The idea of chakras comes from Hindu alternative medicine. Chakras are similar to pressure points and the process of stimulating these chakras mirrors that of qi gong and pranic healing. These practices are all a part of the biofield therapies family.

There are 3 chakras that are important in cultivating joy and contentment. Activating these points will rid stress and anxiety, in addition to many other ailments.

Many simple activities are capable of stimulating chakras.

Begin your own chakra balancing and energizing with this guide.

What are Chakras?

According to Hindu tradition, chakras are points on the body through which energy flows. Each chakra corresponds to a specific location on the body and deals with certain energies. Keeping these energy centers clear is key in remaining in control of stress and staying healthy.

There are 7 chakras in total: Root, Sacral, Solar Plexus, Heart, Throat, Third Eye, & Crown.

Photo credit: nessman / Foter.com / CC BY

Stress Outlets will be focusing on the 3 chakras that deal with stress, anxiety, and, most importantly, happiness.

The Root Chakra

The Root Chakra is located at the base of the spine (aka. tail bone). It influences the nervous system, blood, spine, legs and bones.

The clues to knowing this chakra is unbalanced are:

• Pessimism
• Distrustfulness
• Low-self esteem
• Disconnectedness
• Materialistic
• Inflexibility in life

The Solar Plexus Chakra

The third chakra, the solar plexus, is found above the navel. It influences hormones and emotions, digestive organs, and skin.

The clues to knowing this chakra is unbalanced are:

• Anxiety
• Lack of confidence
• Over-emotionalness/Unemotional
• Fear
• Nervousness
• Detached

The Third Eye Chakra

The sixth chakra, the third eye chakra, is located between the eyebrows. It influences the brain.

The clues to knowing this chakra is unbalanced are:

• Overthinking
• Fantasizing
• Close-mindedness
• Confusion
• Hallucinations
• Non-intuitiveness

How to Balance the Chakras

Yoga

-Root Chakra

To stimulate more stable and secure feelings, try exercises like yoga and focus on poses such as chair, frog, and tree pose. Any exercise that flexes the muscles in the tail bone help.

-Solar Plexus Chakra

Try poses such as plank pose (aka. push up position) or downward-facing dog. Any exercise that strengthens the core muscles work here.

Photo credit: yogamama.co.uk / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

-Third Eye Chakra

Try poses such as reverse shoulder stretches and downward dog.

Photo credit: Sarahsvati #1 / Foter.com / CC BY-ND

Reflexology

-Root Chakra

Other physical exercises to stimulate the root chakra include reflexology.

“Starting with your right foot, gently apply pressure with your thumb to your heel bone – the point that stimulates your base chakra.

Now, massage it by rotating your thumb in a clockwise direction. If you experience any pain – a sign of blocked energy – apply pressure until the pain fades away. If the pain continues for more than five minutes, stop massaging. Repeat on the left foot” (Heal stress, migraines and muscular tension with a chakra workout).

-Solar Plexus Chakra

“Place your finger or thumb on the chakra point found halfway between your heelbone and big toe of your right foot. Applying a medium amount of pressure, slowly rotate your finger on this point – moving in a clockwise direction for around 30 seconds.

Still applying pressure visualise a ball of light flowing through your fingers into the chakra point for one to two minutes. Now repeat on the left foot” (Heal stress, migraines and muscular tension with a chakra workout).

-Third Eye Chakra

Apply pressure to the forehead, specifically the area between the brows. Any rubbing, pinching, or massaging helps to open the third eye chakra.

Meditation

-Root Chakra

Meditation also works. Try visualizing a red orb hovering over your tail bone. While inhaling, imagine this red orb illuminating your toes, your feet, your ankles, your legs, and then finally, your tail bone.

Once this red light has encompassed the bottom half of your body, see that light being absorbed by your root chakra. With every exhale, your root chakra grows brighter and brighter until all the red light is contained within it.

-Solar Plexus Chakra

Try a similar meditation as mentioned for the root chakra. Instead of a red orb, imagine a golden yellow light moving throughout your whole body and then, eventually, being drawn back into the navel area.

-Third Eye Chakra

For the third eye chakra, follow the same meditation routine as the for the root and solar plexus chakras, but visualize a dark blue orb over your forehead instead.

Whenever you feel anxious or stressed, remember you have the power of chakras at your disposal.

Work Cited

What is Acupressure?

Acupressure focuses on the pressure points of the body. Each pressure point targets a specific location on your body. Manipulating these points can alleviate various physical ailments and calm mental pressure from stress and anxiety.

Pressure Points to Use

1) Third Eye

This point is found between the eyebrows. It relieves both anxiety and stress.

2) Heavenly Pillar

This point can be found on the base of the skull. It helps reduce stress.

3) Sea of Tranquility

This point is at the bottom of the breastbone. It helps anxiety.

4) Shoulder Well

This point is on the top of the shoulders and near the neck. It relieves anxiety.

Health Benefits of Massage

According to the 2009 study “The immediate effects of traditional Thai massage on heart rate variability and stress-related parameters in patients with back pain associated with myofascial trigger points,” massage promotes relaxation and reduces stress and anxiety.

Their findings suggest that massage reduces the overall stress response by increasing parasympathetic activity while decreasing sympathetic activity meaning massage neutralizes the fight-or-flight response.

Other information suggests that massage increases the “happy hormones” serotonin and dopamine, thus calming the body and decreasing anxiety.

The preliminary results of a 2008 study called “Pilot study evaluating the effect of massage therapy on stress, anxiety and aggression in a young adult psychiatric inpatient unit” showed that a single 20 minute massage therapy session is effective in reducing anxiety and stress levels.

“There was a significant reduction in self-reported anxiety, rest heart rate, and cortisol levels.”

More Acupressure Techniques

For more information, read Stress Outlets’ article on “Tapping,” another Chinese acupressure method.

For more pressure points to heal the body, check out the infographic below.

Stress Outlets does not own any of the photos above. All rights go to the respective owners.

Works Cited

Garner, Belinda, et al. “Pilot Study Evaluating The Effect Of Massage Therapy On Stress, Anxiety And Aggression In A Young Adult Psychiatric Inpatient Unit.” Australian & New Zealand Journal Of Psychiatry 42.5 (2008): 414-422.Consumer Health Complete – EBSCOhost. Web. 4 Jan. 2014.

Here’s a hint: that power lies within you. You just have to gain control over it.

Stress Outlets interviews Qi Gong Master Garren Luong

Garren illuminates the forgotten ability we have to turn things around for the better. It’s so easy, you’ll wonder why you haven’t been utilizing it all this time.

He tells his results from his TAMMS Project too. That’s “Traditional Ancient Method to Modern Science,” something he has been working on and researching for 15 years. No wonder he’s an authority on qi gong and other healing techniques.

Garren also shares his personal story of how qi gong, an ancient and once secret practice, has been passed down in his family for generations.

In this interview, Garren talks about:

• how to transform bad days
• the 2 commonly overlooked parts of qi gong training
• the 3 things you must have in balance in order for qi gong to relieve stress
• his family’s ancient book of secrets
• how qi gong can also be used to treat asthma, allergies, and arthritis and improve the conditions up to 80%

Check out his website to learn more.

1) Foods that are non-caffeinated

Avoid soda and coffee. Opt for water and caffeine free tea instead.

Caffeine agitates the stress response resulting in a feeling of lethargy as opposed to boosting energy like most caffeinated foods advertise.

As a result, routine caffeine intake can promote anxiety and depression as well as many diseases.

Water cleanses the body of toxins. Caffeine free tea served hot has the same effect with the added benefit of a calming sensation. A cup of warm tea can also ward off loneliness as the warmth mimics that of human body heat.

2) Foods that contain magnesium

Go for dark leafy greens, nuts and seeds, beans and lentils, fruits, whole grains, and fish.

Magnesium aids in relaxing the body and calming anxiety.

Chronic stress depletes your magnesium levels and low magnesium levels increase the stress response.

End the negative cycle by indulging in  foods rich with magnesium.

3) Foods that contain vitamin B5 & B8

Vitamin B5, otherwise known as pantothenic acid, can be found in vegetables such as sweet potatoes and fruits like avocado.

Pantothenic acid helps reduce stress by controlling adrenaline in the body and by reducing fatigue.

Inositol, another B vitamin, is often used for the treatment of anxiety. This vitamin can be found in food such as beans and cantaloupe.

4) Foods that contain vitamin C

Vitamin C can be found in a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables.

This vitamin regulates the stress hormone cortisol thereby controlling and lessening the stress response.

5) Foods rich in GABA

GABA, also known as Gamma-aminobutyric acid, can be found in beverages such as oolong tea, fermented foods like yogurt, and fortified foods such as brown rice.

This amino acid regulates anxiety.

6) Foods rich in tryptophan

Look for foods like red meats, dairy products, and legumes.

Tryptophan lessens irritability and can elevate your mood.

7) Foods that contain complex carbohydrates

Carbohydrates can be found in foods such as grains, nuts, fruits, and vegetables.

These carbs produce the hormone serotonin, which controls mood swings. A balanced diet of complex carbohydrates can ward off depression and mood disorders.

Work Cited

Lovallo, WR, et al. “Cortisol Responses To Mental Stress, Exercise, And Meals Following Caffeine Intake In Men And Women.” Pharmacology Biochemistry And Behavior 83.3 (n.d.): 441-447. Science Citation Index. Web. 24 Dec. 2013.

“All the sounds of the Earth are like music.”

-Oscar Hammerstein

Binaural beat therapy stems from the idea that all sounds are like music.

Don’t take for granted the rain trickling down the roof or the sound of crickets singing through the night. These natural sounds and countless others can be used to relieve stress.

Binaural beats takes this idea one step further by adding specific patterns of beats underneath sounds of nature in order to reach an even more relaxed state of mind.

Take your relaxation to another level with binaural beats.

Benefits of Binaural Beats

According to the 2001 study “Use of Binaural Beat Tapes for Treatment of Anxiety: A Pilot Study of Tape Preference and Outcomes,” binaural beat therapy may reduce anxiety.

The study also concluded that “repeated exposure to these tapes may result in an improvement in the ability to relax” (Scouarnec 2001).

The results suggested that binaural beats may be more effective on those under 40 years old.

The study mainly used delta and theta beats, which are two of the five frequency ranges.

The 5 Brain Waves

Each brain wave induces certain emotions and states of mind. For stress relief, theta waves work best.

                    Stress Outlets does not own this photo. All rights go to the respective owner.

Start Listening to Binaural Beats

You can start listening to these samples of binaural beats from Binaural Frequencies. The experience is better with headphones.

Rainy Day

Ocean Waves

Work Cited

That’s the idea behind this Chinese acupressure technique except that you’re “tapping” away your stress and anxiety.

 What is “Tapping?”

Tapping is part of a stress relief method called Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). EFT is also sometimes called “tapping” itself.

Tapping is when you stimulate the 9 meridian points of the body.

The full technique includes 3 simple steps:

1) Tune into a problem in your life

2) Create a positive affirmation around the problem such as “Even though I have [insert problem], I deeply and completely love and accept myself.” (Example: Even though I have this fear of public speaking, I deeply and completely accept myself.”

3) Recite this positive affirmation or vent about the problem while activating the 9 meridian points of the body.

For a visual demonstration, watch the video below.

Health Benefits of EFT

Dr. Mark Hyman highly recommends this practice.

“EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) is one of a group of therapies collectively referred to as ‘energy psychology’ or EP” (Church 1).

The technique is a mixture of ancient Chinese acupressure and modern psychology.

According to a study done by Depression Research & Treatment, EFT has been found to:

• reduce depressive symptoms
• reduce emotional triggering
• reduce anxiety
• reduce cortisol/stress levels
• increase relaxation

EFT has become the preferred method of treatment for psychological conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

Tap Your Problems Away

Try EFT and experience the health benefits for yourself.

If you try it and decide that you love it, you may want to consider signing up for the Tapping World Summit, which will be held February 24, 2014 at 8 pm.

It is an online event where you can practice EFT with others from all around the word and learn more about the technique.

For more information, go to the Tapping World Summit website.

 Work Cited

Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It’s a way of entering into the quiet that’s already there – buried under the 50,000 thoughts the average person thinks every day.

– Deepak Chopra

Meditation allows one to clear their mind and forget all their worries even if only for a minute. When one returns from their quiet time, their worries don’t seem so insurmountable and things are in better perspective.

Meditation stops the nonsensical mental chatter and tunes in to an inner voice of wisdom.

Listen to your inner voice and see the true nature of things.

Meditate your way to happiness.

Benefits of Meditation

According to the 2010 study “The benefits of meditation vis-à-vis emotional intelligence, perceived stress and negative mental health,”  meditation improves emotional intelligence (EI) and reduces perceived stress and negative mental health.

“The findings confirm that meditation not only generates a direct effect for balancing its practitioners’ psychological state of health, but also has an indirect effect in terms of enhancing their psychological well-being by storing up high EI and maintaining a positive attitude towards perceived stress” (Chu 2010).

Simply put, meditation can lead to higher levels of happiness by creating a more positive perspective.

Change your Life; Meditate

Get started now with Youtube Channels like Omvana and Meditation Relax Club

Here’s one of Stress Outlet’s favorites:

Work Cited

Yoga is a way to freedom. By its constant practice, we can free ourselves from fear, anguish and loneliness.
-Indra Devi

How Yoga Transforms Lives

As a college student, I have to deal with a variety of stressors including tests, homework, and studying. Sometimes, it all seems to pile up and there’s nothing I can do but deal with it.

To aid in the battle against stress, yoga is my knight in shining armor. It prepares me for the day and keeps me calm and focused through my long to-do list, but don’t take it from me.

Listen to an expert on the subject. Stress Outlets had the honor of interviewing Valerie Kulaif,  a Centergy instructor at Gold’s Gym.

Centergy is a mix of yoga and pilates set to music.

 “This type of exercise is a place of solace and freedom for me.  There is no sense of competition and yet you are free to explore, through slower movement and deep breathing, areas where you can progress whether it be in flexibility, strength, mobility, and relaxation.”

-Valerie Kulaif

 

Valerie’s Story

Valerie Kulaif has been practicing mind/body exercise since 2005. (and yes, that’s her in the awesome picture above!)

She loved the refreshed feeling she experienced after leaving a yoga class. She wanted to share her experience with “everyone including males, females, young, old and of all fitness levels” to enjoy and relate to without getting tangled in the spiritual side of yoga that some might find offensive.

She found the perfect medium to do so through Gold’s Gym Group Centergy class where she teaches the mind/body exercise twice a week.

Valerie has reaped the health benefits of Centergy first-hand.

Benefits of Mind & Body Exercise

In addition,

“Centergy, as it relates to stress, teaches you how to breathe with movement to relieve muscle tension and create more length in the muscles.

“This initiates the parasympathetic nervous system to respond which is responsible for digestion, normalizing blood pressure, boosting immunity, and tells your body to relax.

“It also reduces cortisol levels, [which] measure stress.  It reduces physical stress using exercises that lengthen with no impact, which makes the muscles more effective, and reduces emotional and mental stress by using breathing techniques in a relaxed environment,” 

Valerie explained to Stress Outlets.

Bring Yoga into Your Life

Valerie encourages everyone to give Centergy or any mind/body exercise like yoga a try.

 “Centergy is designed for everyone. It’s just a matter of knowing what you can handle and just simply doing what you can at your own pace.”

You can begin implementing yoga in your life by heading to a local gym and attending a class or jumping in head-first and trying it solo with MyUniversalJoy, also nicknamed Joy Yoga.

 Namaste.

My Common Thinking Distortion

Personally, I seem to use labeling and mislabeling often. Now that I can recognize the thoughts that fall into this category, I can properly assess why I am feeling the way I am and re-frame the irrational thoughts that lead me to the negative feeling.

For example, if you have the thought, “I am not good enough.” You can refute the thought by realizing all the things you are good at doing and giving yourself credit for those things. You can re-frame the thought by recognizing the thing that made you feel inferior.

For instance, if you struggle with math, instead of saying, “I am not good at math,” say “Math is difficult for me.”

Going one step beyond making the thought more positive, add an action that will help to change the way you feel about the stressor.

Continuing with the example, try “Math is difficult for me, but I can seek help from teachers, classmates, and tutors in order to better understand it.”

Formula for Positive Thinking

The formula for this restructuring being:

1. Recognize the negative thought associated with the upsetting situation
2. Refer to Stress Outlet’s previous post to see which thinking distortions fueled the thought
3. Write down how the negative thoughts made you feel
4. Turn the negative thought around and make it positive
5. Add a definite action you can take to change the situation.
6. Write down the new feelings experienced after re-framing the thought

Stay tuned for a worksheet using this information!

Remember this process when you notice that you’re thinking yourself into a bad mood.

Last week, Stress Outlets talked about common thinking distortions.

This week, Stress Outlets has a list of re-framing methods to specifically combat negative thinking.

Techniques to Change Your Thoughts

1. Identify Distortions in automatic thoughts.

2. Examine the Evidence – Instead of assuming that your negative thought is true, examine the actual evidence for it.  For example, is it true that I never do anything right?  What are some things I do well?  What are the things I’m not so good at?

3. The Double-Standard Method – ask yourself, “Would I say this to a close friend who was very much like me and had a similar problem?”

4. The Experimental Technique – when you have a negative thought, ask yourself if there is a way you could test it to find out if it is really true.

5. Thinking in Shades of Gray – especially useful for all-or-nothing thinking.  Remind yourself that things are usually somewhere between 0 and 100 percent.  Instead of insisting you are perfect and never screw up or condemning yourself as a rotten person and giving up, acknowledge a mistake, forgive yourself, and move forward with your life.

6. The Survey Method – ask yourself “Would other people agree that this thought is valid?”  Or ask people in your life questions to find out if your thoughts and attitudes are realistic.

7. Define terms – especially useful if you are putting yourself down as “a failure” or “a loser” or “a fool.”  What is a fool?

8. The Semantic Method – good for “should statements.”  Substitute a phrase like “it would be nice” or “it would be preferable” in place of “I should.”  This may help you look at the thoughts without feeling scolded, and will decrease your rebellious response.

9. Re-attribution – good for personalization.  Ask yourself what other factors may have contributed to this problem.  Focus on solving the problem instead of using up all your energy blaming yourself and feeling guilty.

10. Cost-Benefit analysis.  Ask yourself, “How will it help me to believe this negative thought and how will it hurt me?”  You can also use this on negative behavior patterns like overeating and lying around in bed when you are depressed or on self-defeating beliefs like “I must always try to be perfect.”

Try practicing these techniques and see if your irrational thoughts decrease as this process becomes second nature to you.

Happy Re-framing!

Work Cited

 Burns, David D., MD. (1989). The Feeling Good Handbook. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc.

Stress has two sides: thoughts and the behavior those thoughts spur.

Making a conscious effort to do the right thing is as important as knowing what you are doing wrong in relation to stress and negative energy.

To change your actions, you first must change your thoughts.

What Not To Do (10 Thinking Distortions):

1. All-or-nothing thinking: You see things in black and white categories. If your performance falls short of perfect, you see yourself as a total failure.

2. Overgeneralization: You see a single negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat.

3. Mental filter: You pick out a single negative detail and dwell on it exclusively so that your vision of all reality becomes darkened, like the drop of ink that discolors the entire beaker of water.

4. Disqualifying the positive: You reject positive experiences by insisting they “don’t count” for some reason or other. You maintain a negative belief that is contradicted by your everyday experiences.

5. Jumping to conclusions: You make a negative interpretation even though there are no definite facts that convincingly support your conclusion.

• Mind reading: You arbitrarily conclude that someone is reacting negatively to you and don’t bother to check it out.

• The Fortune Teller Error: You anticipate that things will turn out badly and feel convinced that your prediction is an already-established fact.

6. Magnification (catastrophizing) or minimization: You exaggerate the importance of things (such as your goof-up or someone else’s achievement), or you inappropriately shrink things until they appear tiny (your own desirable qualities or someone else’s limitations).

7. Emotional reasoning: You assume that your negative emotions necessarily reflect the way things really are: “I feel it, so it must be true.”

8. Should statements: You try to motivate yourself with shoulds and shouldn’ts, as if you have to be punished before you can be expected to do anything. “Musts” and “oughts” are also offenders. The emotional consequence is guilt. When you direct should statements toward others, you feel anger, frustration, and resentment.

9. Labeling and mislabeling: This is an extreme form of overgeneralization. Instead of describing your error, you attach a negative label to yourself: “I’m a loser.” When someone else’s behavior rubs you the wrong way, you attach a negative label to him, “He’s a jerk.” Mislabeling involves describing an event with language that is highly colored and emotionally loaded.

10. Personalization: You see yourself as the cause of some problem, or take on someone’s opinion as having more value than it does.

Now, you can start noticing your patterns of thoughts to see which thinking distortions you practice the most.

Once you realize which distortions are prevalent in your mind, you can begin to understand why you think a certain way and begin to eradicate them and replace them with positivity.

Go through this list carefully and see which of these negative thought patterns you tend to have.

Next week, I’ll tell you which one I have to watch out for and an easy formula you can use to instantly change your thought pattern and diffuse stress.

For more tips, check out 21 Ways to Cope with Stress

Work Cited

 Burns, David D., MD. (1989). The Feeling Good Handbook. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc.