Stressed Out? More Tips on Releasing Stress.

Do you ever feel like this kitten?  

Here are some tips to avoid and/or relieve those feelings:

• Maintain more peace by beginning and/or setting aside time each day for meditation-a quiet time for you. Begin with noticing your breathing.  Allow your mind to get into the natural rhythm of your body.
• Treat your mind and body with love and respect.
• Drink plenty of water.  Stay hydrated.
• Get adequate rest.  Sleep deprivation affects our mind and body.
• Exercise regularly.  
• Brain Gym movements.
• Engage socially.  Simply talking to people face to face can release hormones that reduce stress.
• Move. Physical activity plays a key role in stress management-especially activities that require moving both arms and both legs.  Focus on how it feels.  Focused movement helps get the nervous system back into balance.
• Get a massage. Body work helps to relieve stress held in the tissues of the body.
• Laugh-a good deep belly laugh can do wonders. Watch a funny movie or do things which result in laughing. Laughter results in chemical changes in your body.
• Listen to soothing music. Breathe deeply and allow yourself to relax.
• Limit internet and phone use.  They can increase tension.

Stress Overload-Effects and Signs and Symptoms

Stress is alive and doing well in our lives.  It seems to be all around us.  How does it affect our bodies and minds?

Stress is our body's way of responding to any kind of demand or threat.  When we feel threatened, our body automatically responds to prepare us for the situation.  Our heart beats faster, muscles tighten, blood pressure rises, breath quickens, and our senses become more keen.  Our body becomes stronger, stamina increases, reaction time increases, and focus in more intent.  These reactions are known as fright or flight and is our body's way of protecting itself.  When stress is working properly, it helps us stay focused, energetic, and alert.  In emergency situations, it can save our life.  It can also help us rise to challenges.  It helps us do what we need to better our performance. However, if it is beyond our comfort zone, stress stops being helpful and can start causing major damage to our mind and body.

Our body's autonomic nervous system sometimes does a poor job of distinguishing between daily stressors and life-threatening events.  If it repeatedly experiences fight or flight responses in our daily life, it can raise blood pressure, suppress the immune system, increase the risk of heart attack and stroke, speed up the aging process, and leave us vulnerable to a number of mental and emotional problems.  Some health problems that could result are:

• pain of any kind
• depression
• heart disease
• weight problems
• auto immune diseases
• digestive problems
• sleep problems
• skin conditions

Following are some signs and symptoms of stress overload:

Cognitive Symptoms                                               Emotional Symptoms

   memory problems                                                   moodiness

   poor judgement                                                      short temper or irritability

   constant worrying                                                   agitation and inability to relax

   seeing only negative                                                feeling overwhelmed

   anxious, racing thoughts                                          sense of loneliness and isolation

   inability to concentrate                                            depression or unhappiness

Physical Symptoms                                                Behavioral Symptoms

   aches and pains                                                      eating more or less

   nausea, dizziness                                                     sleeping too much or too little

   chest pain, rapid heartbeat                                       procrastinating or neglecting responsibilities

   diarrhea or constipation                                           nervous habits such as nail biting or pacing

   frequent colds                                                         isolating yourself from others

Remember the signs and symptoms of stress can also be caused by other psychological or medical problems, so if you are experiencing any warning signs of stress, it is important to see a doctor to help determine if they are stress related.

Tomorrow:  A Stress Quiz-How well to you handle stress in your life?

Stress!!!! What Role Does Play in your life?

Stress!!!!  We have all had out experiences with it.  It seems to be a common everyday malady.  To hear, "I'm really stressed out!" or "This is making me totally stressed." seems to be heard almost every day.  When we feel this way, we probably are worried or uncomfortable about something.  We may also experience a variety of symptoms such as feeling ill.  Stomach aches and headaches are well known symptoms.  Being "stressed out" occurs in people of all ages.

Often we think of stress as being a bad thing.  However, there is such a thing as good stress.  Good stress can help us get things done and/or done better.  Times when we feel good stress might be when we have a report or presentation to give, are going for an interview, are performing for others, etc.  Some may say, how can that be "good stress"?  In reality, it is up to us to determine.  This stress can urge us to prepare better and more thoroughly for the presentations, interviews, and performances.  As we do this, we gain more confidence.  When we are well prepared and have more confidence, we do better.  On the other hand, if we allow the stress to gain momentum and power, it becomes an influence for experiencing illness, immobilization, and poor performance.  It then can become an experience that is uncomfortable, debilitating, and embarrassing, rather than uplifting, exciting, and empowering.  The great news is: We are the one who chooses!  We are the ones in control!

Turning stress and tension into positive power is done in different ways by different people.  We are all unique, so different techniques may be more effective for some than others or different techniques may work better some times than others. Here are a few to begin with:

• Breathe your stress away!  Find a quite place, lie down or sit comfortably, close your eyes, place your hands over your ribs, take in a deep breath slowly through your nose so that your belly fills up like a balloon (this a deeper breath where your shoulders don't move), hold it while you count to 5 slowly.  Then let the air out slowly through you mouth.  Repeat this several times (at least 3-5)
• Exercise your tension away!  Walking, running, swimming, jumping rope, doing sit-ups, riding a bke, dancing, singing, etc. are excellent ways to burn off extra energy and let the stress out.  Hitting things is not the best thing to let stress out.  It can accelerate stress.
• Do and/or think of something different.  Take a break.  Watch a movie, take a walk, play a game, take a shower, get a drink of water, read a book, take a trip to the park, etc. just a few of the things you can do to give your mind and body a break.
• When you are presenting, preforming, taking a test, etc. work extra hard and practice more.  Begin early to learn and prepare for it.  When you are prepared and know it, you are more confident and have less stress.
• Talk to someone you trust and feel comfortable sharing your feelings.  Often talking with such a person helps relieve stress.  Hearing their point of view and objectivity can help to see things from a different and more powerful perspective.  

More information and ways to reduce stress and increase power and control in your life are coming this week.  Remember you are the one who chooses how it will be!

Increase in Focus (especially in Writing and Journal Work), Participation, and Looking Others in the Eye with Brain Gym

Educational Kinesiology Foundation

via  facebook

Yesterday at 12:25pm · 

I love this Brain Gym story from 2012!

Leah Dilley shares with her instructor, Sher Smith:

I've been doing pace with my child EVERY morning. We make a game of it and I literally do it with him for two minutes.... quick and dirty. I asked the teacher to let me know if she noticed any changes. The teacher sent me a note a week later saying she noticed changvues with his focus especially with writing and journal work. Yesterday she left me a voice message that she can't believe the changes and how "on" my child was - participating, focusing, and looking in people’s eyes. She’s absolutely blown away. Is that amazing or what!!!!

In my opinion, the key is consistency. I feel with my physiology background I “get” how it works. It’s like exercising muscle; you need to strengthen it. It has to be done on a regular basis and the relaxation is important. Going from fight and flight to rest and digest.

I created a seminar last year about this very thing. I'm sure you've heard many stories but you have no idea what kind of a mission I'm on now!!! I have to get my license...the sooner the better. Thank you for creating your school and including Brain Gym for us to learn. I've been writing about my child’s changes on Facebook and I’ve been flooded with emails. I almost can't sleep at night!!! These kids are going to be even more amazing once this becomes mainstream.

Experience: Up Close and Personal!

Lately I've had a number of things working in my mind. Yesterday they seemed to be adding up more. This morning after a short but good sleep, I still was feeling the affects. Being the persistent person that I am, I have pushed forward, rather than take my own advice to take a few minutes to do some Brain Gym.

Finally, at school this morning when I went to put my lunch in the frige in the faculty lunchroom. yet found myself in the workroom ready to put my lunch in my mail box, I immediately said. "It's time for Brain Gym!"

So I came back to my room, did some Cross Crawls, Hook-Ups, Lazy 8s, and Positive Points. Now it's easier to focus and to be in the present.

11 year-old Benefits from Brain Gym

One of the things that is rewarding to those of us who teach is to see or hear that children are internalizing what we are teaching them. Such was my pleasure when a friend and colleague shared that she had taught her son some of the Brain Gym activities I had taught her class and that he was finding success with them. Following are his words:

"I have greatly benefitted from Brain Gym. It has helped me study at school better. It helps me focus. It helped me when I was stressed in computer class. It even helps me relax if I can’tget to sleep. Brain Gym really helps me."

D.P. Boy Age 11

Brain Gym Activities® Give them a try?

Are you learning something new? Are you trying to focus and concentrate better? Do you seem to be a little "off" and have a struggle getting into it?  Since each of us has our own unique rhythm and timing for learning, we can become frustrated at times. Brain Gym Activities help us to do our best. 

Brain Gym® Works for Students, Especially Cross Crawls

Students who participated in Reading and Math Academy at Sunset View Elementary the last school year were encouraged to raise the level of their work by increasing their energy, excitement and enthusiasm to learn. Although our students were eager at the beginning of their sessions to work hard, we found that by the middle of the session students’ focus and concentration were fading. I asked, “What can we do to maintain the mental stamina that our students need to accomplish their work for a 30-minute session of reading or math?”

Brain Gym movements came to our rescue! Earlier during the year Sara Banister instructed the Academy tutors on the purpose of Brain Gym and encouraged us to use it in the tutoring lab. We were very pleased with the results after using Brain Gym. The Cross Crawls where students touch the opposite knee with the opposite elbow and alternate, making sure they cross their upper body, seemed to be the most effective brain gym movement that improved our students focus and encouraged positive student behavior. It also increased our students’ energy and enthusiasm for learning. Applying Brain Gym in the middle of a reading session took very little time, required no set-up, and was used whenever needed. How simple is that? Brain Gym is movement with purpose and it works! Teri Yamada