Sukie Baxter

December 4, 2009 Pain Relief

Could Your Feet Be the Source of That Pain In Your Neck?

“The human foot is a work of art and a masterpiece of engineering.”

-Leonardo DaVinci

Okay ladies, I know you love those cute shoes you scored for a screaming deal on Black Friday! The cute heels (that really aren’t too high), peep toe, patten leather…how could you resist, right? Shoes absolutely make the outfit! And, believe me, as a 6’0″ woman who spent years wanting to minimize my height, I’m very aware that finding an attractive flat shoe is much easier said than done.

But, your feet are the foundation for your entire body structure. The human foot is comprised of 26 bones, 33 joints, and over 100 muscles and tendons. All of the tiny structures of your feet combine to create a supportive yet resilient structure that carries you in standing and moving.

Unfortunately, Western society suffers from “Urban Foot Syndrome;” our feet are habitually crammed into poorly designed footwear that cramps and limits the movement of our bones, joints, tendons and ligaments. Further complicating the issue, when our feet fail us and plague us with pain and inflammation due to the fact that they’re squished into faulty footwear, we add more devices, lifts, arch supports, and other “corrective” paraphernalia to our shoes in an effort to prop the foot into a natural position.

All of this stabilization of the foot negates is natural purpose: movement! Have you ever felt a cat’s paw? Have you worked your fingers between their toes, squished around the tiny little bones? If you have, you’ll know how soft and malleable their feet are. If you haven’t had this experience, quick, find a cat, preferably one with clean paws and trimmed claws!

Our feet should be as soft and pliable as the cat’s paw. This would allow us to adapt to uneven surfaces, like rocks, dirt paths, hillsides, tufts of grass, etc. Urban warriors live in a world of paved roads and paths, staircases built into our city trails. Everything is smooth and even, so our feet don’t have much of a chance to feel what it’s like to walk with the earth.

The images below are from a study published in 1905 by the American Journal of Orthopedic Surgery.

Notice how the shod feet have restructured themselves to look exactly like the shape of the shoes. That’s not a natural shape for a human foot! Even more frightening is the below image comparing a modern, high-heeled shoe and ancient Chinese foot binding.

“When a woman wears a high heeled shoe, the anatomy is changed and the pressure is put on the heads of the metatarsals rather than the base where it is designed to be (shown in the picture).” Beverly Hills Aesthetic Foot Surgery

High heels are a form of modern day foot binding. They make our feet appear smaller, cuter, and make women look taller. Rarely does a trip to Nordstrom or Macy’s reveal hot new trends in flexible, natural footwear. Our footwear is mostly driven by the fashion industry, and stilettos aren’t showing any sign of vanishing soon.

Raising the heel any amount affects the posture of the entire body, shifts the balance of weight in the foot, and causes changes to spinal curvature. As you can see in the diagram below, there is a natural plumb line that falls down the lateral side of your body (Figure A). When you are standing with your weight properly balanced over your feet, the spine and back are relaxed and balanced, allowing freedom of movement.

In Figure B, the addition of high heels shifts the plumb line. It’s impossible to stay upright with weight centered over the eye of the foot (the space just in front of your heel) when wearing heels. Instead, it’s necessary to contract the muscles of the lower back, pulling your weight over your center of gravity again. As you can see in Figure C, this causes increased curvature of the lumbar spine (lower back), resulting in back pain and other tension throughout the body.

What does a natural foot look like? Studies done by the American Journal of Orthopedic Surgery show that in native barefoot population of the Philippines and Central Africa, the toes spread easily and naturally to create a wide base of support for standing and walking. Also, you can draw a line from the big toe through the ball and heel of the foot. No such line exists in the shod foot.

The world-record for the marathon was set by Ethiopian Abebe Bikila. He ran it in 2:15:17 at the 1960 Olympics in Rome.

Barefoot.

“People have been running barefoot for millions of years and it has only been since 1972 that people have been wearing shoes with thick, synthetic heels,” said Daniel Lieberman, a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University. Studies and anecdotal evidence alike have shown that the thick-soled, highly supportive shoes popularized by companies such as Nike have done nothing to decrease injury and incidences of plantar fascitis. From a purely functional standpoint, these shoes just don’t make sense.

Your foot was created to be the perfect springboard, propelling you forward with every step. There is a highly sophisticated system of ligaments connecting the bones of the foot. Three arches transfer weight during walking: medial, lateral, and transverse. The medial arch is the one most people are familiar with and is found on the inside of your foot. The lateral arch runs parallel to that, and the transverse arch is just behind your toes.

Your medial arch collapses with each step as the weight of your body comes over it. The ligaments stretch, triggering proprioceptors (cells that tell your body where it is in space and how much each muscle fiber has been stretched). The proprioceptors send a signal to your brain that they’ve been stretched, causing a contraction to take place that propels the arch upwards, and your body forwards.

When you insert an arch support under this amazing structure, it defeats the whole purpose of having an arch in the first place. Yes, now your foot is lifted and you may temporarily experience less back pain, but in the long run, you’ve taken away your gas pedal. Now every step costs you extra tension and more work; you’re no longer moving forward efficiently.

That increased level of tension results in new, different aches and pains. The quadricep muscles become hypertonic – overly contracted – pulling your pelvis forward and causing your hamstrings to shorten in response. This results in…you guessed it! More back pain.

Natural walking feels like floating. It’s as though your body is suspended from an invisible hook in the sky as your feet glide across the earth, stepping effortlessly on hillocks, pebbles, curves and dips in the ground. The Native Americans commented with European settlement that the “white man bruises the earth with his step.” Natural walking allows you to walk with the earth, feeling the texture of the ground beneath your feet.

So how do you get the natural walking effect in an urban jungle?

The challenge for most of us is that, even if it were acceptable to go barefoot everywhere, it’s just not safe. The streets are littered with debris like broken glass and rusty nails, and no one wants a fungal infection from traipsing barefoot through gyms, grocery stores, and other high-traffic locales. But if you’re looking for that barefoot feeling, you’re in luck!

Lately, shoe companies have gotten hip to the fact that the Africans are kicking our butts in the Olympics…barefoot. They’re developing shoes that mimic the experience while still providing protection from the elements. Some of the best picks include the Vibram 5 Finger Technology and Nike Free.

“But I have flat feet…”

So do babies. Arches aren’t created until we start walking as children – and the key word there is created. Adding arch support to flat feet doesn’t create an arch, it props the foot up, like putting a jack under a car with a flat tire.

Arch supports may be appropriate for a time while you work to create a more functional foot, but you’ll want to wean yourself off of them by increasing the time that your foot is without support. Arch supports cause the muscles in your foot to become flaccid and lazy because the wedge is doing all the work. Strengthen your feet by walking barefoot (or in barefoot technology shoes), starting with 15 minutes a day and increasing the time by five minute increments each week. Also, simply laying a towel on a slick floor, such as tile, linoleum, or hardwood, and using your bare foot to scrunch the towel and then spread it out again will work the muscles of the foot, building your arch.

For athletes and other active individuals, I highly recommend training barefoot. I competed in kettlebells and always lifted barefoot – squats, deadlifts, cleans, snatches, keg walks, jerks…you name it, I was doing it barefoot. During competitions, I used a thin, bendable shoe that closely mimicked barefoot lifting. I even traded in my stiff, rigid riding boots for a flexible, moccasin-like boot that protected my foot while still giving me sensory perception and mobility for horseback riding.

You’ll be amazed when you begin to restore your relationship with your feet how your entire body shifts; tension melts, pain disappears, and you have more energy.

October 3, 2009 Healthy Aging

7 Tips to Increase Hip Flexibility

Tight Hips – A Modern Day Epidemic

One of the biggest complaints my clients present during their sessions is tight hips. With the high number of professional computer jockeys in today’s modern world, the common complaints are limited range of motion in the hips and shoulders, pain in the neck, back, and feet.

Sitting all day, especially at an ergonomically challenging computer set up, creates a shortening in your hip flexors (the muscles along the front of your hip and thigh that pull you down into a chair). These muscles in turn pull your lumbar spine forward, causing tension and stiffness in the low back, bracing in your hips and what are known as dysfunctional movement patterns.

Additionally, 99.9% of everyone I see in my office sits incorrectly. I attribute this to a lifetime spent on soft, cushy couches and overstuffed easy chairs. Unfortunately, while plush seating may feel nice for a while, it has the effect of rolling your sacrum under so that your weight isn’t centered over your ischial tuberosities (sitting bones) but rather on the last vertebra of your spine (i.e. your sacrum).

Once your sacrum is jammed, your entire spine compensates. This is why a headache or sore neck is actually located in your pelvis, and why work around the hips and low back will generally result in greater shoulder mobility.

7 Easy Tips to Increase Hip Flexibility:

1. When sitting for prolonged periods, make sure your hips are higher than your knees.

If your knees are higher than your hips, all of your weight falls into your pelvis while the job of holding you upright falls to your hip flexors and the postural stabilizers of your low back.

Instead of bracing your torso to stay upright, place your feet flat on the floor, one foot a few inches in front of the other. By pressing into the ground, you should feel support travel up through your legs and into your low back. Taking the strain off your back is the first step in allowing greater mobility.

2. Do squats – full on, all the way to your heels squats!

Squats force you to mobilize your ankles, knees, hips, and the facet joints in your spine. Most people who haven’t ever trained for this kind of movement find even a basic squat with no weight to be challenging.

When performing the maneuver, make sure your torso doesn’t pitch forward. Holding a small weight, a weighted bar, or a wooden dowel in front of your chest, as in a traditional front squat position, can help you stay upright.

If you are not flexible enough to keep your feet relatively parallel, start with your legs wider apart, feet turned out at 45 degrees. The more you practice squatting, the more willing your body will be to go all the way to the ground.

3. Practice sitting down on the ground and getting up without using your hands.

This is especially helpful for lubricating the hip joints, and it erases the fear that people develop as they age that they will fall and not be able to get back up. It has the added bonus of loosening the lateral rotators of the hip – the muscles that are implicated in sciatica.

Start by finding a way to bring yourself to a seated position on the floor, hands free. Then, get up, also without using your hands. Repeat the exercise several times, finding as many different ways to sit down and stand up as you can.

When the exercise becomes too easy, add a weight. Hold 10-25lbs (or more, if you’re comfortable) at chest height while sitting and standing. This not only mobilizes but also strengthens the joints.

4. When choosing a chair for your computer desk set up, select a firm, flat surface over any padded and contoured seats.

Most chairs are designed for an “average” or “standard” body, and anyone who has ever shopped for the perfect pair of jeans knows that one size does not fit all!

Flat surfaces make it easier for you to sit forward on your sitting bones – your ischial tuberosities. You should feel equal weight on both your right and left tuberosities. If not, try to center yourself as best you can without contorting your body. Just relax down onto the chair.

Sitting on your ischial tuberosities is much more stable than sitting on your sacrum. Your postural stabilizing muscles can easily relax and reduce the bracing along your spine, creating instant mobility for your back (this is absolutely key in resolving back and neck pain!).

5. Take extra deep breaths.

With all the stimulus coming at us from all directions – television, internet, books, MP3 players, digital advertising, children, pets…. – it’s easy to forget to breathe.

When you cease breathing deeply, your diaphragm becomes tight. Anatomically, the fascia of your diaphragm connects directly to your hip flexors, so if your diaphragm is constricted, your hip flexors will be, too.

Take time each and every day to lie quietly on your back. Breathe deeply, relaxing your rib cage, spine, and abdominal muscles. Allow your internal organs to rest heavily into your back. As you become more relaxed, direct your breathing down deeper and deeper into your pelvis, relaxing all of the tension in your low back, sacrum, gluteus muscles, and thighs. As you become more skilled at conscious breathing, you can begin to direct your breath all the way out the bottoms of your feet.

6. Practice dynamic joint mobility – taking each hip joint through a series of repetitive movements designed to increase the range of motion.

This kind of movement increases the flow of synovial fluid, which lubricates the joints. It also provides excellent neurological feedback. Range of motion is a use it or lose it proposition; the more your remind your body that you need to be able to make large, open movements, the more willing your nervous system will be to allow you to do just that.

7. Stretch your hip flexors, especially after long car or airplane trips.

As mentioned previously, sitting shortens the anterior muscles of your hip and thigh. To keep them long and limber, stretch daily, or at least several times a week.

Any maneuver that causes a lengthening along the front of your hip and thigh will lengthen the hip flexors. Some of my favorites include lunges (keep your torso upright – do not allow yourself to fall forward over your front knee) and bridges (a full back bend with hands and feet on the floor – modify this to a shoulder bridge if you aren’t quite ready for this pose).

Get Specific

Want me to personally lead you through exercises to improve your hip mobility, get your shoulders back where they belong, free up your neck and generally feel like you’re ten years younger?

Every video in my Posture Rehab video course is led by me with complete, step-by-step instruction. You won’t find these practices anywhere else (i.e. this isn’t your typical physical therapy experience…not by a long shot). Each one is designed to reset your nervous system, increase flexibility and mobilize your joints.

September 17, 2009 Emotions Stored In Body

Can You Really Take On Other People’s Pain?

Is it really possible to take on other people’s pain?

You may have noticed that you can take on the emotions of others, such as grief or sadness for example. But what about their physical symptoms?

To get a look inside the science of how we take on other people’s pain, first we have to talk about the true source of pain and tension.

You might guess that stiff, tight muscles are to blame for pain in your body. But where does muscle tension come from in the first place?

Did your muscles just get tight randomly? Is it aging that causes muscles to dry up and stiffen like beef jerky?

Actually, no. Muscle tension is caused by chronic and habitual dysfunctional movement patterns.

In short: bad habits.

And those bad habits are often things we learned from other people through magical little cells in your brain called “mirror neurons.”

How You Learned To Move (It’s Not What You Think)

In order to understand why we have bad movement habits as adults, we have to travel back in time to take a look at how you learn to move your body as a baby and toddler.

Humans are innately programmed to move. We have the capacity to breathe, digest foods, sleep, and wiggle around from the time we’re born, but neurological functioning becomes much, much more refined as children grow to adulthood.

While there are certain stages in the normal development of human locomotion — rolling over, sitting up, crawling, standing, walking — people aren’t computers. We don’t just run a software program that gets every single body up and running (literally) in precisely the same way.

Something greater is affecting our movement patterns.

If you’ve ever watched a child walking with his or her mother at the playground or mall and really looked at the two together, you’ll see how similarly they move.

Some aspects of movement are genetic (your musculoskeletal structure plays a role, for example).

But have you ever watched adopted children with their parents? They also tend to mirror the movement patterns of their caregivers. There must be some other effect at work here.

How It’s Possible To Take On Other People’s Pain

Fifteen years ago in Parma, Italy, scientists connected electrodes to the brain of a monkey. They hooked the electrodes to a computer to record neurological impulses that correlated with the monkey’s physical movement. The researchers wanted to identify specific brain regions related to movement.

Every time the monkey shifted around, a computer recorded data about the corresponding active brain regions.

One day, a researcher noticed something strange. He came back from lunch eating an ice cream cone. As he stood observing the monkey, he took a bite. Weirdly, the computer logged activity in the monkey’s brain — but the monkey hadn’t moved.

Thus began some revolutionary discoveries around what are now called mirror neurons.

Following the ice cream cone event, researchers found that the brain’s movement-related neurons fired when the monkey was eating peanuts, when he saw others eating peanuts, and when he heard the sound of another monkey eating peanuts.

Meaning: movement centers in the brain light up not **just** when you’re moving, but when you’re observing others move as well.

The real revelation, though, was that humans have a class of mirror neurons that are far more sophisticated than those of other primates.

Mirror Neurons: The Basis for Empathy?

So then the question becomes: why do we have so many mirror neurons? What purpose do they serve in human development.

According to neuroscientist Dr. Giacomo Rizzolatti:

“Mirror neurons allow us to grasp the minds of others not through conceptual reasoning but through direct simulation. By feeling, not by thinking. We are exquisitely social creatures. Our survival depends on understanding the actions, intentions and emotions of others.”

Humans have extremely sophisticated and highly refined mirror neurons. Some of these cells are responsible for recognizing shapes and lines. Others plan movements, and still others detect frequencies, sounds, and directions of movement.

Mirror neurons allow us to fill in the gaps in the world around us, and they help us predict situations.

Participants in a study accurately intuited when they saw someone else reach for a cup of tea on a table whether the person was going to drink the tea or clear the cup away.

And because mirror neurons help us to have empathy for others, their downside is that they cause is to take on other people’s pain — not just emotional, but also physical pain.

Do Mirror Neurons Influence How You Take On Other People’s Pain?

Research done by the co-director of the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences at the University of Washington Dr. Andrew Meltzoff shows that human kids are hard-wired for imitation. Babies repeatedly stick their tongues out to mirror human adults doing the same thing, even mere minutes after birth.

The fact that our mirror neurons fire when we observe an action taking place explains why we resonate so fully with certain sports and dance. It’s also why watching violence, unhappiness, and destruction on television is highly detrimental to our cortical health.

Also, since our thoughts and emotions are so intricately interwoven in our tissue structures, it means that we will tend to have similar movement, thought, and emotional patterns to those around us.

In short:

You will “mirror” the movement habits of the people who surround you — especially those with whom you have a close relationship.

This is important when it comes to pain for a number of reasons.

First, if you are imitating the movement patterns of a person who has suffered an injury and as a result experiences movement limitations, you will take on those same limitations — even in the absence of an injury.

Second, movement and thinking are deeply intertwined. In fact, the part of your brain responsible for movement and coordination, the cerebellum, is intrinsically linked to the part of your brain responsible for executive function, or thinking and reasoning skills.

What that means:

When you have a thought, movement centers light up to support that thought. When you move, thought centers light up to support that movement.

This matters when it comes to pain because pain is actually not experienced in the body, but in the brain.

The Neuroscience Of Pain

People tend to think of pain as happening at the site of an injury or tight muscle.

But actually, pain is a sensation generated by your brain.

Your nervous system sends sensory data to your brain, and your brain then interprets that data as pain. But sometimes your brain mixes up the signals. Stress, for example, sensitizes your nervous system to pain.

Meaning:

You’ll feel more pain with less input. It doesn’t take much for your brain to sound that pain alarm — a simple bump or bruise could be enough. Or, sometimes you’re in pain for no reason at all.

Some postures inherently increase stress. So, if you’re mimicking the posture and movement patterns of a person in pain, lo and behold, you could potentially develop the same neural pathways for pain in your own body.

Your movement is a type of broadcast tower communicating through body language. It signals all kinds of things about confidence, sense of personal power, and emotional state to the people around you.

But it also communicates to your own brain. That’s why smiling when you’re having a down day will lift your mood.

So, if you hang around people with stiff, achy, limited movement patterns…you’re going to find that you start to take on other people’s pain.

(Of course, the opposite is also true. If you spend time around people who move better than you, you’ll probably notice quantum shifts in your own body. #truefacts)

You Are the Average of The 5 People You Spend The Most Time Around

The long and the short of it is something psychologists have known for decades: the people you spend the most time around will affect your physical and mental well-being. People who move with pain in their bodies – aching backs, stiff shoulders and necks, arthritic knees, etc. – will activate similar movement patterns in your own body even if you are not suffering from the same pain…yet.

Athletes and coaches know the power of mirror neurons. Olympic athletes tout the power of visualization. Observing or imagining someone performing an activity directly influences muscle performance.

Fans of a sport experience mirror neuron activation while watching a game or match, but someone who has played the sport has a firestorm of activity in the brain area that initiates the movements. The athlete also predicts what will happen next more accurately than the person who has never played.

Additionally, if you are experiencing anxiety, depression, fatigue, or other emotional disturbances, you might want to examine your social group.

“The ability to share the emotions of others appears to be intimately linked to the functioning of mirror neurons,” said Dr. Christian Keysers, group leader of the Social Brain Lab at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience. “People who rank high on a scale measuring empathy have particularly active mirror neurons systems,” Dr. Keysers stated.

The Bottom Line

The bad news here is that you may have subconsciously learned some movement patterns that are less than ideal. But on the up side, it’s actually relatively easy to change out those dysfunctional patterns for new, more agile ones — when you know how.

The crux is that most people go to the gym, work out, and stretch for years or even decades without ever developing new neural patterns.

September 3, 2009 Back Pain

What Causes Back Pain?

Have you ever wondered what causes back pain when there’s no injury to explain it?

If you struggle with chronic back pain, you’re certainly not alone. Experts estimate that about 80% of people will experience back pain during their lifetimes.

But while you might think your back pain is the result of an injury, the truth is that most people don’t have a treatable spinal disorder.

Many back pain sufferers are given a diagnosis of “non-specific lower back pain.” Which basically means: you have back pain and we have no idea why.

That’s pretty frustrating to hear…

But don’t give up hope. Just because you don’t have a back or spinal injury doesn’t mean your pain is without cause.

Related:

What Causes Back Pain Aside From Spinal Dysfunction?

When doctors examine you for back pain, they probably look at your spine and the surrounding muscles.

But actually, your spine doesn’t function in isolation. What’s happening in your feet, legs and hips has a big impact on the health of your back.

For example, when a scoliosis patient brings his or her feet directly together, her spinal curvature usually worsens. That indicates that imbalances in the patient’s legs and feet are affecting her spine.

One thing to look for if you’re suffering from back pain is a leg length differential. Meaning: one leg is shorter than the other. This is actually quite common.

Unfortunately, determining the source of the difference requires more than looking at a person’s feet when they are lying down to see if they line up. While that will give you an indication of the pattern, it tells you nothing about what the muscles and bones are doing inside the legs.

Could Your Leg Length Differential Be What Causes Back Pain?

There are two kinds of leg length differentials: structural and functional.

Structural differentials occur when the actual bones of the leg are of different lengths. The ONLY way to be sure you have a structural leg length differential is to have x-rays taken and then measure the length of the bones.

If this is the case for you, you may need to have a lift put in your shoes on the shorter side to provide support for your pelvis and back.

Functional differentials, however,. are much more common.

In a functional leg length differential, the muscles and tissues somewhere in the body contract and hold one leg higher off the ground than the other. The muscle tension can also twist your pelvis.

A functional leg length differential can be corrected through exercises that balance your muscle tension.

Which Muscles Should I Focus On?

While many muscles can be implicated in a leg length differential, there are two main ones to pay attention to.

Your illiacus and psoas muscles attach to the inside of the hip and the front of the spine. They line the inside of the pelvic bowl and both of these muscles flex the leg at the hip, like when you’re sitting in a chair.

Tension in these two muscles can contribute to discomfort in the digestive organs and abdominal region. If one side becomes short and tight, it will pull that leg higher, making it appear shorter.

When your feet – the foundation to your entire body – are not balanced as happens when your legs are different lengths, your pelvis will be crooked. That puts torque on your sacrum, or tailbone, which is the bottom-most vertebra of your spine.

When your sacrum doesn’t move, neither does anything else above it, and that means BIG PAIN!

The Key To A Healthy Spine

Additionally, your psoas attaches along your spine at the same junction as your diaphragm. If your psoas is too tight, it will constrict breathing, which can in turn result in more back pain.

Maintaining long, limber hip flexors is critical for back health. If you spend more than 2 hours a day sitting, make sure you include activities in your exercise routine that fully extend your anterior hip to keep back pain and stiffness at bay.

Ultimately, when it comes to what causes back pain, there are many factors and just focusing on your spine alone won’t necessarily get you the relief you crave.

For a deeper discussion of posture and back pain, check out my ebook Perfect Posture for Life: How to Finally Stop Slouching, Stand Tall and Move Freely (Even If You Sit at A Computer All Day).

I go way more in depth on the anatomy of your back and all the unexpected areas of your body that can cause back pain that you wouldn’t necessarily think would be related.

(Oh, but they are.)

Click here for more info about the book >>

August 16, 2009 Healthy Aging

8 Surefire Stress Busters

Do you suffer with chronic stress and worry? You’re not alone.

Stress is a leading cause of disease and has serious detrimental effects on your body. Unfortunately, modern life is fraught with stress-inducing stimuli. From fast-paced work environments to the constant invasion of technology, economic uncertainty, ever-increasing traffic and trying political times, stress just seems like an everyday side dish.

And when you’re short on time, it’s easy to scrimp on the self care. However, the long term degenerative effects of stress on your well being are too drastic to ignore.

Recent scientific studies have shown that stress is insidious and lethal, slipping beneath our conscious awareness to shrink our brains, add fat to our bellies, and even unravel our chromosomes!

The good news:

You can do a lot of free, quick and easy things to instantly reduce stress.

Here are 8 ways to incorporate positive self care habits everyday that cost next to nothing (some are even free, save for a little time investment!) and will keep you sound of mind and body for years to come:

1. Breathe!

The more stressed and hurried we become, the less we remember to take full breathes. Your cells need oxygen for energy and also to help flush out cellular waste. Your brain needs oxygen to function optimally. When you take shallow breaths, your body has to work extra hard just to function normally. Take a few moments several times a day to breathe deeply. Make sure you focus on exhaling all the air in your lungs. Your inhale can only be as full as your exhale.

2. Move!

Movement releases tension, stimulates your nervous system, and encourages you to breathe more deeply, bringing in additional oxygen to the body. Studies have also shown that exercise actually keeps your brain sharp, so to maintain clear cognition, make sure you get out and move your body daily, even if it’s just walking the dog around the block. Body mind practices, such as yoga or qi gong, are excellent additions as they focus your attention on places you’re holding stress and tension in your body, allowing you to consciously release them.

3. Reorganize your home.

Chaos breeds chaos, and a messy home can create mental clutter as well. If your home isn’t a sanctuary, consider spending a Saturday doing a deep cleaning (I recommend using natural and organic cleaning products to avoid chemical off gassing that can cause headaches and nausea). Clear out clutter that you no longer need by taking it to the local Salvation Army or Goodwill. You’ll be surprised how clear headed you feel once your home is in order!

4. Use relaxing fragrances to calm your mind.

Fragrance has a deep effect on our psyche, and we quickly learn to associate certain smells with feelings and memories. Place an essential oil diffuser in your home. Lavender essential oil is soothing, Peppermint is uplifting, Bergamot is an anti-depressant, and Rosemary is energizing.

5. Cut back on caffeine.

Okay, I know this one is tough! I’m a Seattle girl, after all, and we’re known for our excessive coffee habit. With that in mind, if you feel yourself constantly jumpy, notice your hands are shaky, or you struggle with anxiety, consider limiting the coffee you drink. Switching to a different caffeine source can also do the trick. Yerba Mate and green tea are good options for some people.

6. Meditate.

Ugh! You mean sit still and clear my mind of all thoughts? Yep, that’s what I mean. When you’re stressed out, the committee in your head gets louder and louder until you can’t hear yourself think anymore. You may even forget what you think! If sitting quietly sounds about as much fun to you as getting a root canal, try joining a meditation group. The accountability and community support can make the experience fun and relaxing instead of another arduous task to complete. Time crunched? Try a meditation CD to help you drop into peace and tranquility.

7. Unplug.

We’re bombarded by thousands upon thousands of messages all day long: billboards, television, email, cell phones, text messages, magazine ads, headlines….the list goes on. Take some time to get out in nature, and leave the cell phone at home! For those of you city-bound folks, nature does not include the local landscaped park. Instead, head outside urban boundaries if you can and walk amongst old growth forest, desert landscapes, or whatever beauty your particular corner of the earth has to offer. If you have a dog, this can be a great excusion to make together. Pets have a way of reminding us how to let go and be totally present in the moment. When you return to civilization, your mind and body will feel clear and focused.

8. Release stored tension.

When you feel your shoulders tightening from sitting in traffic or staring at a computer, you can ease your own stress in five minutes or less. With your right hand, tuck your thumb under your fingers and curl your fingers down toward your palm, making a soft fist. Rest your right elbow in your left hand and use your right fist to gently tap on your left shoulder and upper arm. Tap gently, focusing more on the upward movement of your hand than the downward strike, and avoid any prominent bones. Repeat on your other side. Once finished, take a few deep, cleansing breaths and feel your shoulders relaxed and tingling.

Bonus!

Did you know there’s a natural mineral that not only reduces stress but also relaxes muscles — all without chemical drugs?

It’s true! This magic mineral is so critical to every aspect of your mental and physical health that I wrote a whole book about it. You can download that completely free by clicking right here.

Learn how this powerful all natural mineral calms your nerves, eases pain, helps you sleep better, and boosts your health.

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