Seven Days of Self-Care and Stress Relief: Jan 1-7th, 2025

I read a quote recently that stopped me in my busy tracks: "We take breaks so we don't break".

The beginning of a new year may indeed be just another day, but it can also be the perfect time to start.

I've learned it's much easier to face daily challenges after claiming moments to draw my scattered energy back to present centered awareness. Once I've taken the time to pause, to move with purpose, to breathe, to rest, I can better discern where I’d like to direct my renewed energy and attention.

You are invited to begin 2025 with Seven Days of Self-Care and Stress Relief. From January 1st to January 7th I’ll drop a 15 minute practice into your inbox that is intended to be integrated simply into your day and includes a selection of practical, evidence-based skills to cultivate the ability to return to your sense of self, your ground, your connection to authentic confidence, creativity and inspired perspective.

Expect to receive accessible movement practices to release tension, grounding skills to promote stabilizing present-centered awareness, and, if appropriate for you on your anxiety relief journey, simple breath techniques and meditation samples to further support your nervous system as you begin 2025 with your own personal intentions.

It’s my honor to share the practices that helped me overcome several years of disordered anxiety and chronic panic. This is an easy, risk-free way to find out if these therapeutic tools can work for you too! Questions? Reach out! Otherwise let me know you’d like to receive Seven Days of Self-Care and Stress Relief and start prioritizing your mental and physical health (same thing) in 2025! As a bonus, check out seven of my favorite strategies for anxiety relief below.

Seven Strategies for Anxiety Relief  

Cultivate Body Centered Awareness:  

The body is the part of us that is always in the here and now, while an anxious mind tends to ruminate on invisible worst case scenarios while the nervous system is stuck on high alert.  

Invite the mind to focus on the senses, the connection of body and ground "feel your feet on the ground", observe the breath moving in body, observe the breath in and out of nostrils.   

Progressive Relaxation:  

Inhale and create muscle tension, exhale to release. Move through the body from feet to face. Or shake it out"  

Gentle Joint Mobilization:  

A nervous system regulating practice. Focus mind on sensation, link breath to movement as you move the various joints of your body in their comfortable range of motion. Also helps to prepare body for relaxation or meditation.  

Rhythmic Movement:  

Linking breath to movement helps regulate breath and mind. A regulated mind can access compassionate self-talk more readily. Gentle rhythmic movement can help us wind down in the evening, release habitual tension and prepare for sleep. Here’s a video to try that lives in my vast resource for members, Worrier to Warrior Yoga Therapy.  

Breath Techniques:  

A longer exhale helps turn on the relaxation response.  

3 Part Breath (guide each inhale into abdominal area, then into rib cage in all directions, then into chest- exhale back down from chest to lower abdomen)  

The Purposeful Sigh (Full inhale, inhale a bit more, long slow exhale)  

Watch Your Thoughts  

Imagine sitting twenty rows back from the movie screen on your mind. Watch thoughts as if they are images flickering across the screen, let them come and go. This helps disconnect from believing thoughts as facts. You are more than your thoughts. You are more than anxiety 

Yoga Nidra:  

A practice of non-sleep deep rest that means “Yogic sleep”- a guided supine meditation intended to help your body have the experience of sleep while the mind rests on compassionate guidance. Sample mine on the Insight Timer App. Or explore a selection of several guided stress-reducing practices in my online resource, Worrier to Warrior Yoga Therapy. Reach out for customized practices for unique you!