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A lot of times when I talk to people about stress they mention trying meditation but not quite being able to make it work for them. if you are a newbie to meditation and mindfulness, you might be wondering how sitting down in silence for 25 minutes is going to reduce your stress when your mind just keeps going and going and going. Fortunately, there's so much more to meditation and mindfulness and just sitting down in silence and there are actually simple ways to start incorporating other mindful practices into your life and begin to understand your stress in new ways.
This week I brought on mindfulness coach, Alex Stokes, to talk more about his exploration and work in Tai Chi and how some of the principles of Tai Chi can help you reduce your stress and feel less overwhelmed.
Alex first began exploring the practice of Tai Chi after a knee injury in 2014. While meditation had always been a temporary escape for him, Tai Chi allowed him is much more lasting level of peace as he began incorporating it into his life.
“Tai Chi was the perfect fit for me of finding a way to bring relaxation and ease into my physical reality, not only for my body but also in feeling comfortable living my life as a human”
What started as a form of physical therapy ended up becoming a new way of looking at the world and his relationship with the world. Now he incorporates these lessons into his coaching practice in order to help others living a more balanced life.
Alex has come onto the show to share some of his insights into stress and how a simple breathing technique can help you stress less.
Tip #1: Stress is linked to fear
A lot of things in life can be stressful - work, school, bills, marriage, divorce, you name it - and sometimes when we are facing stressor after stressor, it can seem impossible to let go of all that stress because there’s so much going on! But a great first step to reducing stress is to actually acknowledge what is really going on inside of us which, Alex shared, all boils down to fear.
“If you are thinking that life is not working out for you or that you're not safe where you are, you're gonna get a little bit stressed, and what happens is you have these adrenal glands that secrete stress hormones, that get [you] into a state of fear or fight or flight,”
According to Alex, awareness is key. In order for us to prevent our stress, we have to first be aware of this fear so we can recognize when it has been triggered and move forward.
“It's good to notice how you might shift into this fearful state, and the sooner you recognize that the sooner you can do something to get yourself out of it.”
Tip #2: Stress is a form of blocked energy
After we begin to draw awareness to the fear that creates stress within us, Alex’s next tip is to tune into how that stress manifests physically in our body. An important thing to realize about stress according to Alex is that it's actually a sign of energy not moving freely through your body.
“Energy being like the electrical signals in your nervous system or, you know, your blood and fluid flowing through your body”
When we enter a state of stress, we begin to experience tension and constriction inside of our bodies. We feel resistance or a sensation of tightness within us, and that often leads us to run away from our stress instead of working through it.
“We don't like feeling these sensations usually, and as a result, it's kind of like you're always keeping it at bay… and it accumulates over time and builds up. Most of us are living with a decent amount of accumulated stress in our bodies.”
As Kristin Neff, Ph.D mentions in her book on self-compassion, the more we resist the pain we experience, the greater our suffering becomes. That is why a crucial part of releasing that tension and reducing our stress is understanding and accepting our physical experience of stress.
Tip #3: Your breath can be a highly effective means of reducing stress
After understanding how stress is affecting the energy within us, the next step is to release it which is often the hard part for many of us. Luckily, Alex recommends a simple breathing meditation that will help reduce the stress building inside of us.
“Breathe comfortably. Allow your breath to flow into your belly, into your diaphragm. That will actually massage your adrenal glands, which will help reduce the stress and fear.”
By breathing into our bodies and recognizing our state of mind, we are able to build a greater acceptance of ourselves which is the key to a Stress Less life.
“The more you can recognize that you are in fact perfectly fine just as yourself, the happier you will genuinely be.”
If you are interested in learning more about your mindset and Tai-Chi, Alex is offering free consultations to improve and explore your mind. Schedule yours by clicking here.