In these very stressful times, many of us are experiencing high levels of stress and anxiety. Here is a simple but very effective exercise you can do any time and anywhere. It helps immediately to reduce the level of adrenaline and other stress hormones in your system and brings an immediate sense of relief.

The moment you experience any of the stress symptoms and/or have an anxiety attack and/or experience anxiety symptoms such as:

A fear flash
An electric jolt through your body
A heat flash (feeling suddenly very hot)
Heart beating rapidly (heart palpitations)
Heart pounding forcefully
That trembly-shaky feeling
Feeling that the body goes weak
Weak, shaky legs
Chest pains (muscular tension)
Muscular tension
Tension in neck and shoulders
Feeling unsteady or unbalanced
Nausea
Stomach discomfort (churning stomach)
Feeling muzzy headed (feel foggy in your head)
Feeling a sense of unreality

Here’s what to do:

Stop up immediately and take a deep breath
Breathe out slowly
Let your whole body slacken, slump and sag
Let everything become loose (let all your muscles relax)
Focus on where you are
Take another deep breath
Breathe out slowly
And then go on with what you are doing regardless of how you are feeling instead of recoiling in fear and tensing up and resisting how you feel
Float forward with whatever you are doing
It’s okay to move forward slowly, but move forward
Slacken those reins, don’t try to stop yourself from feeling what you are feeling
Move forward slowly with as little muscular tension and resistance as possible
No need to rush, take it slow and easy
If necessary, take some more deep breaths and continue to slacken and loosen your muscles

Repeat this exercise as often as you need to during the course of your day. Relaxing and letting go are an actual physiological process which sooner or later calms the body because when you don’t resist the stress or anxiety symptoms (such as the fear flashes), the body stops secreting more adrenaline into the system and eventually calms down. But it is important to understand that this calming effect may not happen immediately if your body is really stressed and sensitized (hypervigilant), so you have to keep practicing this Right Reaction exercise for a while until you really feel the full results.

   So many of my clients tell me this exercise really helps. So please give it a try.