Coping With Predictable Stress: Rehearse and Anchor

Rehearse and Anchor is a deceptively simple yet powerful exercise that will serve you well for the rest of your life. For those scheduled, potentially stressful events such as colonoscopies, wedding toasts (I don’t mean to equate those two), job interviews, ski jumps, birds-and-bees discussions with your kids (I don’t mean to equate those either) – VISUALIZE AND BREATHE.

Since we are dealing with a predictable scheduled situation here, you have plenty of time to rehearse in advance. The time just before you drift off to sleep is an especially powerful time to set new paths in the brain. Like any other practice, the more you rehearse, the better.

See yourself moving through the event easily IN GREAT DETAIL. As you visualize, keep your entire body completely relaxed and your breathing deep and slow and steady. Don’t be concerned if the details you imagine turn out to be slightly different when the time comes. You will have mapped the ideal response into your brain and that will serve you well. The steady breathing is essential because it carries the positive images into your neuromuscular memory.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Link: Hill and Valley Breathing

Hill and Valley Breathing

When we are tired, stressed, distracted, rushed or nervous, we tend to push our breathing high into the narrow and tight upper chest. Tension begins to build around the jaws, shoulders and throat and we end up investing far too much energy to get too little oxygen in return. Hill and Valley is an easy way to relax quickly and return your breathing to the wide elastic lower ribcage.

Lie on your back with your feet flat on the floor, knees bent at 90 degrees, hip-distance apart. Eyes open or closed. Lay your palms down just above your waist with the tips of your middle fingers touching halfway between your bellybutton and the bottom of your breastbone. Imagine that there is a small delicate balloon under your fingertips.

Your breathing will move in and out of that “balloon” (with absolutely no involvement at all in the ribcage). Yes, you can do this because you always breathe this way when you sleep.

1. Inhale slowly and quietly, allowing the “balloon” to fill. There is no need to overfill because you take in a surprising amount of air without much effort when you breathe into your low-resistance lower lungs.
2. Exhale, allowing your abdomen to sink down toward the floor and become slightly concave. Keep the breathing quiet and gentle. Continue for as long as you are comfortable and focused.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.