The Two Minute Stress Solution

Leaders are under more stress than ever in today’s chaotic business environment.? Many of my clients have asked some form of this question:? ?

“How do I get rid of my stress?”?

The short answer is you can't! Stress is as is inevitable as gravity. ?

And the truth is, you don’t want to eliminate stress, and here’s why.? Some levels of stress are critical to performance as shown by the well documented stress-performance curve.??This is a bell-shaped curve that clearly shows performance rises with stress to a peak level, and then declines with increasing stress past that peak.

A better question to ask is, "How do I manage my stress to optimize my performance?"? While there are many stress management tactics, one of the simplest, yet most powerful, is a process called two-minute breathing that involves stopping all activity, putting your full attention on your breath, and taking deep slow breaths for two full minutes. ?

This process has been demonstrated to calm the brain’s emotional system that is responsible for creating the emotions associated with stress such as anxiety. At the same time, it activates the systems responsible for relaxation and clear thinking. ?

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This breathing process also gives the brain time to clear out high levels of stress related neurochemicals that activate the emotional arousal system. These neurochemicals only remain stable and active in the brain for about 90 to 120 seconds. Shifting your attentional focus off stress inducing activity, and just focusing on your breathing for two minutes gives your brain a chance to clear out the toxic levels of stress chemicals and reset to a lower level. This helps keep you at the top of the performance curve. ?

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Practice this breathing exercise several times a day for a two-minute solution to staying in the high-performance zone.?

One final word of advice. Don’t be fooled and believe this process is too simple to be effective. Almost all my client's express skepticism - until they try it! ? ?