How can we self-regulate stress and third quarter pressure throughout a workday?
The Amygdala – the brain’s stress/panick structure – responds to sensory messages. These can either trigger or regulate. Stress messages are a constant and arrive in the form of e-mails, tricky work relationships, back-to-back meetings, workload, new tasks, complex discussions, and yes, even when checking our phones in between all of the above.
So what are the micro-messages of ‘calm’ to send to the Amygdala to balance the stress bombardment and signal safety?
Simple and small sensory practices to signal safety include:
Sipping warm herbal tea from a heavy mug, turning your face towards the sun, taking a deep breath, walking around a garden, cuddling a pet, squeezing a stress ball, eating something crunchy or chewy, smelling a calming or familiar scent, and even doing something as simple as hanging the laundry outside (if you are working from home 
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These small moments of calm reassure the brain that we are indeed in a safe environment and will immediately and effectively regulate the stess response, right there where it is triggered in the sensory brain.
