Just Breathe – Tips To Lower Your Stress Fast

Stress is something that will deteriorate your work environment and health quickly if you don’t control it. Stress in short bursts can be a good thing because it forces us to get things done in a certain time line. It’s also very useful if you are running away from a pack of wild dogs. Chronic stress over the course of months and even years is very detrimental to your health and well being. You don’t learn as well and you will eventually have worse performance than if you are not stressed.

I recently asked a friend of mine, Curtis Simpson, who teaches meditation if he had any techniques that I can give to my readers to help with managing stress. He told me how to do heart-focused breathing. Here is what he says about heart-focused breathing:

Heart-Focused Breathing is a simple yet powerful technique that is being taught by
doctors, nurses, clinics, and meditation instructors throughout the world.

This practice will reduce stressful feelings, and increase feelings of well-being,
balance, and energy.

It can be done anywhere and anytime. This can be done sitting down with eyes closed or standing up eyes open.

· Shift your attention to your heart (heart-focus)

· Think of your breath flowing in and out of your heart (heart-breathing)

· Breathe more deeply, rhythmically and slowly but don’t strain

· In addition, as you breathe through your heart area try to recall a positive feeling- a time when you felt good inside-and try to re-experience it. This could be a feeling of appreciation or care for someone or something (heart-feeling). Try to maintain this feeling while heart-breathing.

So remember the basics: heart-focus and heart-breathing, and heart-feeling.

Doing this practice will help you get into a more positive and effective emotional
state. Then, your thoughts will become more balanced. Relaxation will occur and mental focus will improve.

In a Lean Business System you have to make sure that stress is not prolonged because of the effect it has on the creativity and productivity of your employees. Implementing small free items like heart focused breathing are a great way to start.

For more information about Curtis or heart-focused breathing see his page on Heart-Coherence.

For more information on Lean Business Systems call 615.852.LEAN[5326] and don’t forget to visit www.TheLeanWayConsulting.com; and Follow on Twitter and Facebook.