Stress Reduction During the Day: Bringing Calm to Closure

Relaxing During the Day

1. Lie down on your bed.
   
2. Do a whole body contraction and release. Start by blowing out air between loose lips as you scrunch up and tighten as many muscles as you can at once.
   
3. Start with your forehead and work your ways down to your toes.
   
4. Let go of all the muscles, and notice how and where you feel the release from inside your body.
   
5. Breathe easily for a while.
   
6. Repeat every 5 minutes or as often as necessary to burn off enough stress hormones so you feel more relaxed.
   

To Help You “Organize” as you go to Sleep…A Visualization Technique

1. Keep plenty of paper and pens by your bed for list making for the "must do's" that keep popping into your head at night before you fall asleep.
   
2. Imagine a row of lidded jars lined up on a table in your room next to your bed. Give each jar a label related to your end of the year activities.
   
3. Each time you find yourself thinking of something you need to do, write it down on the paper at the side of your bed.
   
4. Imagine yourself tearing the item from the paper, folding it neatly, unscrewing the lid of the proper jar, placing the small paper inside and putting the lid back on.
   
5. See yourself laying back down in your bed, knowing that you’ve put this information in a safe place and you no longer need to worry about it.
   
6. Feel the support of the bed under the middle of your back. Feel your back sink into the bed.