I suggest something
like Smiling Mind.
3. Yoga
In the beginning, I highly
recommend attending a good yoga
class to learn correct technique. The
most important thing to understand,
is that yoga is a mental pursuit, not a
physical one. A toned body is a happy
bi-product of the mental workout.
Make sure you find an instructor
that understands this. Once you’ve
learned the poses, you can then find
10 minutes to practice yoga daily in the
comfort of your home.
5. Get outside
Go connect with nature. Go for a walk around the
block, in the park, down the street, wherever is close
and convenient for you. No power walking. Just a nice
slow amble, noticing the beauty in the nature around
you. Simply step out your back door and stand with
your bare feet on the grass and have a few deep
breaths. It is incredibly rejuvenating and relaxing,
especially when the weather has you longing to be
outside. If you haven’t seen outside for days, this is a
must!
So, how do I do this?
Put yourself first. No more, “I don’t have time for
that”. Make your health and wellbeing a priority. Stop
using excuses to justify your choices. It’s a classic
defence mechanism to avoid change. You can change
if the motivation is high enough or the pain (physical
or emotional) is severe enough. But change requires
effort – much like running a business. It’s not always
easy, but it is achievable. Starting with just 10
minutes a day.
You don’t need to go on holiday to start to de-stress.
Put that 10 minutes in your calendar right now. It
can be before the kids get up in the morning, or
just before you go to bed at night. It can be before
you sit down for lunch, or when you’re sitting in the
car waiting for after school activities to finish. Most
people manage to find more than 10 minutes a
day to jump on their phone and catch-up on their
social media feed. How about, for a week, you put
your phone on silent, and focus on you – not on
what everyone around you is doing. You might be
pleasantly surprised at how good it makes you feel.
Alice Bullivant - KinesiAlice Holistic
Kinesiology - 0425 268 167
hello@ kinesialice.com.au
www.kinesialice.com.au
kinesialice - kinesialice