3-Minute Stress Management: Reduce Stress With This Short Activity

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Hello everyone!  Today, we're going to talk about how you can reduce your stress in around three minutes.

First, a quick reminder: stress is the aspect of anxiety that we feel in our body. Worry is all about thoughts, but stress is how our muscles get tense, or our breathing feels tight. Stress can make you ache or make your hands sweat, right? It’s that physiological response to perceived danger. 

When your brain senses a threat—whether it’s a tiger or an upcoming deadline—it triggers the fight-flight-freeze response. But we can train our mind and body to stay calm by doing small activities that help regulate the nervous system, especially if we do these frequently throughout the day.

For those who work in physical jobs, stress reduction might mean resting on the couch. But for people who spend a lot of time sitting at a computer, reducing stress will probably be most effective if we add movement. So, let’s try it.

Three-Minute Stress Reduction Exercise

First, rate your level of physical tension on a scale from 0 to 10. Now, take a big deep breath. (Inhale/Exhale) Bring your shoulders up and down while you keep breathing. (Inhale-Exhale) Gently tilt your head forward and back, side to side.

Now, start shaking one arm, letting it get nice and floppy. Okay, shake out the other arm. This is something you can do at your desk or wherever you are. Stand up, shake one leg, then the other, letting them jiggle around. It might feel a little silly, and that’s okay! Laugh at yourself if you want.

Now straighten up, inhale deeply and feel your feet on the ground, hold your head up, feel your legs pressing into the ground, and maybe let yourself smile just a little bit. (Heavy exhale) Now do a gentle forward fold, let your arms dangle, then stand up straight and rate your tension again from 0 to 10. Did your tension go down? If it did, this exercise worked! If not, let me know in the comments what you find helpful to reduce your stress. 

And that’s your three-minute exercise!