Search Results for: blog stressed and tense try breathing

Is Your Husband Having On-the-Job Stress?

My husband is a pretty calm guy. But when things aren’t going well at work, he gets tense, and it carries through into all the other aspects of his life. He doesn’t seem able to leave work at work. He wakes up thinking about it, falls asleep thinking about it, and it pervades all we do. Over the course of our marriage, I’ve asked him why this is. Perhaps this answer will vary from man to man, but here are the reasons he gave me: 1. Men are hierarchical. There’s someone higher up on the totem pole, there’s someone lower … Continue reading →

Pets and Music Revisited

I have mentioned before that my dogs seem to like music. Moose (my German shepherd mix) seems to like it more than Lally (my boxer mix) does. When we lived in New Jersey, Moose would sit by the fence and listen to the teens down the street rehearse in the garage. He’d sit there for hours just listening! Music isn’t just for entertainment, either. It can be healing for people — and for pets. A harpist from Oregon conducted a study on the power of harp music on animals in 2000. Alianna Boone played her harp for dogs hospitalized at … Continue reading →

Stressed and Tense? Try Breathing

If I pay attention, I can feel my body tightening and contracting when I’m getting stressed at my desk. I also stop breathing. Alright, so I don’t stop breathing all together, but when I get stressed, I do take shallower and shallower breaths and constrict my chest, clench my jaw, etc. I know there is not anything terribly original about the way my body reacts to this work-related stress, but I have to remind myself to breath and stretch when I start to feel under the gun. All this tightening and constriction actually cuts off some of the flow of … Continue reading →

4 Steps to Relaxation for the Overly Anxious

Anxiety plays a troubling trick on us. We’re often so anxious about all the things we need to do that the only means of relieving the anxiety seems to be getting everything done. But as I discuss in-depth in my book Overcoming Anxiety Worry and Fear, everything is never done. From cleaning the house to finishing up a day’s work tasks, there will be more of the same tomorrow, the next day, and the day after that. The only means of realizing relief is to make the time throughout the day, every day, to relax amidst the tasks that will … Continue reading →