5 Strategies for Combatting Stress:

1. Get regular acupuncture treatments – Acupuncture has been shown to increase endorphins, the body’s feel-good hormones, and in one study acupuncture decreased the “perception of stress” for “3 months after the completion of treatment”.  Find a colleague with whom to regularly trade treatments!

2. Exercise regularly – walk around the block, do 20 jumping jacks.  A 10-minute yoga or tai chi routine can change your frame of mind and stretch out some kinks. It doesn’t have to be really vigorous, as the ad says “just do it”.

3. Feeling Overwhelmed? Organize – First write down all the steps you will need to complete the project and list each step. Put the list in order of most important or easiest or what comes first, whichever works for you.  Then check off each step and build in some rewards to keep yourself motivated. 

4. Take a pause that refreshes – learn a mindful breathing technique and take a few breaths at the end of a task or set a timer. Stress and anxiety speed up your breathing and makes it more shallow.  Combat this tendency by quick focus on deep relaxed breathing or longer meditative practice.

5. Find the music in your life – Build a break into your schedule.  Take yourself somewhere that you consider beautiful and relaxing regularly.  It’s not music if there are no pauses between the notes.  The “rests” make it music as much as the notes.