Seven Steps to Eliminate Stress

By Patty Webb-Butts, Ph.D.

Take a short emotional vacation by using Freeze Frame Technique. Positive emotions can help you replace negative, stressful thought patterns and feelings with more positive perceptions and emotions in the moment you need them most. It is so easy to do:

1. When you are feeling stressed, have anxiety or panic, or are facing a problem, describe your feeling in one word. Examples could be anxious, fearful, afraid, confused, angry, frustrated, sad, disgusted enraged, overwhelmed, lonely, a victim or depressed.
    
2. Now, shift your attention to the area around your heart. Imagine yourself breathing in through your heart—breathe in to the count of five, breathe out to the count of five. Continue doing this for a few minutes.
    
3. Think of a positive feeling—the love you have for a child or grandchild. Try to experience that positive feeling and send that positive feeling or love out to someone else. You may want to think of a positive experience or place where you have experienced serenity, peace or laughter. Work on experiencing that feeling right now.
    
4. Go back to step number two and again breathe in through your heart to the count of five and then breathe out to the count of five through your solar plexus while still feeling the positive feeling.
    
5. Ask yourself what would be good answer to your problem or a helpful attitude to balance and de-stress your mind and body. If possible, write it down. Heart perceptions are often subtle. They gently suggest effective solutions for you and all concerned.
    
6. Sense any change to your original stress as noted in step number 1. Write it down and sustain the positive feeling as long as you can.
    
7. Repeat these steps as often as needed. 

Copyright © 1999-2008 Patty Butts

Patty Webb-Butts, Ph.D.

Dr. Patty Webb-Butts is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), nutritional consultant, and author of two self-help books:

• Defeating Depression and Beating the Blues
  
       [Available at Amazon.com]

• Free Yourself from Chronic Fatigue and Fibromyalgia
  
       [Available at Amazon.com]

She earned her Bachelor's degree in Mass Communication, a Masters degree in Educational Psychology, and a Doctorate in Nutrition.

Her lecture topics include nutrition, depression, mental health, stress management, and her favorite: “Optimism, how to get it and keep it.”

Patty's gift is giving hope to others in their journey to recovery.  If you would like to invite her to speak to your group, you may reach her at the following email address:

pattyb2heal@yahoo.com