Chapters (12)

3-Minute Stress Management: Reduce Stress With This Short Activity

Therapy in a Nutshell · 3:45

asana pranayama

In this practice

Key teachings

Stress is a physiological response to perceived danger, felt in the body
The mind and body can be trained to be calm
Nervous system regulation through simple activities
Frequent short practices are effective for stress reduction

Ideal for

Individuals experiencing physical stress and tension
People with desk jobs or those who spend a lot of time frozen
Anyone needing a quick mental and physical reset
All levels of practitioners

Lesson

Instructions

Quickly reduce stress with this 3-minute box breathing exercise guided by therapist Emma McAdam in Therapy in a Nutshell. You'll get instant access to all 10 life-changing courses, live weekly Q&As, and a supportive community for just $27/month. Learn how to manage anxiety, process trauma, regulate emotions, and build lasting resilience so that you can live a deeply rich and meaningful life!

Stress is the aspect of anxiety that we feel in our body. Worry is about thoughts, but stress is how our muscles get tense, our breathing gets tight, we feel achy, and our hands sweat. Stress is the physiological response to perceived danger. The good news is you can train your mind and body to be calm by doing simple activities throughout the day.

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Music licensed from www.Bensound.com or Artlist.io Images from Freepik.com (premium license), Pixabay, or Wikimedia commons

I’m Emma McAdam. I’m a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and I have worked in various settings of change and growth since 2004. My experience includes juvenile corrections, adventure therapy programs, wilderness therapy programs, an eating disorder treatment center, a residential treatment center, and I currently work in an outpatient therapy clinic.

In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life's direction. And deeper than all of that, the Gospel of Jesus Christ orients my personal worldview and sense of security, peace, hope, and love

If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services. Copyright Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC Music licensed from www.Bensound.com or Artlist.io Images from Freepik.com (premium license), Pixabay, or Wikimedia commons

Steps

Box breathing (implied through deep breathing guidance)
Shoulder rolls (up and down)
Gentle head tilts (forward, back, side to side)
Arm shaking (floppy, jiggling)
Leg shaking (jiggly, releasing)
Mindful posture (standing straight, feet on floor)
Gentle forward fold (arms dangling)

Benefits

Quickly reduces stress and physical tension
Regulates the nervous system
Trains mind and body to be calm
Improves body awareness (rating tension)

Transcript

Hello everyone! Emma Mcadam here. Today we're going   to talk about how you can reduce
your stress in around three minutes. Okay, so quick reminder, stress is the aspect of
anxiety that we feel in our body. Worry is all   about thoughts, but stress is about how our muscles
get tense, or our breathing gets tight. Stress   makes you ache, or it makes your hands sweat right?
Stress is that physiological response to perceived   danger. So when your brain perceives a threat,
whether it's a tiger, or an upcoming deadline,   your brain is going to trigger that fight-flight-freeze response, but we can train our mind, and   our body, to be calm by doing little activities
that regulate the nervous system, and it's best   if we do these frequently throughout the day.
So for people who work in manual labor jobs,   stress reduction may look like, resting on the
couch, but for people who spend a lot of their   day frozen at their computer, reducing stress
is probably going to be most effective if we   incorporate movement. So here it goes. First thing
I want you to do is to start by rating your   degree of physical tightness on a scale from
0 to 10, and and now take a big deep breath. (Inhale/Exhale) Now bring your shoulders up and down, and keep breathing. (Inhale-Exhale) Now gently tilt your head
forward, and back, side to side. Now, I want you to start shaking your arm like this, haha, that's pretty classy looking. Oh yeah, get that
jiggling okay, now start shaking out your other arm, just let it get really floppy, and just shake   it out. This is something you can do at
your desk at work, or whatever, you know. Okay, now I want you to stand up, and shake
your leg out right, lets get it really jiggly,   shake your leg out. Get your
other leg, shake your leg out. Just kind of jiggle that leg around, you
may feel a little ridiculous that's okay,   laugh at yourself if you want. Okay, now I
just want you to straighten yourself up, (Inhale-Exhale)   feel your feet on the floor, don't forget to
breathe, hold your head up straight, feel your legs   pressing into the ground, let
yourself smile just a little bit, (heavy exhale) and now just do a little gentle forward fold, let your arms dangle, stand up straight, and then I want you to rate your
tightness again on the same scale from 0 to 10.   Did your degree of tension go down? Then then this
worked if it did, and if not, well let me know in   the comments. Tell me what you think is helpful
at reducing your stress. Okay, there's your three   minute exercise. The other thing I just want to
say really quick, I want to thank Better Help for   sponsoring this video. They provide professional,
affordable, online counseling starting at around   $65 dollars a week, so check out the link in
the description. If you use my link, you   can get 10% off your first month. Okay,
thank you for watching, and take care.

Practice summary

Level: all levels
Duration: 3 minutes
Equipment: none
Target areas: shouldersneckarmslegsoverall body tension
Energy: calming

More practice