Fw: A simple and highly effective tip for combating stress

[Guest guest]

Dr. Ben Kim's Natural Health NewsletterOctober 20, 2009

If you regularly feel stressed and want to transcend ananxiety-ridden existence, I encourage you to give the following tip a try:

Every hour, or even more frequently if possible, close youreyes and breath deeply for a full minute.

Do your best to focus on nothing but your breathing. Feelyour abdomen go in and out as air enters and leaves thedeepest corners of your lungs.

This simple exercise has a powerful effect on your autonomicnervous system.

More specifically, it calms your sympathetic nervous system -the entity that goes into overdrive when you're stressed -and it increases output by your parasympathetic nervous system, which promotes relaxation and emotional balance.

Don't neglect to keep your eyes closed as you focus on deepbreathing. Removing stimuli from the countless neurons thatmake up your visual pathway is critical to restoring balancewithin your autonomic nervous system.

This tip is simple and free, which means that most peopleare likely to underestimate the effect that it can have ontheir health over the short and long term.

If necessary, post highly visible reminders around your work and/or living spaces that will help make this breathing andrelaxation exercise an unbreakable habit in your daily routine.

If you've been highly stressed for many years or you've experienced a highly stressful event that has left you feelingburned out, you might combine this breathing exercise with intake of an Ayurvedic herb called ashwagandha.

You can learn more about the form of ashwagandha that I usefor my clients here:

http://drbenkim.com/adrenal-refresh.htm

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Another habit that can help you stay emotionally balanced andhelp repair stress-induced damage to your nervous and endocrinesystems is to ensure a good night's sleep.

The hormones that are most important to keeping your cells healthy - growth hormone, erythropoietin, and testosterone - are mainly produced while you are sleeping deeply. An erratic sleepschedule is virtually guaranteed to prevent you from being at your emotional, mental, and physical best.

For more information on how much sleep you really need to be healthy, view:

http://drbenkim.com/how-much-sleep-need.html

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That's all for today. I hope that you'll consider incorporatingthe habit of breathing deeply with your eyes closed into your routine as soon as possible - I strongly believe that this simplehabit can add years of good health to our lives.

As Aristotle once told his students, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

Wishing you and your loved ones a safe and healthy week,

Ben Kim