Holistic Healing: 9 Reliable Stress Reducers!

As part of our holistic healing journey, or in other words, the healing of our mind, body and spirit, it’s important to recognize how we manifest stress.  

When we are able to identify when we are feeling extraordinarily edgy and how exactly that stress shows in our body, then having some stress reducers in our toolbox will definitely help.

In this blog I want to give you some ammo to take with you into the next week of life.  I want to help you to arm yourself with some extra tools in your toolkit to take your stress level "10" moments down to stress level "1" or "2".

Below are 9 reliable stress reducers that actually work to take your holistic healing to the next level.  

And if you want a clearer understanding of what holistic healing even means, then here's a great article to make sense of it all.

#1 Turn off the News

Constant inundation of bad news can definitely create more stress.  

Without even realizing it, we can get hooked into a story, and then sucked into the outcome.  The outcome that we are anticipating becomes our new narrative, or our story.  And when the power of the story is strong enough, it will guide our entire existence.

Do we really want a story about an asteroid hitting the planet floating around in our head?  It’s either going to hit or it isn’t.  Is it very likely that the trajectory of an asteroid will be affected by worrying about it?

#2 Drop Your Shoulders 

Have you ever taken notice of the position of your shoulders?  When we are stressed, they tend to rise up toward our ears.  It’s a perfectly natural reaction to stress.

Keeping your shoulders in a raised position shortens the muscles in the neck.  

When the muscles in the neck (Scalenes) become shortened, this will compress nerves in the neck and will create what is called referred pain.  

The referred pain can travel into the trapezius muscles, and often down either of the arms and many other places in the body that one would not expect.

#3 Hug Someone

Try not to wait for January 21^st, national hugging day, to get your deserved stress relief.

During this pandemic, one of the true tragedies of ‘watching the news,’ was being told to not hug your family members.  PLEASE. 

If anyone thinks a politician is going to dictate my hugging schedule.  Ummm, NO. 

Oxytocin in very often referred to as the ‘love hormone.’  So, get to hugging!

#4 Meditate

What you need is a special willingness to meditate.  

Start with 5 minutes a day. You can build up to more time in meditation later, if you find that it works for you.  But If you try to do a 30-minute session right from the get-go, it is very likely you will quit. 

It is easy to get frustrated trying not to think of anything for 30 minutes.  It took me a year of meditation, before I was able to go five whole minutes without thought.  It’s not as easy as it seems.

#5 Laugh

Okay, this is my favorite topic.

Anytime I am feeling stressed, I KNOW that I will feel better immediately if I can find a way to laugh.  Sometimes that requires effort.  What if we are not in the mood?  Obviously, we are not in the mood if we are stressed right?

Sometimes we have to take 10 minutes and throw on Netflix and search for a stand-up-comedian. 

I happen to have dropped Netflix recently, (no offense to Netflix!) 

I just wanted cleaner programming and went with Pureflix.  So, if I am stressed, I’ll try Sinbad, Jeff Allen, Louie Anderson or Chonda Pierce.

But, believe me, I have used Netflix many times for the alleviation of stress. You may only need ten minutes to reset your entire mood.  Try it.  

#6 Nature Walk

Here is a mini challenge for you. Call a friend.

Seems a little curious to mention it right? I’m going somewhere with this.

Call your friend and forego the conversation about the jerk in the car in front of you today. 

Avoid the conversation about the boring work party you have to attend.

Or the conversation about how no one at home will replace the water bottle on the cooling unit.

Skip all of that.

Call with one objective. 

“Hi Jake.  How's it goin'?  Wanna go on a nature walk?”

Congrats!  You just created a TWO-FER.  ONE:  being in nature reduces stress, and TWO:  being with a friend in nature reduces stress even more.

#7 Pressure Points

I had not used this technique, until two days ago.  When I tried this technique, WOW! 

Clearly, as a Kinesiologist I should have been using this technique for years.  Alas, in my tool box of tricks, this was not in it.   

Here’s a video on the healing effects of pressure point stress therapy.  Yay for holistic healing!  The mind-body connection is everything.

#8 Research a new healing remedy

An immediate stress reducer is putting hope into action.

When we take our health into our own hands, instead of handing it over to the gods of pharmaceuticals, we are indeed offering our mind, body and spirit, the gift of hope.

Are you struggling with anything at the moment?  Physically?  All you have to do is go to the internet and ask a question. 

Here's three examples:

# 9 Reframe your Story

Indulge me with a reframe.  Leave it in the comments.

If you are wondering how to reframe your story, it’s simply a matter of getting the thought police on patrol and being willing to correct yourself relentlessly until you develop the discipline to not speak the words that will create unwanted experiences for yourself.

Seem a little overwhelming? 

Conclusion

In essence, when we are looking at healing the whole, or holistic healing, we have to look at ways to destress, to save our sanity and ultimately our physical well being. 

I hope you'll utilize these 9 stress reducers to take your happiness and peace to the next level.

Happy healing friends.