Stop Stressing

The key to transforming your relationship to stress is to stop letting it overwhelm you. More and more people are discovering that mind-body practices such as yoga, qi gong, and meditation can be hugely helpful in shifting the way they react to stress.

So how do you shift your perceptions so you no longer feel like one big rubber band about to snap? That's where yoga and other mind-body approaches come in. Yoga teaches you to tune in to what your body is telling you and to act accordingly.

With practice, this awareness will spread into other areas of your life, including your work. As you learn to separate the urge to act from the reaction, you begin to find that something like a canceled meeting or having a last-minute project handed to you may not rattle you as much as it once did. You can detect stressors—what Buddhists call the spark before the flame—earlier, then pause long enough to think, "Well, maybe I don't need to respond." -YJ

I know that I will get strung out on my job and that stress will pour over into my personal life were my boyfriend will get my nasty attitude and things just get harder. I know in my yoga practice that I have become a different person I am slower to anger and much harder to annoy. I have seen a friend recently who I have not seen in months and she said that I seem different. I'm mellow compared to my old worried high strung self. I took this as a huge compliment because I feel like I am able to deal with stress and worry a lot differently that I used to and finally someone saw it in me. When someone notices a change in me without me saying anything is a big accomplishment. I am very please that someone has seen my patience and the light that is burning inside me. It was better than anything I could have asked for today.