You may be exhausted and you don't know what to do. But now, it's time to learn
the best ways to relax and relieve stress. It's going to change your life.
I think you and I are so similar because we face the similar things in life. You
know and one of them that we face is stress. And it naturally can happen just
by raising a family, being married, taking care of work, taking care of a home,
taking care of laundry and all those single socks. It's like, "Where did all
these socks go?" Right? All these things add up to be some level of stress. And
what is stress? Well, a simple definition of stress is when you want
something to move or change and you don't have the power to do it but you
keep pushing for it to happen. You start to feel like you are pushing yourself
beyond the limits that you really have. And so, we all are trying to make a
better life, right? We're all facing some level of stress. But how do you take a
break from stress? How do you...? If you're going to stress, can you relax? That's the
question. Because I can stress me when I exercise. You know, I can stress myself.
Even going fishing can be stressful. But how do I relax myself? Do I have that
ability? Because we can all push ourselves. But can you relax who you are?
Well, if you can't and you wish you could, here we go. Let's check this out. My best
way to for me to be able to relax is... While I was taught by one of my mentors.
If you can manage your breathing, you can manage your energy. Meaning, the feeling
you have inside of you. And I thought, "Wow, that's kind of different. What do you
mean manage my breathing?" They said, "Well, can you do a breathing technique?"
"What do you mean breathing technique?" Well. what you're going to do is you're
going to breathe in with the count of seven and then you're going to hold your
breath for just a couple seconds. And then you're going to breathe out with the
count of seven. Meaning, your whole breathing out is stretched out over a
count of seven. And then you hold for just a couple of seconds. And
then you do the breathing in and stretch it out over a count of seven. So, it's
seven in. I believe it's actually seven that you hold and then seven back out. So
it's called sevens. And I might just totally mess that out. But that's what I
remember from the experience. And my mentor is super smart and I believe him
because they would walk me through this breathing exercise of just easy calm
managing my breath experiences. And Wow, it calmed me down. Really slowed down my
thinking. So, my mind could be calm, my body could be calmed. But I got to say
first. The first seven that came in, I thought I was going to die. Like, "Wait, I got
to breathe faster than this." because when you're stressed you breathe faster. You
kind of act like something's chasing you, it's going to eat you. You bored or some
monsters coming after you. So, to slow down your breathing. It's
sometimes like, "Whoa! Hold on a second. Can I stay alive and breathe this way?" But
there are lots of breathing techniques. Look it up. Look it up on the internet.
There's lots of breathing techniques that I think you can may be able to find
one that fits you. But learn how to manage your breathing. That's something
you can do anywhere at any time to just help relax yourself. So, you're not wound
up and tight all the time. You'll burn out if you're always stressed, you'll
burn out. And then you will emotionally or mentally crash and then that's that
takes a while to get through that and then you have to come back from that. Ah,
you don't need burnout. You just need a ways to relax. So breathing is a great
way to do that. Number 2 is stillness. You know, I have a practice that I do
that if I'm in my office and things get a little tense and stressed, I got to take
a moment. I put all my finger tips together.
I literally just set there and I closed my eyes and I just hold still.
I do breathe. I breathe normal.But'll just hold my fingertip to... Fingertip to
fingertip and I will just practice holding still for a good 5 minutes.
7 minutes and just a hole physically just calm
myself. Because I know when I get stressed, I get jittery and I start you
know moving quickly and kind of clumsy in that moment. Kind of cranky and clumsy.
So, stillness really is something I can practice you know, anywhere. At home or if
I'm at work or wherever I'm doing whatever I'm doing. There's something
else I could do at any time anywhere. Unless I'm driving then that would be a
little bit dangerous. But breathing and stillness. 2 great things to practice of
just being in that place. Now, sunrise and sunset are magical. There's something
about the the light at that time of the day. It just has a different hue to it. Or
I don't know how to explain it. But it just... It's different than the noonday Sun
and the nighttime moon. But sunrise and sunset, I find is actually very
recharging. We were just recently up at a lake up in the Wind River mountains. And
it was suggested to me that I need to go watch a few sunsets in a row. And I
remember this I just haven't done it for a while. And so, I got up early, took the
camp chair, plopped it down in the middle of the field to welcome the sunrise for
the day. Wow, that sunrise came over the mountains. And that light that was
shining through the air, you know, that came to me at that moment,
I don't know, but man, I busted out crying. Like I just started to cry. And the
sunrise happened for just a few moments, you know, about 10 minutes by the time it
started. And then it got up above the mountains. But it was quite the emotional
experience. And I felt extremely calm in that morning's sunrise.
Now, what was equal and very, very powerful? Was to watch the sunset that
night. You know, I've glanced at the sunrise and glanced at the sunset and
I've sat out there and I've done this before. But I have forgot about it
recently. So to take that moment and literally watch the sunrise and sunset.
It really calmed me down. Really. Not just calm my outside. But it really calmed me
on the inside that I actually felt and believed I could tackle any problem that
ever came my way. Built my confidence. Just watching the sunrise in the sunset.
Try it out. Go watch the sunrise tomorrow morning or watch the sunset today. And
see what that does for you. But now, you're not reading a book, you're not on
the phone, you're not doing activities at the time. You literally or intentionally
sitting still and absorbing that whole sunset or sunrise experience. Now number
4 here is sometimes I can be a tree hugger. I know it's kind of a funny, funny
thing. But a tree hugger to me is somebody who loves the forest, loves the
brushery... Is that even a word, brushery? The bushes and trees and and all the
little trees and the big trees. And even the ones that are in my yard or at the
park. The trees to me really are very calming. If I get wound up in my head,
this is actually my favorite thing to do. I still literally just go outside and
sit and literally be with the tree. Lean you know, sit on the ground and lean up
against a tree or go take a chair and sit next to a tree and just be with it. I
look at the branches, I look at the leaves, I look at the pine needles, I look
at the trunk, look how it goes into the ground. And just very carefully, just
looking at the tree slowly and all of its details actually just calms me down. It
just calms me down. And I've had friends in clients of mine that I've suggested.
You might want to go have a tree moment. And they've tried it too. And similar
reports come back of how calming it was. But again, you're not on your cell phone,
you didn't take stuff with you, you're not you don't have your earbuds in.
You're not distracted. You literally are connecting to nature.
And I really think that with the trees and their branches that go up in the sky
and their roots that go in the ground, it's like it connects all of life. The
unseen things we don't understand and the beauty and majesty of the sky. And
then here's the trunk in the middle. It's like it represents who we are. We're like
the middle of two things. The majesty of life and the unknowns of life.
The things we can't see. But it all connects and a tree brings it all
together. Ah, try this one out. Go go sit with the
tree. Take a moment, look at the tree, admire all of its qualities and notice
how much it represents you in your life right now. It's incredible how whatever
tree you go to choose to be with or sit with and you look at, you'll notice that
it's got a lot of resemblance to what you're going through in your life. It's
nice to know you're not alone. You know, the trees letting you know you're not
alone. You're doing just fine. Just hang in there. The last one is water. The sound
of water, the image of water. You know, I love being next to the sound of a
nice small little stream or a brook. You know and I love that sound. The movement
of water. I also enjoy just the majesty of a lake or the intensity of an ocean,
right? Oh... Or rain, when rain happens. Just to hear it and see it and feel it on
your skin when it falls to the sky. It's just beautiful. You know or sitting in
a tub or go sit in the hot tub or take a shower. But to literally take a moment
and put all of your attention on all of your focus on water. And notice what it
does for you. Notice what it's doing. You know, what is your relationship with
water and what does it mean to you? You know to me it means you know, cleanliness,
it means you know, something that can transport a person, it
can be a form of life and vitality. You know it's important to all of nature and all
over the world. It's got a high level of value on the planet. And for me to
connect or be with water, just helps me feel simple and valuable. Because you
have a lot of connections with water. You do. That's why you clicked on this
video to watch this video. And of all the videos that we have and all these
incredible videos we have in this YouTube channel, this one caught your
attention. And I know you're just like me. Water will help you relax. You know, even
at nighttime. I have this little sound that I push a little recording of sound
of of water. These slow calm waves. Not the big crashing waves. But the slow calm
waves coming up on shore. Oh, just relaxes me. I think that's why people go to the
ocean. They go to the lake, they go to the river. Because of the relaxing feeling it
gives them. It's quite nurturing, quite healing. But each one of these helped us.
They helped us really begin to learn how to relax. Because we really don't
practice these things very often. We don't really put this into our daily
schedule. Usually we're not trying to lower our stress level until something's
about ready to go wrong or it did go wrong. But maybe today would be a good
day for you to actually plan for these moments. How often can you go before you
burn out? Well, find out where burn outs at. Scoot up a couple days or a week and
then plan to do one of those activities. So, that you can relax and not hit the
burnout zone. There's no reason to burn out. Now, for more of what I'm sharing
with you here, you can check out our website or subscribe to our YouTube
channel. Or you know what? Send this video to your friends. I bet you know a friend
that stresses out and burns out. They need to hear about this. That we really
need to do something about the ability to relax. It's
not natural to really relax. You really need to look at this and test this and
try this. So we can find what's going to work best for us. Well, here are 3 key
elements. We do what we do because your life matters.