Of all the Stress Relief Techniques at our disposal there is no question that gratitude is one of the most powerful.  Gratitude is something that can be practiced by anyone at anytime, anywhere.  This simple, yet powerful, shift in focus instantaneously increases the vibration of the energy you are expressing to the world.  Gratitude can, and does, opens you up and prepares you to receive more and more things you can practice being grateful for.

You don’t have anything to be grateful for, you say?  Is that true? Is that really true? How about using the following script the next time you find yourself looking at only those things that are getting you down….

Thank you, I am so grateful for this roof over my head, what a wonderful way to keep the rain out of my home.  Thank you for this switch that turns the light on  that allows me to see.  Thank you for the refrigerator that keeps my food cold, and the running water available to me anytime I desire.

Thank you, I am so grateful for the hot shower I took this morning, and the clean towel and clothes I had available to me when I was done.  I am very grateful for the use of the flush toilet, I realize it wasn’t to long ago that not even the Queen of England had it as easy as I.

Oh. thank you so much for this air I breath and the water I have to drink.  I am so grateful for the skin, muscles and bones that hold my organs in place.  Isn’t it wonderful that I have this body to move around in.  Thank you for this access to the internet and my ability to connect with new friends and teachers from all over the world.  Never before has so much been available to so many.  I am so grateful to be here, now, able to enjoy it all, able to learn and grow from it all.  The power is phenomenal, I can feel it.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Feel free to read the above whenever you find yourself focusing on what it is you don’t have.  It will, every time, help you shift the power and bring you closer to the smile that lights up the world.  Then, to really rev up the power continue to shower your thoughts with those personal things that you are, in this moment, grateful for.  Like me…

I am so grateful to the internet for letting me reach all of you like this.  I am grateful for all the teachers I have worked with who have so lovingly shared their experiences in a way that has enhanced my ability to serve.  I am grateful for that power which I call God which I feel flowing through me, and which I now direct toward you, in love and service.  I am grateful for ever client, every friend, who has ever benefited from the work that I do. I am so grateful for the knowing that even in this moment, now, the energetic power that I call God is working through me, for you, in a way that serves your highest and best good.  Thank you.

I am so excited, and grateful, for this medium, that will enable me to reach so many more than I have before.  We are all unique beings in a loving energetic field, and we all have within us a spark of genius that is capable of increasing the love, joy, and peace experienced by all those who share this planet.  I am so grateful for whatever part I may play in releasing your “spark of genius”.

Why don’t you take a moment right now and send a comment letting me know what you are grateful for.  Not only will that one simple act increase your vibration, but it will also increase the vibrations of everyone who reads your comment with an open heart.  One of the many wonderful side benefits of Gratitude is that it is so easily shared.

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About the Author

Cyndi Krupp has spent the last ten years in study, meditation, contemplation and prayer and the more she learns the more she realizes she hasn’t yet begun to scratch the surface. Through her work putting together the weekly Evolution Ezine she intends to bring to the world community as many different approaches to Living Our Highest Best Life that she can.

There are Many Ways up the Mountain

Cyndi appreciates any and all comments about the Ezine – what’s been appreciated – and how you feel  it can be made more effective.  She is also always looking for content ideas and articles – Have Something you want to Share?  Just fill in the following form and click the Send Button

And, As Always, She is Sending Much Joy to You and Gives Thanks that We  All Get To Share This Magnificent Journey Together…

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Loss of zest, life purpose or  identity stresses the human spirit.

How you define who you are, and the meaning and purpose of life is core to the health of your spirit. You experience spiritual stress when these definitions are challenged or unclear. The human spirit asks, “Who am I”, “What is life about” and “What is my purpose”?

These questions peak at times of significant life change or loss as in the identity challenges of adolescence and mid-life or loss of a child, spouse, job or body part.

Attaching identity and purpose to variables outside your control makes you vulnerable to spiritual stress.

Here are four tips to de-stress your spirit.

Tip # 1 ~ Connect with Self
Look deep into your eyes in a mirror. Contemplate. Who is looking? Realize the same awareness inside of you today has been there from the beginning of your life. Your body, emotions and thoughts change yet abiding through the changes is an unchanging, You. This invulnerable core is a foundation for inner strength and support.

Why it works ~
When you are not dependent on outer conditions to define yourself, you feel free. While the outer world is constantly changing and undependable. Your inner being is solid, grounded in reality and invulnerable to attack by others. Viktor Frankl describes this beautifully in “Man’s Search for Meaning”.

Tip # 2 ~ Connect with the moment
Feel the water on your hands as you wash them. Notice the specific way you wash them, the slipperiness of the soap, the temperature of the water. Feel your feet on the ground, notice the sights, sounds and smells around you.

Feeling your experience in the moment is a practice in being present that helps you connect with life in a deep and meaningful way. Set an intention at the beginning of your day to stop and be present more often.  You will find this practice reduces stress by increasing awareness and meaning.

Why it works ~
Your mind can only attend to one thing at a time.  When your mind is focused on the details of the moment, it cannot ruminate about the past or worry about the future, which are stressful.

Connecting to the present moment centers, relaxes and enlivens your life experience.  The insight, knowledge and experience of this moment is available to you. You have a sense of control within your self, which reduces stress.

Tip # 3 ~ Connect with your purpose
How do you know what is important to you? You feel it in your body.

Notice the small voice or sense of knowing inside when something is attracting you.Your body alerts you to what is dangerous or attractive long before your mind can explain why. Pay attention to those cues. This is your intuition.

Your deepest values and purpose are not in your head, but in your heart. What does your heart respond to; what touches you?

Purpose is the force that energizes. It inspires you to get up in the morning. What excites your passion for life?

Why it works ~
When your inner promptings guide you, you cannot make a mistake. These are signs that lead to your truest desires and lasting happiness. Joseph Campbell, the great mythologist says, “Follow your bliss”. When you follow your true path or calling, you are invigorated rather than stressed.

Tip # 4 ~ Connect with nature
You are part of a larger cosmos. You are not isolated as the boundaries of your body suggest. Whether you look at life from a religious, spiritual or scientific perspective, what you think and feel affects the environment and the environment affects you.

Spending time in nature reconnects you to your natural rhythms. It is easy to lose your center when your attention is constantly captured by other people, television, computer, shopping, and so on.  Taking time every day to be quiet in a
natural setting, reflecting, journaling, or just being present re-connects you to your truth.

Take a moment to smell a flower, watch the river flow by, or appreciate a tree when you take a break or before going home at the end of the workday.

Why it works~
Earth vibrates at a certain frequency. Spending time in nature synchronizes our vibrations to the natural vibrations that support us.

Closed up in hermetically sealed buildings with florescent lighting and re-circulating air all day can cause a loss of balance and connection with your self and your natural rhythms.

Pulling it together
Spiritual stress results from the loss of connection to your true self, values, purpose and nature. Taking time every day to re-connect with these aspects of your life reduces stress and supports happiness, security and connection.

© 2009 Aila Accad

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Aila Accad, RN, MSN, Your Stress-Busters Coach is an award-winning speaker, best-selling author and spiritual coach who inspires and supports people to free their lives from stress and reclaim inner power. Quick tips to de-stress fast with no extra time or money” is available now with $1200 in free self-growth downloadable gifts at www.stressbustersbook.com

Sign up for De-Stress Tips & News at www.ailaspeaks.com and receive the “Ten Instant Stress Busters” e-book.

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Tough times can bring you to your knees. They can also raise you to new heights.

You can be stressed to the max on a bad day, yet, as long as life seems manageable, you don’t usually look for new strategies to get through it. The tendency is to pull yourself up by the bootstraps, grit your teeth and keep on going. During prolonged or sudden tough times, though, normal defense mechanisms are not enough to keep you from feeling vulnerable and overwhelmed.

It’s when events feel overwhelmingly beyond your control, that you either find new ways to cope or are pulled down by the undertow. Your usual defenses are inadequate to protect from overwhelming long-term stress. Stress can build gradually beyond tolerance level, or a surprising turn of events like those recently reported in the news can create the kind of vulnerability that demands openness to change.

The soft inner core of your being feels exposed. This exposure opens a crack in the old armor through which an opportunity for renewed life can shine.

Here are six tips that can help you thrive in tough times.

Nourish Yourself – Let go of the bootstraps for a few moments, acknowledge your stress and be kind to yourself. What nourishes you — inspirational reading, music, a cup of tea …? Are there people or places, a favorite chair or spot in nature that provide sustenance? Make nurturing yourself every day a priority.

Stay Present – Don’t project ahead. Take life one day, one moment at a time. Tough times are more manageable when you pay attention to making decisions and taking action on only the next step. Fearful preoccupation or worries about dire imagined future possibilities can leave you open to illness, accidents and errors in judgment that compound your problems. Scale down, simplify your activities and concentrate your precious energy supply on only what is critically important right now.

Accept Support – This can be difficult for people who prize self-sufficiency. Remember it is as virtuous to receive, as it is to give. Without the receiver, the giver has no way to share their abundant gifts. Don’t deprive your friends and family of the pleasure to help you when you need it. Shared burdens provide opportunities for enhanced closeness and appreciation for one another.

Trust Your Resilience - Chances are you have been through tough times before. What natural strengths did you rely upon in those situations? How did you make it through adolescence, childbirth, marriage, divorce, school, first job? What are your natural inner resources? Trust that you have what you need to see this tough time through.

Visualize Success – See yourself moving into a new chapter of life. How do you want to write that chapter? Creation begins in the imagination. If you can think it, you can create it. In order to be free to dream and hope for something new, you must let go of old visions, descriptions and limitations of the person you think you are or can become.

Forgive Past Errors – Forgive past hurts, and people who may have inflicted them, knowingly or unknowingly. This is not out of kindness to them, rather out of kindness to you. After all, you are the one carrying the burden of these hurts. Forgive yourself for mistakes or paths not taken. Release the burden of the past so you can travel lighter in the present.

In times of crisis and radical change, remember that living means growing. I have never seen anything in nature grow backward. So, as bad as you feel, and as much as you doubt it, if you are alive you are growing.

Growth is creative. So, take advantage of the opportunity in these tough times to re-create your life by nourishing yourself, staying present, accepting support, trusting your resilience, visioning possibilities and letting go of the past and perceived limitations.

Even though tough times are hard, they can also be the best times to explore ways to live more harmoniously with yourself and others.

© 2009 Aila Accad
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Aila Accad, RN, MSN ‘Your Stress-Busters Coach’ is an award-winning speaker, author and certified life coach. Learn more and contact her for speaking and coaching at: www.ailaspeaks.com . New book release “34 Instant Stress-Busters, Quick tips to de-stress fast with no extra time or money” coming July 21.

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After a while you may not even be sure what sets it off, but you know it when it strikes. Your heart beats madly, you begin to sweat, and for many they feel as if they are going to die.

When anxiety strikes it may feel as if you are out of control, but a few simple, stress relief exercises are all it will take to get you back in balance. In this article I present three such stress relief techniques  that you can use to take back control. Give them a try, and then post a comment letting us all know how successful they have worked for you.

Whatever the cause, when you are feeling that overwhelming anxiety it is because your body has sensed danger and has gone into “flight or fight” mode. When this happens the majority of the blood leaves your brain and travels to your extremities so that they have what it takes to fight or run. Additionally, all “non essential” body functions are shut down or put into emergency mode so that you have more energy for the fight.

Key to counteracting the anxiety is interrupting and reversing these activities. If  the blood doesn’t drain from your head then the anxious feeling can not be maintained. It really is that simple.

So, what do you do?

1) Run cool water over your pulse points , specifically on your wrists and/or the back of your neck. This slows things down and cools things off. The pounding in your heart slows and steadies, and the dizziness resulting from the mad rush clears.

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2) Place your thumbs on your temples and your fingers on the ridge about an inch above your eyes. This position will force the blood to come back to your head, clearing your thoughts and settling your moods. It is best to be sitting when holding this position, the return of oxygenated blood to your brain can sometimes leave you feeling a little dizzy for a few moments.

As described in Donna Eden’s Energy Medicine Kit, it is not necessary, when in this position, to try and stop the flow of anxious thoughts that accompanied the attack.  In fact, while holding this position and thinking those thoughts, you are neutralizing their ability to shift you into an anxious state.

3) Change the way you are holding your body. Stand, feet hip distance apart, knees relaxed.  Relax and lower your shoulders, reach your hands into the air, fingers spread. Look to the heavens and smile.

Don’t ask me why, but this position tells your body to release some serious feel good chemicals, that in turn get you feeling really good.

So, what are you waiting for? Raise those arms, smile, and watch as the world becomes a wonderful place to be.

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About the Author

Cyndi Krupp has spent the last ten years in study, meditation, contemplation and prayer and the more she learns the more she realizes she hasn’t yet begun to scratch the surface. Through her work putting together the weekly Evolution Ezine she intends to bring to the world community as many different approaches to Living Our Highest Best Life that she can.

There are Many Ways up the Mountain

Cyndi appreciates any and all comments about the Ezine – what’s been appreciated – and how you feel  it can be made more effective.  She is also always looking for content ideas and articles – Have Something you want to Share?  Just fill in the following form and click the Send Button

And, As Always, She is Sending Much Joy to You and Gives Thanks that We  All Get To Share This Magnificent Journey Together…

[contact-form]

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