Cut Me In Half

By Richard Kuhns

Stress can literally be crippling which is why it’s important to know how to relieve stress. Here are just three actual case experiences demonstrating how emotional stress can affect one’s musculature in a crippling manner.

• On Joe’s way driving back from California to NJ he learned that the IRS would be auditing him. By the time he reached NJ his hands were clenched on the steering wheel and his leg muscles were so tight that he required crutches to walk.

• Jim was married to a very jealous woman who demanded a lot of attention and felt that he was a mama’s boy. Jim felt torn between his mother and his new wife and began experiencing eye twitches.

• Larry’s father was a demeaning controlling man. He came home one day to find that Larry hadn’t gotten around to straightening the garage as promised. He called Larry a “stupid shit,” and Larry’s stuttering which we had worked for two months to eliminate returned immediately.

• Tom’s wife left him after six years of marriage. There were many things he wanted to say to her in hopes of changing her mind, but she wouldn’t listen to him and he developed a lazy tongue resulting in speaking difficulties.

These examples demonstrate the power of stress over the body. In each case, an emotional stress led to excessive uncontrolled crippling muscle tension.

Stressors such as Joe’s that can stand in the way of getting things done such as the IRS create tension in the legs. Stressors that affect one’s self worth such as with Larry and Tom, create lazy tongue and or contribute to stuttering.

Stressors such as Jim’s where he felt torn between his mother and wife create muscle twitching.

It’s normal that with some of these reactions, such as with Joe’s crippling reaction, doctors run tests for MS as the symptoms are very painful and serious. Barring any disease, the solution is to take back control of one’s musculature.

This is done with a stress reliever exercise:
1. First by often dealing with self worth issues–learning how to build self worth in the midst of crisis.
2. Secondly to use specific stress management techniques for managing muscle tension.

a. Practice abdominal breath management techniques.

b. Selectively tense sequential groups of muscles daily keeping the rest of the body relaxed–takes approximately 20 minutes to do entire body as specified later in the stress coping exercise. Depending on severity of symptoms, this is done many times per day for the specific muscles affected.

c. Reminder each time that you tense/relax that you’d like to forget about it (it referring to the muscular reaction to stress)

The amazing thing was that Joe could walk absolutely normally for twenty minutes after he did the 20 minute tense/relax stress reliever exercise.

The coping with stress exercise goes like this.
a. Slowly tense a particular group of muscles keeping the rest of your body relaxed.
b. Cause it to become tense and hold that tension for a few seconds.
c. Slowly let the tension go as you breathe deeply.
d. Remind yourself that you prefer the relaxed feeling over the tense feeling.

A muscle sequence would go like this:
• Make a fist with your right hand.
• Then a fist with your left hand.
• Push you right hand into the arm of the chair to tense you forearm and upper arm.
• Repeat for the left arm.
• Lift your shoulders high to tense them leaving your arms just hanging loose.
• Push you head into the back of a chair to tense the neck.
• Scrunch your facial muscles.
• Tense your forehead.
• Arch your back.
• Take a Deep Breadth and hold it to tense your chest.
• Push out with your abdomen.
• Tense your buttocks.
• Tense your right and then left leg.
• Tense your right and then left foot.

This is a general relaxation that should take approximately twenty minutes. For specific muscle groups the muscles groups are refined to include only the affected muscles. For instance cds are available for handling general muscle tension, neck and shoulder tension, and for stuttering which focuses on muscles of the mouth and tongue on my website.

Usually a combination approach of dealing with the life crisis plus muscle relaxation exercises over the course of two to three months is all that’s required to gain a significant foot hold on the problem. And this is pretty good considering these problems often exits for years before starting this stress management technique.

Richard Kuhns B.S.Ch.E., NGH certified makes it easy to manage stress with muscle awareness training techniques. He is a is a prominent figure in the field of stress management and personal change. He is the author behind the best selling hypnosis self help cds and a specialist with panic attacks.  Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_Kuhns

By Mike Ryeman

It’s a common complaint, isn’t it? We feel stressed, so what do we do? We eat…and eat… Oh, the comfort! But then there’s the downside. The waistline expands. The thighs thicken. And the… Well, everything goes! Energy and health levels drop, so we feel more depressed. But you needn’t stay trapped in this vicious cycle. Just by making a few good choices, you can begin to feel much, much better. Here are a few ideas for a healthy diet for stress relief.

Blame Helps No-one!

Yes, you feel stressed and worried and anxious. So dieting is the last thing on your mind. It’s a fact that our bodies have not evolved in line with fast food distribution. We’re naturally attracted to high calorie foods because our ancestors never knew when the next sabre-toothed tiger was about to pounce. So they had to run… and run fast! But we don’t even walk as much as we used to. It’s so much easier to drive, isn’t it?

Another thing… Our ancestors used to work outside all day, hunting and tilling the fields. There was less stress and more exercise, and this ensured better food assimilation. They didn’t have to worry about taking a healthy diet for stress relief. So we need to retrain ourselves to adapt to foods that are more suited to our modern lifestyles and conditions. It just takes practice!

Two Essentials: More Water, More Fiber

Even if this is all you do, drink more water and consume more fiber! This will greatly aid any healthy diet for stress relief. Medical opinion is now aware that dehydration is the cause of many illnesses and conditions in Western society. Constipation and/or insufficient elimination affects the mood and emotions as well as the body. The answer is water and fiber! Fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains and pulses are excellent sources of fiber. And fruit juices are excellent sources of water for those who complain that water is ‘boring’. (But alcoholic drinks don’t count, as these tend to dehydrate the body.)

A Caffeine Fix

Many people seem unaware that caffeine also dehydrates the body – and that it is found not only in coffee, but in tea, many ’soft’ drinks and in chocolate. Cutting back here can go a long way in restoring your healthy diet for stress relief. But there’s no need to cut them out all at once. Simply make a determined effort to cut back gradually on your caffeine intake.

Results may not be noticed right away, but if you persevere you’ll soon feel – if not actually see – a difference. And this in itself will boost your confidence so that you can make other choices to bring about a more healthy diet for stress relief.

Interested in more highly-effective stress management tips? For the very best, visit Mike Ryeman’s website and make that big breakthrough today: http://www.stressreliefgold.com. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mike_Ryeman