Breathe, Stretch & Move: Get Rid of Workplace Stress

It has been suggested that we should have a brain rest approximately every 50 minutes. The combination of breathing and body awareness is an excellent tool to focus attention on the moment, the here and now. Just stop, move, think about your body and breathing — this helps to still the constant mind chatter we all have.

If you are stressed and you try to meditate you can’t do it, but if you are stressed and breathe you can calm yourself, and then what stressed you does not stress you any more.

Body neutral is the optimum anatomical posture where our joints, muscles and ligaments are not overstressed, and all body parts are working in harmony.

Breathing retraining takes time — it takes between six and eight weeks of consistent awareness and practice for new patterns to become strong and established.

you have fewer red blood cells if you are anaemic, which means less oxygen is available in the body. You breathe harder to try to get more oxygen.

Try hard — by swallowing hard or exhaling through your mouth — to avoid taking that longed-for big breath.

Proteins, on the other hand (lean meat, chicken, fish, low-fat cheese, nuts, lentils, chickpeas, baked beans and low-fat dairy products) cause a sustained rise in blood sugar, which lasts considerably longer than that following carbohydrate. Hence a diet which contains adequate quantities of protein at each main meal (breakfast, lunch and dinner) w

If you improve your awareness of your body and posture, and adopt a ‘neutral body’ stance, this allows breathing and movement to occur effectively and effortlessly.

If you practise a mini-relaxation at regular intervals, by the end of a working day the sum of these ‘bliss outs’ will equal a 20-minute meditation.