MINNEAPOLIS - Dr. Henry Emmons is an integrative psychiatrist based in the Twin Cities who’s written several books and is the co-founder of NaturalMentalHealth.com.
“Stress is completely normal,” Dr. Emmons says. “Stress is just part of the human condition.”
Over the next four days he's helping us learn how to step into stress with a little more ease by grounding, moving, resting and playing. Tuesday we explore the idea of grounding.
“It really involves doing something physical, getting yourself back in your body in some way, which gets you out of your head,” he says.
A powerful way to do that when stress creeps in, he says, is working with your breath.
“You can count to four as you breathe in and then pause for a second or two. Then as you breath out, try to count to six or seven,” Dr. Emmons says.
He recommends practicing that for five to ten minutes when you’re not feeling super stressed, even if it’s just every other day. “Then when you start feeling stressed you can sit down, you can turn your attention to it, and within three breaths very likely you're going to notice yourself feeling a little calmer,” he says.
Dr. Emmons says that engaging your sense of smell with things like essential oils can do wonders, and spending time with your pet is also very grounding.
“It's just giving yourself a break,” he says. “It's not solving the problem, but it's ok to distract yourself for a little while to give your body and your mind a chance to recover.”
Tune in to KARE 11 News at 5 p.m. on Wednesday when Dr. Emmons will talk about how moving can help reduce stress and ways to incorporate it into your busy day.
You can learn more about Dr. Emmons here: https://www.partnersinresilience.com/who-we-are/henry-emmons/