Here to walk you through it is Thomas Moore, licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) and administrative director of clinical and business services, RWJBarnabas One Source Employee Assistance Program (EAP).
Transcription
Hey! My name is Thomas Moore, I’m the Director of RWJBarnabas Health EAP.
Today, the EAP is going to do something we’ve never done before. We’re going to do stress management in under two minutes. Two minutes. You say: “I don’t have the time to do stress management.” You say: “I don’t have the skills to do stress management. ”Well ,today we’re going to utilize two skills you already have, and I know you have them. What are they?
#1: Are you alive? That’s a skill.
#2 Do you breathe? That’s a skill.
I figure, “not alive, you don’t breathe? You probably don’t need stress management.”
Here’s what we’re going to do now. Please sit in a chair, get very relaxed, and have your eyes closed. You don’t want to do it right this second, do it at a private time.
But we’re going to do some breathing together, and it’s going to go like this:
You’re going to inhale, through your nose and fill up your stomach like it’s a balloon. At the top of the balloon you’re going to hold it for a second, and release [exhale]. Then You’re going to hold it, and then breathe again, inhale [count] 2 3, 4. Hold, release. [exhale] it and then do it again.
Let’s Try it: Ok, Close your eyes, sit in that chair. Get nice and relaxed.
And Ready, set, inhale: [count] 2, 3, 4, hold, [count] 2, 3, 4 exhale, [count] 2, 3, 4 hold, [count] 2, 3, 4, inhale [count] 2, 3, 4, hold [count] 2, 3, 4,. Exhale [count] 2,3,4. Hold [2,3,4]
If you do that ten times, you’ll get relaxed. Let me know how it goes. You did great. See ya in two minutes.