Natural ways to reduce anxiety – Part 4
Following on from my last post on calm breathing, I want to introduce you to calming counting. The advantage of this technique over calm breathing is that it helps you stop focusing on worried thoughts!
Calming Counting
- Sit comfortably.
- Take a long, deep breath and exhale it slowly while saying the word “relax” silently.
- Close your eyes.
- Let yourself take ten natural, easy breaths. Count down with each exhale, starting with “ten.”
- This time, while you are breathing comfortably, notice any tensions, perhaps in your jaw or forehead or stomach. Imagine those tensions loosening.
- When you reach “one,” open your eyes again.
As claming counts takes about 90 seconds this is precious time that your body gets to relax and quieten your mind.
It is perfectly possible to do this on your commute, as long as you don’t drive or at your desk or even in the loo!
Related Posts

Power Poses
Like most people I am interested in body language. Like most people I noticed awkward social interactions in day to day life. Until recently I considered that body language is about
- what you are communicating others
- what they are communicating to you
By adopting the Wonder Woman pose for 2 minutes, social scientists have proven that it will increase your confidence, assertiveness and help you feel more comfortable in a situation. This is due to the impact holding this "high power" pose for two minutes has on your body, its reduces your cortisol levels and increases your testosterone levels. Meaning you are less reactive to stressful situations.
So can you apply this in real life. Last weekend I was on my sports massage course and each weekend we have a written test we need to pass. For some reason I had misunderstood what the test was on and forgot to review the whole subject. I discovered this about 30 minutes before the test. So I was in a highly stressful situation. So I decided to give this power pose a try and did it during the next 30 minutes while revising. The science says 2 minutes but I felt I needed all the help I could get. It turns out that I passed. While this isn't irrevocable proof, I would recommend people try it.
As Amy Cuddy says "our body's change our minds, our minds change our behavior and our behavior changes our outcomes." For a more detailed understanding of power poses, the science behind them, watch Amy Cuddy's Your body language shapes who you are.

Tips for a healthy large intestine
Following on from my bowel health checklist. I want to focus on the large intestine whose job is to take all the remaining water and nutrients our any any food that comes its way and turn whats left into compact stools. When things start going wrong with your large intestine, you usually get inflamation and this can lead to a range of symptoms including:
- Stomach pain
- Cramps
- Bloating
- Flatulence
- frequent diarrhoea or constipation

How to Prevent Running Injuries – Part 1
What we see in clinic all the time, is people coming in with running or training injuries that have blindsided them, they have no idea how it happened. Its like the injury came out of nowhere. Injuries don't come out of nowhere. Most running injuries produce signals
- aches
- soreness
- persistent pain

