We all feel stressed sometimes and this is normal in fact some people actually find
stress motivating and even helpful now stress is affecting your life in this video i'm going to
teach you two on the spot stress relief techniques that anyone can do to help now before we begin
looking at these techniques it's important to remember that stress can affect each individual
differently it can affect you physically it can affect you mentally and it can even change the
way that we behave so if you're not quite sure how you feel and whether it is stress or not
i will of course leave loads more information in the description below for you the NHS also have a
really useful mood self-assessment tool which is an online thing i will link it in the description
below as well it's really really helpful so i'd highly recommend you do check it out now
let's learn the actual stress relief technique step by step so the first technique that i'd like
to discuss with you is what we call the emergency stop technique now this one is really helpful
when you need to cope with a really stressful situation and then you'll have time later to
relax further so step number one acknowledge the fact that you're feeling stressed so learn to
recognize those symptoms and feelings that you get that we discussed earlier step number two
say the word stop to yourself really sharply and if the situation permits it if there's nobody else
around say it out loud there's no problem with doing that and this is going to help you stop
fussing and getting so worked up step number three breathe in through your nose and hold it
for a couple of seconds maybe one to two seconds and then breathe out now generally speaking you
shouldn't really pause when you're breathing but for a really stressful situation it can actually
be quite helpful i wouldn't advise that you pause your breathing for more than two to three seconds
now as you breathe out breathe out through your mouth and then repeat the cycle again and whilst
you're doing this slowly relax your hands and your shoulders moving on to step number five
as you breathe in and out slowly start relaxing your forehead face and jaw and step number six
it's good to stay quiet for a few seconds and then slowly go back to what you were doing now if the
situation doesn't permit for that and you have to speak you can speak a little lower and also
a bit slower and then slowly build yourself back up again now what i really like about this
technique is that you can actually do it without anyone realizing so if you're surrounded by people
most of the time most of them won't really realize you're doing this now in spite of your feelings
you will feel that your tension does begin to ease and for a slightly more advanced version of
the emergency stop technique try breathing from your abdomen now this tends to be more calming
than shallow breathing from your upper rib area so to do this all you really need to
do is put your focus on your abdomen and feel it swell when you breathe in and feel it sink
when you breathe out once you've got the hang of it it is actually very easy to do and it will be
very useful too so step number one spread your fingers now my fingers and hands would be on my
thighs right now but you can't see in the shot so i'm just gonna hold it up here so you can see it
so spread them out like that spread your fingers spread your thumbs and hold it like that for a
few seconds then gently relax it back to its normal position nice and relaxed step number
two relax your jaw now it's a little tricky to do on camera because i'm talking at the moment
but what you need to do is drag your jaw downwards and feel it relax in your mouth in fact try it
right now whilst i just said it drag your jaw downwards and just feel it relax and see how good
that feels so by doing this you should feel that your throat relaxes and your tongue gets nice and
loose also another useful thing to do is your lips keep them very gently touching and this can help a
lot as well step number three pull your shoulders down towards your feet feel that distance growing
between your ear and your shoulder and then hold it there let it rest step number four you need to
push your head back whilst your shoulders are nice and loose and low as we mentioned in step three
try and keep your chin pointing towards your feet now the resulting position should be very
comfortable and step number five loosen your arms and shoulder muscles by shaking your sleeves down
you can actually do this without being noticed at all so now that you know what you're doing it's
useful to try and keep count and relaxing each body part so for example counting one
two and then your arms relax three four and then your neck and shoulders relax and keep counting
and relaxing each body part now please remember that these techniques that we've discussed
will need practice for you to get better at doing it the more you practice it the more useful you
will find it it's also important to remember when and where to get help for stress especially during
difficult times so what i am going to do is i'm going to leave loads more information about this
in the description below and i'd highly recommend that everyone reads it i really do hope that my
video helps you please do let us know how you get on by leaving a comment below and also if you
have any of your own tips if you have anything that works really well for you leave a comment
below too because i'd love to read it and i'm sure everyone watching this video would too
always remember you're awesome and i will see you next week i'm going to teach you two on the
spot stress press spress hey guys thanks for watching this week's video make sure
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