There’s really no way to avoid stress in life, but there are ways to make it easier. Enter Lara of The Lara Touch, who is an expert in energy medicine. Sounds like one of those hokey-pokey cures, right? But quite the contrary.
It’s rooted in acupuncture methods, yoga and Kinesiology, all centered on the idea that, just like your blood flow, your energy flow can get blocked. What you’re left with are issues like the inability to sleep, heightened stress, aches, pains and more.
Lara admits, “Our Western medical beliefs are based on scientific research and because people can’t see energy, it has been difficult to incorporate energetic healing into our Western Medical way of thinking.” But, folks, don’t knock it ’til you try it. All it involves are simple body movements and tapping that help balance your energy.
When you’re stressed, your body gets tight from the back of your arm, the back of your neck and across your temple, Lara explains. Naturally, you want to relax these areas. And this will help.
1. The triple warmer massage
Lara explains that this will calm the fight or flight response in your body. You know, the one that convinces you to throw your cell phone at the wall when you read a nasty email. Or the one that makes you snap at your kids when they are driving you nutso.
Watch the full exercise here.
2. The cross-posture
In what I thought was the most interesting bit of all this, Lara tells me that when we’re stressed our brains only use our dominant side in order to conserve energy, and that is essentially what can create anxiety in stressful moments. So, the goal with this exercise is to override the stress response by getting you brain to work bilateral again and, as Lara puts it, put your body in a restive, parasympathetic state.
You’ll also want to cross your ankles and repeat, “I release my feelings of…” Watch the full exercise here.
3. Emotional freedom technique
This is only part of Lara’s full routine on tapping to relieve the most stubborn kinds of stress. You might feel a little goofy doing it but the idea is that you’re tapping certain acupressure points while saying a positive affirmation.
Watch the full exercise here (and be prepared to go outside your comfort zone for this one. You have to be OK with feeling like a total goof).
4. Stress relief to sleep pose
You want to practice this just before you go to sleep to put you in a more ambient state. After a stressful day, and several fight-or-flight reactions, blood rushes to your limbs, and this exercise signals it to go back to your brain and reverse your stressful state. Lara explains the full effect here.
5. Protecting yourself from catching other people’s stress
Stress, like yawning, is contagious. So Lara recommends protecting yourself from the contagion by doing this daily before you leave your house or before entering large crowds. You actually draw a line up the center of your body starting at your pelvis (maybe not the most comfortable in public settings) and moving up to your nose and twist like you’re locking a key at your nose. Read more about negative energy here.
Leave a Comment