Sight:
-Close your eyes and block out any excess stimulation.  Take slow, deep breaths until you feel your muscles relax.  You may want to use a sleep mask to block out the light.  When you are in complete darkness, it signals the body to produce melatonin, which helps you to get a good night’s rest.

-Try a gazing meditation.  Focus on a flower, or a beautiful painting.  Really look at it, and think of nothing else.  Take in the color, and texture and really appreciate the beauty of it.

-Blue is a cooling and relaxing color.  Surround yourself with blue light, sit in a blue room, or stare up at the blue sky.

Sound:
-Many times we are inundated with too much sound.  It is like clutter to our ears.  Take a break from all this.  Turn off the radio while you drive.  Spend time in silence.  Use earplugs if you need to.

-Music therapy can be very healing.  You can put on some soft music and drift off to sleep.  Or you can put on some upbeat music and dance around the kitchen!  Either way, give in to the sounds and let your body really feel the music.

-Sounds of nature, like water, birds, wind through the trees, is very soothing.  Spend sometime outdoors and open up your ears to the experience.

Taste:
-Peppermint is cooling and will help you chill out quickly!  Keep some peppermint candies at hand when you need to sit through a boring meeting.  It will keep you alert, and prevent you from getting restless.

-Coconut is milk is helpful when you want to chill out.  Try making a smoothie with coconut milk, banana, fresh fruit and ice.

-Herb teas are wonderful when chilled.  You want to avoid caffeine when you’re looking to de-stress, so herb tea is a great alternative.  Try mint, chamomile, or raspberry.

Smell:
-Bring a travel candle with you whenever you travel.  It will help to freshen up the air of a musty hotel room.  Choose a scent like lavender that is known for it’s relaxing properties.

-An easy way to quickly add fragrance throughout the home is to boil some water right on the stove with cinnamon sticks in it.  Add any other herbs you like, cloves, allspice, and you’ll have a very welcoming, relaxing scent wafting all over the place in no time!

-Other ways to use aromatherapy in your home or office: incense, light rings with essential oils in them attached to light bulbs, keeping a crock pot filled with water and herbs plugged in.

Touch:
-Water misted on your face and body is a quick and easy way to chill out.  Especially when traveling, when you get dehydrated so easily, it’s a great idea to keep a spray bottle of water handy.

-A massage is a wonderful way to relax.  You can do a self-massage, called abhyanga, in the morning before your shower and start the day feeling great!

-The skin is the largest organ on your body.  Never underestimate the power of a touch, and a hug!

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Sight:
-Close your eyes and block out any excess stimulation.  Take slow, deep breaths until you feel your muscles relax.  You may want to use a sleep mask to block out the light.  When you are in complete darkness, it signals the body to produce melatonin, which helps you to get a good night’s rest.

-Try a gazing meditation.  Focus on a flower, or a beautiful painting.  Really look at it, and think of nothing else.  Take in the color, and texture and really appreciate the beauty of it.

-Blue is a cooling and relaxing color.  Surround yourself with blue light, sit in a blue room, or stare up at the blue sky.

Sound:
-Many times we are inundated with too much sound.  It is like clutter to our ears.  Take a break from all this.  Turn off the radio while you drive.  Spend time in silence.  Use earplugs if you need to.

-Music therapy can be very healing.  You can put on some soft music and drift off to sleep.  Or you can put on some upbeat music and dance around the kitchen!  Either way, give in to the sounds and let your body really feel the music.

-Sounds of nature, like water, birds, wind through the trees, is very soothing.  Spend sometime outdoors and open up your ears to the experience.

Taste:
-Peppermint is cooling and will help you chill out quickly!  Keep some peppermint candies at hand when you need to sit through a boring meeting.  It will keep you alert, and prevent you from getting restless.

-Coconut is milk is helpful when you want to chill out.  Try making a smoothie with coconut milk, banana, fresh fruit and ice.

-Herb teas are wonderful when chilled.  You want to avoid caffeine when you’re looking to de-stress, so herb tea is a great alternative.  Try mint, chamomile, or raspberry.

Smell:
-Bring a travel candle with you whenever you travel.  It will help to freshen up the air of a musty hotel room.  Choose a scent like lavender that is known for it’s relaxing properties.

-An easy way to quickly add fragrance throughout the home is to boil some water right on the stove with cinnamon sticks in it.  Add any other herbs you like, cloves, allspice, and you’ll have a very welcoming, relaxing scent wafting all over the place in no time!

-Other ways to use aromatherapy in your home or office: incense, light rings with essential oils in them attached to light bulbs, keeping a crock pot filled with water and herbs plugged in.

Touch:
-Water misted on your face and body is a quick and easy way to chill out.  Especially when traveling, when you get dehydrated so easily, it’s a great idea to keep a spray bottle of water handy.

-A massage is a wonderful way to relax.  You can do a self-massage, called abhyanga, in the morning before your shower and start the day feeling great!

-The skin is the largest organ on your body.  Never underestimate the power of a touch, and a hug!

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1 - Some women feel, subconsciously, that their self worth is tied to what they accomplish.  They feel that time is valuable and that they must use it to do lots of things that prove that they are useful, and needed.  So the house is spotless and the laundry is done and the garden is immaculate and the fridge is stocked and their work is up to date.  Meanwhile they're exhausted!  We need to remember that we are human BEINGS, not human DOINGS - and that we are worthy just because we ARE, not because of anything we do.

2- Some women have a fear of boredom.  It's almost like workaholism - it's do-aholism.  They don't know what they would do with free time if they had it.  It's uncomfortable to just sit in the quiet and do nothing - they fear that time will go slow and they'll be bored, which is a terrible thing!  The truth is, they don't know how to just be with themselves.  But with some practice, we find that we are good company, and that we can be relaxed without being bored.

Time in silence, spent in nature, by ourselves, downtime, any "pause" from our hectic lifestyle is exactly what we need to regroup, to recharge our batteries, to keep ourselves healthy and happy.

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2.  Rub the circumference of each ear with your hands.  Right hand rubbing the right ear and left hand rubbing the left ear.  According to Ayurveda, India's 5,000 year old Science of Life, there are marma points (like acupuncture points) in the ears that correspond to the various parts of the body.  Rubbing the ears in this way is like giving yourself a little mini massage!

3.  Stop and smell the flowers.  Keep some lavender essential oil in your desk or purse.  When you feel stressed, bring it out.  Close your eyes and breathe in the fragrance.  Count to 5.  Then exhale through your mouth to the count of 5.  According to Aromatherapy, lavender is very calming.  and when we close our eyes it isolates the sense of smell so that we feel it more intensely.

4.  Present moment awareness.  Most of the time, when we're stressed it is because we are living in either the future or the past.  Bring yourself into present moment awareness by focusing on the now.  Use your senses, which connect us to our environment.  Hug yourself, to be more "in your body" instead of in your mind where the stress is.  Look at something beautiful, a flower, a bird, the sky, and just be with that for a moment.  Take a sip of sweet tea, and really taste it, and enjoy it.  Be grateful in that moment, and stress just washes away.  Gratitude and stress cannot be present at the same time!

5.  Sit in your desk chair, or kitchen table chair - left foot on the floor, put your right ankle on your left knee, and learn forward with a stretch.  Hold it as far as you can go, then bend forward a little more.  This opens up your hips, and again balances that tensed up muscle feeling.  Do each side equally.

]]> -Give yourself an Abyhanga, a sesame oil self massage.  Warm up some sesame oil to body temperature, rub it in your palms, massage with long strokes on the limbs and round strokes on the joints.  Leave on the skin for 15-20 minutes and follow with a warm shower.  Tones the muscles, helps the skin release toxins, moisturizes, and soothes the nervous system.
-Unplug the phone, light a scented candle, close your eyes and spend 20 minutes in silence.  More refreshing than a power nap!
-Lay down on the floor, and prop your legs up flat against the wall. Extend your arms out wide.  Breathe. Cross your legs so it feels like you're sitting on the wall. Tap your feet and "dance" on the wall.  Play around with this inversion pose, it's great for circulation.
-Call a friend, someone you haven't talked with in a long time.  Have an actual conversation and catch up on your lives.
-Write a thank you note to yourself!  
-Change out all your lightbulbs to the new energy saving "green" kind.

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