Stress Tip

I collect stress tips as well as recipes, and here's a nifty one that I learned from the late Declan Twohig.

Find somewhere quiet and comfortable, close your eyes, and allow your breathing to slow and deepen for a couple of minutes.

Then make a picture in your mind of a hamster running around inside its wheel in its cage.

Just like your racing thoughts, hamster can’t stop running on the spot.

Watch him for awhile and note how all this frantic running gets him nowhere.

Notice that you can’t even see the rungs of his wheel because he is running so quickly.

Then visualize the wheel slowing to a walking pace.

Slower and slower he walks until the wheel stops turning round... you can see each rung in detail now.

The hamster is still inside his wheel, but he has turned over onto his back, closed his eyes, and is using the wheel as a hammock, rocking gently backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards.

Each time an outside thought intrudes into your head, bring your attention back to the gentle rocking of the wheel, backwards and forwards.

After a while, the rocking stops and the hamster is asleep...

And you are relaxed and stress-free!

Chet Day
Editor, The Health Circus
http://chetday.com