Take a deep breath!

 You know how, sometimes, you feel the whole world and its mother decides to bear down on your shoulders and you feel like there is this immense pressure put upon you squashing you down, squeezing the very essence of your being?

News flash, a lot of people feel like that a lot of the time. At the very least, most adults would have faced at least a day of intense stress in the past one month alone, and I'm being generous in this estimate. For most people, this is a daily event. For most people, they also deny it wholeheartedly.  Unfortunately, this stress can manifest in many ways. The least expected illnesses and diseases can be brought about by a simple process of pressuring the mind into thinking all is not well.

Just a few examples to get you onto speed about what I mean. Things like a simple recurring headache, nausea, acid reflux, cramping in the stomach and gut, feeling of weakness in the muscles, spasms of the muscles, backaches, low back pain, tingling numbness, feeling of currents shooting along the nerve, dry mouth, dry eyes, foggy mind, etc etc. The list is literally endless. The cumulative effect of all this over time leads to us losing our loved ones all too soon. Might be a little too direct and uncoated with sugar but sadly, true!

At this point, half of you reading this are already wondering about the last time you felt any of this and are silently nodding along or smiling with the realisation that I am right. The other half are already beginning to debunk this and getting ready to quit reading thinking this is just another one of the gyaan sessions that most life coaches, mediation experts, good health practitioners and sundry give. I would ask you to read on.

Whether you believe the above or not, there is a way to deal with it. You don't even have to believe your conditions are caused by stress to deal with them. Just try to do what I am putting forward and see if it works. If it does, I don't care what you call it, just continue doing it. Stay happy in the belief that you are one of those that doesn't take stress or don't get bothered by stress! Just do the things I'm suggesting anyway.

The next time you feel one of the above, here are a list of things you do (there is a caveat at the end so read till the bottom)

• Take a deep breath, hold it in, count to five and let it go as forcefully as you can. Do it only 5 times. 
• Wash your face with ice cold water (as cold as you can get), making sure it gets into your eyes and put a little at the back of your head just where the hairline ends!
• Step away from whatever you were doing just before you decided to do this (get away from the stimulus)
• Put on whatever music you like at a fairly large volume (preferably with headsets on). 2 songs only
• Watch a 3 min slip of any stand up comedian that you think is funny. If you are not into stand up, watch a 3-5 min cartoon clip (older the better)
• Get some chocolate, cheese, ice cream, sweet fruit or nutribar into you. A small piece only, we'll worry about the calories later.
• Find a family member you love and give them a big squeezy hug. Make sure they're not expecting it. Watch their face immediately after doing this
• Go to the window or get out into the fresh air. 120 seconds only. Come back in
• Sit yourself down and breathe again. Only 5 times. 
  
• You are done!

Before you know it, you are ready to tackle the problem that got you into that frown before all this was done. You will suddenly see a path or a solution. In case you don't, at least it won't be bothering you as much and you can then work it out.

The caveat -  to do all this and to make it work, I don't even want to you think about it. Yes, most people, including myself, would go into this starting with this crap isn't going to do it, its just not going to work. Humour me, though! Go through all the steps and only once you've done it all, come back to me and tell me that it didn't work. I'm waiting for your responses below!!