Inner Space

Every woman needs her own personal space for relaxation, not only to release us from the stress cycle but also to restore us so that we can reassume our responsibilities calmly and with deepened insight.

Try and make time everyday for at least half an hour to recharge your batteries. Take longer if you can. Here are some ways to get energy.

Move your body

All forms of exercise are great for relieving stress, and it works in many ways. Firstly, it releases endorphins, the body's natural pain relievers that improve your mood. It also removes the build up of adrenalin that can occur if you are stressed and relaxes your muscles by warming them up. Try this quick and simple exercise that you can do sitting in the office or at home.

1.Release your neck so your chin tips down into the centre of your collarbone.

2.Breathing in through your nose, bring head back up, pulling tummy in. Breathe out slowly Straighten your spine and tilt your head to the right.

3.While still keeping your head looking straight in front, slowly return head to the centre and then tilt to the left. Shrug your shoulders.

Picture this

At the end of the workday, imagine your stress liquefying and running out of your body so that with each step, you leave a coloured footprint that represents your stress. Then, notice that the further you walk from work (whether in the home or outside), the fainter the footprints become - until the stress has disappeared.

The scented touch

A massage with essential oils is absolutely heaven! When you breathe in the oils, they send a direct message to your brain via your olfactory nerves, where they affect the endocrine and hormonal systems via the hypothalamus. Odours have an amazing effect on our emotional states, because they hook into the "emotional" or primitive parts of our brains (the limbic system, also known as the rhinencephalon - the "smell brain"!). Aromatherapv massage benefits the physical, the emotional and the psyche. Create your own massage oil by adding up to 30 drops of a blend to 30 ml of pure vegetable oil, such as grapeseed or almond. The massage oil can he used for a full massage or spot massage at pressure points for quick effect.

In comes the good air

Babies breathe naturally, but most children learn that shallow breathing seems to reduce feelings of emotional pain. Think of the furious child who holds her breath. These emotions don't go away, though. They accumulate in the form of stress and tension in the solar plexus, where they can cause all sorts of physical ailments. Shallow breathing also depletes our intake of oxygen, which can cause anxiety.

Relearning how to breathe is an important step in releasing stress. Try practicing natural breathing for five minutes a day. Imagine your breath rising from your feet and travelling up your body to the top of your head as you inhale. On the exhale, feel your breath descending again to your feet.

Do this also whenever you feel yourself getting tense. Lean back in your chair and just breathe.

Sound advice

Since so many sounds can be stressful - the 3 a.m. wail of your baby, the 6 a.m. screech of your alarm clock, the 6:10 a.m. screech of your alarm clock, the 6:20 a.m. screech of your alarm clock - it's only fitting that other sounds should serve to soothe. Why not take a 20-minute "sound bath" anytime your knickers are in a twist? Put some relaxing music on your stereo, then lie down near the speakers with knees slightly bent and allow the music to wash over you. The washing imagery is important; you should feel the music rinsing away the day's stress from your tired body.

Laugh it off

Laughter is a very effective stressbuster. When we let out a belly laugh, our bodies let out endorphins, those painkilling darlings of the exercise set. Related to morphine, endorphins make us feel good, which in turn makes us more resistant to stress. But it's not enough to sit back and wait for a coworker to fall facefirst into a custard tart. Humour must be actively sought out. One easy way to do this is to imagine how the writers for a TV sitcom might handle your most stressful "snags."

Make it

The power of creating a bedcover, a garden or a cake can't be underestimated, especially if it reflects some aspect of you. It's great when the project turns out well, but there's also value in the doing. The act of concentration can become meditative, even trancelike, and mind clearing. Gardening has the additional benefit of getting some exercise in fresh air.

About the author:
Louise Pool is a self taught artist and workshop facilitator who is passionate about life, the universe and everything. Visit her website to see her art, read her musings and pick up a tip or two on creativity. http://www.samarkand-dezignz.com

quick home cleaning Highland Park ...

In The News:

Uber teen accounts now feature live video streaming from the driver's camera, but encrypted recordings stay on Uber's servers for up to 14 days.

Router firewalls and software firewalls serve different roles in protecting your home Wi-Fi from unwanted traffic and suspicious connections.

A Chrome extension with 70,000 users and a 4.7-star rating began injecting fake update warnings after a threat actor acquired and weaponized it.

Amazon's Alexa+ rolls out free to Fire TV devices across the U.S., but hands-free microphones and stored voice data raise key privacy questions.

Meta's new teen accounts settlement sets a default two-hour daily limit on Instagram and Facebook, plus night mode and school mode restrictions.

The CareCloud data breach exposed Social Security numbers, banking information and medical records belonging to more than 3.75 million people.

Waymo reveals its custom 5-nanometer chip and dual computing systems designed to take over instantly if the robotaxi's primary computer fails.

Identity theft now includes account takeover, phone hijacking and payment card exposure. Here's what to look for in identity theft protection services.

Stay up to date on the latest AI technology advancements and learn about the challenges and opportunities AI presents now and for the future.

The FBI and Justice Department seized domains tied to QScan and QTRouter, tools allegedly used by China-linked hackers to breach NASA and other agencies.

Uber Eats drone delivery launches later this year through a Zipline partnership, starting in Dallas and Houston with a goal of one million daily flights.

Medicare Open Enrollment scams start with data broker targeting months before October. Learn why August is the time to remove your personal info.

The World Humanoid Robot Games' crashes show how far the technology still needs to go to be useful, "Survivor" reality TV star and robotics scientist Christian Hubicki says.

X-Humanoid's TianGong Ultra ran 100 meters in 9.32 seconds at Beijing's World Humanoid Robot Games, beating last year's winner by more than half.

A tap-to-pay charity scam is turning small $15 or $20 donations into charges of nearly $5,000, with victims losing thousands before they notice.

Kurt Knutsson shares seven emergency preparedness lessons from surviving Hurricane Katrina inside a New Orleans hotel as conditions turned desperate.

A contractor stored credentials in a Google Doc set to "Anyone with the link," and Google Search autocomplete eventually surfaced the password string.

New Orleans 911 uses Carbyne AI to triage repeat auto crash calls, but strict limits keep human call-takers in control of all other emergencies.

A single card skimmer can generate $1 million in stolen funds, and Secret Service video shows criminals installing them in under two seconds.

ChatGPT, Meta AI and Google now use memory, connected apps and past chats to personalize ads and responses in ways most users overlook today.

MagicalAuth by Glide.id uses cryptographic SIM credentials to verify bank logins without sending SMS OTP codes that scammers can intercept or phish.

A humanoid robot named Lightning Bolt ran 100 meters in 9.39 seconds at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, edging Usain Bolt's record.

An AI agent using Claude AI canceled another person's gym booking after finding a security flaw in the reservation system's authorization checks.

Trump signed a memorandum allowing vetted private U.S. companies to conduct cyber operations against foreign criminal organizations under oversight.

Your Social Security number appeared in a breach, but exposure and identity theft are not the same. Here's how identity restoration actually works.

Inner Space

Stress Management