If you are anything like countless other women on the planet, you often fly through the day, busy with work, busy with family, busy with your community, and too busy, it seems, for yourself. Every once in a while, you might think of taking a break from the stress with a weekend at a spa, or a brief getaway. But, then, of course, something comes up. You never quite seem to get there. You want to relax, refresh yourself, and renew your spirit – if only you had the time.

Well, here is some good news for you. Not only are you allowed to pamper yourself, but you can also make a little bit of luxury go a long way – without ever leaving home or work.

Start by taking 10 minutes just for yourself every day. If you use them well, you can enhance your own wellness, boost your energy and feel beautiful from the inside out.

1. Slow Down. Life is passing you by in a blur. Stop and breathe. Take a few deep belly breaths to breathe in energy and tranquility. Breathe out tension and anxiety. Enjoy the people around you. Think about ways to distance yourself from the things that are causing you the most stress. Now is the time for your herbal spa wrap.

- PULL THE HERBAL SPA WRAP OUT OF YOUR DESK DRAWER, heat it up in the office microwave, wrap it around your neck, and let its therapeutic vapors work wonders. An Herbal Spa Wrap is packed with organic flaxseed, essential oils, eucalyptus, rosemary, peppermint, thyme, yarrow, cinnamon, wintergreen and other fine botanicals to provide deep, penetrating relief.

2. Take Charge. Set your priorities with a “Not To Do” list. Sometimes we get overwhelmed with all the things on our “To Do” list because we spend too much time doing useless activities that have no value to us. Review your prioritized list of things that need to get done, as well as things that do not need to get done. And then enjoy the satisfaction of crossing things off your list.

- CLOSE THE DOOR, SIT IN YOUR FAVORITE CHAIR, AND POUR YOURSELF A CUP OF HERBAL TEA. Green tea contains anti-oxidants that fend off free radicals, helps restore your energy, and helps you face the rest of the day.

3. Drink a Cold Water Cocktail. It seems human nature for just about everyone to take on too many tasks and responsibilities, to try to do too much, and to own too much. Take an energy break. Prepare a glass of ice water and add a spritz of lime or lemon, a sprig of mint, or a drop of pure, unsweetened cranberry juice. Cold water wakes up your spirit and generates more energy immediately. Take sips throughout the day for quick energy spurts.

- INDULGE IN A HAND MASSAGE. Use a high quality massage oil or Pampered Hands Treatment or butter up with lightly scented body butter. If you use well-crafted aromatherapy oils, your senses will thank you as much as your hands will.

4. Take a Power Nap. Seven to fifteen minutes is all you need to refresh and reinvigorate yourself. Take your nap in the early or mid-afternoon. Any later in the day and you are more likely to enter into a deep sleep.

- CALM YOURSELF WITH CHAMOMILE. Close your eyes and slip under the influence of a relaxing lavender eye pillow, filled with organic flaxseed, chamomile and lavender flowers. Close your eyes for ten minutes, tune out the world, and tune into your body. You will find the time well spent.

All of these are small steps, but they bring big results. And, who knows? Ten minutes just for you could soon turn to twenty. Either way, you will feel the difference inside and out.

Did you know that when asked more than 75% of people replied that stress is one of their major health concerns? It’s no surprise, considering the rapid pace of modern life and the variety of things we are expected to juggle and be successful with.

If you find the hectic pace of your day is starting to take over, an the things you are supposed to control are starting to control you, here are a few tips you can use to help yourself relax and drop some stress.

Try Some Light Stretching

Doing something physical can help release the mind and break the chain of stress. It doesn’t have to be much, maybe just some gentle stretching. Lay on you back and one at a time pull your knee up to your chest. Hold each stretch for a count of 30, breathing deeply and evenly. Sit cross- legged and pull each arm up to the side of your head while leaning in that same direction. Focus on the stretch in your back and shoulder. Feel better?

A Hot Shower or Hot Bath

We can’t all carve out the time for a long, hot bath surrounded by candles and incense. But we can probably carve out 10 -15 minutes for a pick-me-up. Just lay (or stand there) and feel the water on your body. A few deep breaths will help, and the heat is just the thing to help loosen tight muscles.

A Quick Massage

We all laugh at them when we see those massage chairs and pads set outside stores in the mall, but they can be a fantastic way to grab a quick, refreshing stress break. You can get a chair massager for pretty cheap these days. Take a 5 minute break, close your eyes, and let the massager roll the stress out of your body.

Music

Stop what you’re doing and go put on some music you enjoy. Don’t do anything while the song plays. If you’re not alone, sing along in your head. If you’re alone, or in your car, while no try belting out the words, even if you’re off-key. If you’re at home, take a chance and do some dancing. You’ll be surprised at how good you’ll feel when you’re done.

The negative impacts of stress on a person’s health are well know. Don’t be a victim! Take a few moments throughout your day to do some quick stress-relieving exercises. You’ll feel better for it!

Self-hypnosis is safe for everyone and can be done anywhere at anytime. You need to make sure that you are in a comfortable place and reasonably quiet, with no disturbances like kids or pets.

During an emergency, you should bring yourself out of self-hypnosis process easily and quickly. You should come back to a relaxed state when you are dealing with whatever has disturbed you. Then you can count yourself slowly and gently. In this way your body will adjust from being relaxed to being active again. This is the difference between being shocked out of deep sleep and waking up slowly. The only side effect you may experience is falling sound sleep in the middle of your self-hypnosis.

There are some basic instructions on how you would be performing self-hypnosis.

Before doing self-hypnosis, make sure that you are in a relaxed position, lying down or sitting.
You need to trigger a word or numbers like 1, 2, 3… and so on.
Starting from your toes to head, relax every muscle.
Control your breathing associating deep breathing with relaxation. While you inhale count from numbers 1 to 7, and while exhaling count from 7 to 1. This focuses your mind and relaxes your body.
Counting down from 10 to 1 is the deepening technique. There is relaxation at 1.
You should choose a private place for relaxation.
All your vivid imaginations appear in reality.
Guide yourself with the point by telling yourself that you are confident, focused, and concentrating on whatever you want to achieve. Mornings, afternoon and evening sessions are ideal for self-hypnosis process to get carried on daily. Avoid direct suggestions like ‘I will not, do not, must, have to, should ………..’ These are negative words.
Wake yourself up by counting numbers for nearly thirty seconds for re-energizing your body with the process of self-hypnosis.

A self-hypnosis session will take approximately twenty minutes and can be done thrice or four times daily.

Mornings are the precise time to start giving you positive suggestions for the day. This would help you in relaxing and makes you comfortable, but avoid sleeping. A midday session also is good to re-energizing yourself. Evening sessions are also good before going to sleep.

It is important to be aware that self-hypnosis can act as a band-aid if you have any issues which are yet unresolved. You could visit a consultant for further tips in this area.

What a world of difference a deep breath can make! It is one thing to know that you need to relax, but how do you find the time? To reach the “relaxation response” at times can seem like you are trying to hit a moving target. Just ask Joan, a 31-year-old full time college student and mother of 2 active preteens. “I needed coffee today just so I could study for my exams, “she panted on her way to a class. Mike, an exhausted engineer is having difficulty sleeping through the night.

Here are some quick tips for relaxing when it seems like you cannot fit in one more thing:

Tip #1. This may require planning, however it will repay you. Eat a breakfast of whole oats or steel cut oats cooked, not micro waved. This will give your body needed fuel. Sprinkle chopped almonds, walnuts, or seasonal fruit on the oatmeal for added variety.

Tip #2. Curve your lips upward into a smile. Smiling is a way to remind yourself that you can handle your life. Practice often. Write notes around your home, office and as reminders to smile often.

Tip #3. Before bed soak your feet in warm water for 5 minutes.

Tip #4. If you are in the habit of multi-tasking, stop. Yes, un-plug the device from your ears and enjoy walking down the street or whatever you are doing. Focus your energy. Develop a habit of doing one thing at a time. It will repay you in increased effectiveness and over time you will accomplish more in less time.

Tip #5. Remember to exhale then inhale again. When we hurry and hold our breath, without awareness, for too long it generates a sense of unease.

Tip #6. Hold your thumb. Wrap your fingers completely around your thumb repeat with your other hand. Do for 3-5 minutes. This position calms anxiety.

Tip #7. Take a trip, in your mind. Sit in your office, car, etc. and visualize yourself calm, smiling and joyful. Take yourself to place that you enjoy and chill there. You did it, you’re calmer.

Some people are more afraid of public speaking than they are of flying or driving on the motorway. Fear is a survival mechanism. It motivates us to do or stop doing something, which means at times it keeps us off trouble. However, fear is a problem when it interferes with people’s goals. That’s why it is vital to learn how to control your fear and use all your energy to achieve what you have set your mind on.

You know that fear causes avoidance and avoidance causes more fear. Thus, by staying away from what we are afraid of we won’t be able to overcome fear. The only reasonable approach to this disabling state is taking the bull by the horns and fighting against our weaknesses.

A pounding heart, trembling hands, butterflies in your stomach and your legs turning to jelly are a few of the most common human reactions in exceedingly stressful situations; a racing voice and cluttered mind, even tension in the shoulder and neck area may be added to the list for the public speaker in particular. Such reactions are unhealthy and in most cases bring about undesired results. It is very important to learn how to recognize your body’s reaction to stress and anxiety and of course how to overcome your fears and gain self-confidence.

For public speaking, there are several exercises meant to help you get rid of the feeling of panic and the physical sensations it comes with. Anxiety tightens the muscles in your chest and throat. A restricted airway will not allow the necessary quantity of oxygen into your lungs and brain so deep breathing will expand the throat and chest, promoting relaxation. A couple of sighs before the speech are also known to do wonders.

Yet, a few breathing exercises before a public speaking event are not enough. We were born with the ability to breath from the abdomen, but later in life our breathing has become shallow; it is much easier to breathe like that and we think our lungs get enough air anyway. This is not true. Breathing from your stomach does not send the right quantity of air into your lungs and undoubtedly can’t reduce anxiety either. Learn to deep-breathe again and you will feel a lot better.

Specialists claim that your whole body needs some exercise for you to relax. Progressive muscle relaxation therapy is based on a series of exercises in which certain groups of muscles are tensed for about ten seconds and relaxed again for another ten seconds. Each group is tensed and relaxed twice before you move on to the next. Therapists will show you the best exercises for each muscle group and, though it is not easy, with some practice you will learn how to bring the feeling of total relaxation to your body.

Actors, for example, are in the habit of alternatively shaking their legs before the performance. Stand on one leg and shake the other, then switch legs. Next, shake your hands; hold them above your head and bring them back down. Finally, start chewing in an exaggerated way to warm up your face muscles. Shoulders and neck rolls are very effective too as they prevent the tension that might later affect the muscles of your neck and shoulders.

As a general rule we all face much more demanding daily lives. The working day is getting longer and longer, and more of us are required to work longer hours or even get second jobs to pay for mortgages and other bills. As such, we find it difficult to give ourselves the time to relax and wind down that we need. Our body and mind need this time to rejuvenate and recover from the daily grind. A failure to take time out from this hectic daily schedule can have detrimental effects on our physical and mental well being. Even when we do get time to unwind we often find ourselves worrying about work or family matters and this can be just as damaging. By employing effective but simple relaxation techniques we can avoid stress, depression and physical illness.

1- The body and mind are very closely related and this means that there are a number of exercises that can be adopted that will not only improve our physical well being but act as excellent relaxation techniques. Techniques like this have been employed in yoga and other meditative arts that have developed over a great many years in many different cultures.

2- Relaxing the body will go a long way to improving your physical condition, however, the most effective relaxation techniques should combine the relaxing of the body and the mind. You should shut out any stressful thoughts about work or home; perhpas try repeating one word or short phrase over and over and if any obtrusuive thoughts do come into your mind then you should concentrate on the repetition again.

3- Only you really know the things that you find relaxing and you should try to do them as often as possible. Even if it’s only for a few minutes at a time you should make time. Just because your partner finds that relaxation techniques include playing sport or watching television doesn’t mean you have to do the same.

4- There are many different relaxation techniques from self hypnosis to yoga and others. Find one that interests you and suits you and learn about it. Study it carefully before you enrol in a course or begin teaching yourself. The key to good relaxation techniques is that they shouldn’t be difficult. If they are difficult that will force you to think about it, giving you stressful thoughts.

5- Don’t get stressed about relaxation techniques. If you’re struggling with an exercise or technique don’t worry. If you’re falling asleep every time you try self hypnosis or meditation don’t worry. These techniques are designed to help you not give you more things to worry about.