TAKING THE STRESS OUT OF TRAVEL

Many of my students have heard some of my more stressful airport stories. My wife, of course, has heard them all! Some of them were just unavoidable.

However, we can eliminate a lot of the stress that seems to go with us when we travel. Darrin Zeer offers some wonderful tips for letting go and creating a sense of calm in his book, Travel Yoga (Chronicle Books; San Francisco; 2005).

He offers an excellent tip for finding serenity while standing in line during a long wait (p. 42; a slightly different pose than the one pictured on the cover).

He calls it the PATIENCE POSE:

• Standing on your left foot only, cross right foot over left. Right toes should not touch the ground. (BLOG Editor's note: Make sure that you unlock your left knee slightly for better balance control.
  
• Put your hands on your waist and focus your gaze on a spot a few feet in front of you.
  
• Feel the sole of your left foot rooted into the floor, balance on your left leg, and feel your posture rise upward.
• Take five deep breaths while focusing on being patient, and then switch legs.

I must share the quote he writes on the bottom of that page. It goes so well with my next entry, a quote from JFK:

"Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible."

-- St. Francis of Assisi

This quote provides one of the simplest ways to relieve stress: PRIORITIZE! Doing what is necessary first lifts a lot of worry off of the head, neck, and shoulders (masseters, hips, and anyplace else you carry your stress).

Please also check out Darrin's excellent and quite funny BLOG.