Stress Solutions

Hey there, I'm Paula Rizzo. Welcome to Inside Scoop. Uh, we're talking all about stress today and how we can prevent it and how we can deal with it, because you know what, it's not going to go away. There's so many factors out there, whether it be a presentation you're giving for work or a meeting that you have to attend. Stress is there whether it's chronic or, you know, just in the moment, right? It's one stressful thing like going out to lunch with somebody for the first time after you haven't seen people in a very long time because of the pandemic. Whatever it is, we have some solutions today. I'm going to bring on an amazing guest in just a moment to give some solutions both in the moment so that you can calm yourself down if you're in a stressful situation, going into that situation a little bit more calm and, you know, uh, ready, uh, or if you have chronic stress, how you can deal with that as well. So we're going to talk all about that. But first, I have a free gift for you that I think will be really helpful, because one of the stress relievers that I have always used is list making. You know how much I love lists. I've written two books about list making. And so if you go to my website, paularizzo.com/list, you can get my free list making starter kit, and that'll get you, you know, get you going with your list making, which will definitely help in all areas of your life. If you're more organized, if you have everything out of your head and down on paper, It definitely makes you less stressed. I'm also a LinkedIn Learning instructor and I have several courses on LinkedIn Learning. One of them is all about, guess what, lists, the power of lists to get stuff done. And I have a few courses as well, all about hybrid work and remote work and how you can get back to work in a, in a better way, as well as setting boundaries and protecting your time, because that's a really important thing, too. Right. We get stressed out when we have too much on our plate. And a lot of times you can prevent it, right? You can prevent it by saying no. Sounds easy, but it's actually not that easy to say no. So if you just check out that course, if you go to LinkedIn Learning, um, or to my website, if you go to paularizzo.com/LinkedIn, you can also check that out. And I want to hear from you throughout the show. If you're joining us live or if you're watching the replay, let us know, you know, leave some comments below. Tag a friend who might be interested in this conversation, who maybe is a little stressed out and needs some solutions, uh, and leave your questions there. We'll checking for those. We'll answer those at the end of the broadcast. And if you're watching the replay, we will get to those, uh, at some point. And, uh, without further ado, I would love to bring my guest on, the fabulous Lara Riggio. Lara is an expert energy trainer, and she has helped people all over the world, including me. I have gone to Lara myself in, in the past. Lara, thanks for being here.

Oh, my pleasure.

So glad to have you here. So you are based in New York City. And so there are a lot of people who are moving and shaking in New York, right? There's, there's no energy quite like New York City, uh, but everything has come to a halt. Now we're getting back into the world, right? And everyone is sort of starting from scratch. Why is it now that, that everything is so much more stressful because we've been so closed away for so long?

Well, I really think of the body as It's our own environment, right? Our bodies are our own little area of the world, right? And when we go out into an area of the world that we haven't experienced for a while, all of our senses are assaulted, let's say. And we have to manage all this incoming information. Sometimes this incoming information can really feel overwhelming, especially in a place like New York City. Especially if we've been closed away for a while. And we see this a a lot with children, actually, with sensory issues. And I work with some kids with, with not quite autism, but sensitivities to sound, sensitivities to touch. And there are things that we can do, simple exercises that can help calm our body's stress reaction to whatever environmental stimuli we're receiving. And it's remarkable what can happen when I work with children with this, a child that is really disorganized and showing signs of that, like repetitive, you know, head turning or moaning, will just be silenced and calmed and stopped in the moment. For us out in the world as adults, often we may find that our jaw is tense or our heart is racing or we are breathing less, you know, less deeply, more shallowly, shallowly, shallowly. And if that happens throughout our day, we wind up being exhausted by the end of the day. These simple and easy exercises can calm you down so that you're grounded and you're functioning at your best.

And we're going to go through some of the exercises throughout this time. So stick with us for that. Lara has some great exercises and terrific videos, I have to say. And if you're not on her email list, get on her email list at larariggio.com, Because you send out some really great content. You are one of the first experts. I think you're ahead of your time to have used video before anyone else did. And you and I have known each other for a long time from my days as a TV producer at Fox News Channel and producing health and wellness content. And so it was always wonderful to see you using video in a way as a business owner. So we can talk about that a little bit later too. But I just want to talk a little bit about what you had mentioned about noticing the signs of stress. In your body. I think that's really important to pause on because we get into the mode of just thinking, that's how I am. Oh, that's— my neck feels like that all the time. That's just me. What are some ways that people can start to notice these issues in themselves and not just brush them away?

Well, one is what you just talked about just now. Muscular tension, especially in the jaw and the neck. Is your stomach tense? Is your low back tight a lot of the time? I find with my clients that That is one of the first things that they notice when we start to calm stress reactions, their muscles release. When you're moving into a sympathetic nervous system response, your blood rushes from your brain to your limbs to power fight or flight. And when the muscles are activated in that way, if that energy is not released, they get tight. Now, the other thing that can happen, eyes dilate. And this is interesting. So if you're in a meeting, for example, and you see someone's eyes are dilated, they're stressed.

Interesting.

Find someone's breath again being shallow. If you find that your own breath is shallow, that's another sign. Heart racing, um, feeling flush, another thing. And then of course just anxiety or, or worry as well.

Yeah, it's important to notice those signs in yourself because I think a lot of us just brush it away and think it's no big deal. And of course now as we're going back out into the world and, you know, we're— as we're recording this, you know, uh, war happening in Ukraine. And, you know, there's a lot of stressors, you know, both in your personal life and what's going on in the world. The pandemic was a stress enough, you know. And so I think a lot of people have really, um, come to live in this stressful environment and think that it's okay and that that's where you should be, um, operating from. And it is just not the case because you can truly feel the difference when you're not in that state, but you have to give yourself that that room to, to do it and try and try out some of Lara's, uh, exercises to really show that there is a, there is a difference between how you are feeling and how you could feel. Um, when we talk about energy work, right, a lot of times people think, oh, that's woo-woo, strange things, not for me, don't know what that is. I mean, to be perfectly honest, when we first met, you know, I was working at Fox News Channel, and that was just not the outlet to be talking about energy work 15 years ago, 10 years ago, you know, we found ways to still work together, of course. But for the naysayers or for those who don't really get it, what do you say?

I say try it, which I'm gonna— I'm gonna take you through a few exercises later on. I say try it because these are tools that I can't live without, and it's like having a superpower at your disposal. Energy exists. So the system of Chinese acupuncture has been around forever. It is a viable —of medicine in the Eastern cultures. Okay? So, acupuncturists, their work affects not only organ systems but the emotions that relate to those organ systems. So when you're treating the body physically, you're automatically treating it emotionally as well. And that's why tapping specific meridian points can affect you emotionally. So, we're talking about age-old proven healing techniques here that we can now access with our fingertips versus needles. And if you're not doing this, guys, you're, you're really missing out. That's the way that I see it. And I got into doing this because, and this is where a lot of people find me, they find me at the end of their search. I had chronic fatigue. I was tired all the time. I was drinking 2 grande Americanos to get through my day, and I was having adrenal fatigue as a result. And this was literally the only thing that worked for me. And I felt a difference in doing one exercise in the moment. And then as I committed committed to doing a little bit, like literally 5 minutes of energy work every day on myself, I went from not being able to walk up without stopping 4 flights of stairs to bounding up all 4 flights with ease. And it was over a period of a few weeks. So, I saw the physical difference.

Yeah. It really does make a difference. And, you know, Lara and I have been friends. We've known each other for many years. My appendix burst, as many of you know. That was a traumatic event in my life. And I went to Lara because I said, I don't know, My whole body's out of whack and I don't know what's going on here. And I have to say, those exercises really did help to get me back on track for sure. So it does work. I am a believer for sure. I want to pause for just a second because we want to hear from you guys. If you have questions about stress, if you have questions about energy work or how you can deal with stress in any way, leave them in the comments below. And I want to give a shout out real quick to Tracy Klein, who is watching on LinkedIn. Who has been a list maker her entire life. Um, but your books raised my organized list making to a whole new level, helped personally and professionally. Well, thank you, Tracy. I appreciate that very, very much. Um, and Lara, I want to talk about lists a little bit here for a second because it is a good way to, to relieve stress. Uh, how have you found lists to work for you in, in terms of stress?

Well, I have to thank you for that as well because years ago Right after I met you, I went to one of your workshops, and that's when I incorporated list-making into my life. And it's actually something that I use as an action step for my clients, because when you have too much information in your head and you're trying to remember more, it is a mental stress. And one of the meridian systems that I see out of balance on people all the time is bladder meridian, which is just a sign— if their bladder meridian's overstimulated, it's a sign of central nervous system overwhelm. Which making lists and getting all this information out somewhere else so that you're not holding it, boy, that really helps to calm the central nervous system in a big way. I've seen it. Mm-hmm, for sure.

And, you know, when we talk about meridians, you know, your body is made up of all of these meridians and they run from top to bottom and they do different things. And, you know, Lara taps into them and makes you feel better. But it's true, each one of them lines up with something different going on with your body. Let's talk a little bit about stress in the moment. So like, I'm about to do a presentation for work, or I have to record a video, or I have to do something right now. What is something that we can do like in the moment, right before you're about to do something stressful, that can really help to get you sort of like in the zone and zen out a little bit?

So I have two that I'm going to show you really quickly. One of them is if it's okay if you're rubbing your temples, and the other one no one will know you're doing.

Okay.

No, I want everybody to do this with me. So you're gonna go ahead and I want you to think about something that's actually stressing you out, 'cause there's no reason in doing this and I wanted you to see if it really works for you, in other words. So we're gonna do a before and after. So think about something that's stressing you out and then you're gonna just do a quick body scan, go from the top of your head down through your throat. Just note where you're tense or you're stressed. Go down through your chest, your stomach, your gut. Note where you're tense, constricted, stressed. Now you're simply going to put your hands on your temples right here, and you're going to rub your temples as you take 3 deep breaths. So breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. And as you do this, take another breath. You're going to start to rub in a circular fashion over your ears, breathing in, exhaling out, and continue to rub around your ears. And again, breathing in, rub the bone behind your ears, and exhaling out, and then just rub down the back of your neck and off your shoulders. And just take another breath, exhale, and just check in with your body. Check out your stress. See, my neck is definitely looser, my jaw is looser, and this has an immediate effect, I find, on muscular tension and the feeling of of anxiety. That's one that you can do, obviously, if you're alone somewhere. You can even run into a bathroom stall and do it if you need to. The one that I love that's an anywhere stress reliever is you cross your ankles right over your left or left over your right. You take your hands out in front of you. And again, you don't have to do this big gesture. I'm just showing you how to do it. Flip your hands, cross them, clasp them, and then just sit them on your lap. So you can get into this in a meeting. And in fact, I have a client who does speeches all around the world, and she does this as she's sitting on panels just to get her body calm. What this does is it gets your brain working bilaterally. When you're in a stress state or sympathetic nervous system response, your brain switches to unilateral brain function, using, utilizing its most dominant side. So when you're doing this, you are kind of forcing your body to work and your brain to work bilaterally. So you're physically overriding a stress response. And as you're just sitting in this posture, breathing, you're calming yourself down so that you can be more grounded and connected to your own power. So you're not reacting, you're at choice, you can think clearer, and you're able to say what you want to say again versus reacting to what's happening. Mm-hmm. The first one that we did helped to calm the triple warmer meridian, which is the fight or flight initiator in Chinese medicine. So we traced it backwards. So we took energy away from it and calmed a stress response that way.

Yeah, I mean, I have to say, you know, the first exercise that we did— and somebody on LinkedIn is saying the same thing, that they had tingles— I also get tingles from that. When you do the like push away part, I felt tingles all the way down my legs, and I was like, oh, so what is happening?

So that tingle, oftentimes when we're stressed, you know, we can be in a fight state, a fight state, a fight, a flight, or a freeze state. And often when we're in the freeze state— you know, that phase of a sympathetic nervous system response, energy gets blocked and stuck. And so, when we're actually tracing, we're opening up meridian points and sometimes really allowing where there's been stuck, blocked energy, that energy to move right away. And so, it can cause an actual physical tingle sensation down the meridian line.

Oh, yeah. I felt it. I definitely— and you know, the other one, the second one that you can do sitting with your legs crossed and, you know, I do that one quite a lot because I learned it from you years ago. But you're right, like no one knows you're doing it. It. It's very easy to do, uh, at any point, you know, in your day. Let's talk a little bit about chronic stress, right? So these are things that will help, you know, over time as you start to notice yourself and say, okay, I'm going into a stressful, um, you know, situation, or I feel stressed. But what about chronic stress, and how do you get people to, to get rid of it for the long term? So chronic stress—

I really want everybody to hear me here— chronic stress is a reaction that is just repetitive. So it is your body's triggered response to something, and it can be an event that's occurring, maybe, you know, an upsetting, you know, way that you're interacting with someone in a relationship. Um, with the chronic stress that we've been facing in the world, a lot of times I find when there's some world event, there is that stress, but then there's something about that stress that does relate to some sort of childhood experience. Or potentially even ancestral, ancestral experience that could be a bit of a trigger. So one of the best ways to handle these moments is to notice, first of all, turn up your awareness on when it's happening. When are you being triggered? And then when you are, remember the moment. You don't necessarily— you can't always deal with it in the moment, but you can remember when it was and then later on go through and work with it. And one of the most effective and quick ways to release this kind of stress in our body is through tapping. We can tap specific meridian points. So I'll just take you through a quick routine here. And, um, so everybody out there, just think about something right now, again, that has potentially been stressing you in a chronic way. You could think of the state of the world, you could think of a specific situation that seems to be recurring, and we're just going to tap on it. So go again and do a body scan. Think about where you're feeling the stress or tension in your body, pinpoint it, and you're going to focus on that area as we tap through. So tap in between your eyebrows like this, and as you tap, I just want you to focus on that spot and breathe into it. And then you're going to continue with me, move your hands to the sides of your eyebrows and just think to yourself I can acknowledge this. I can feel my feelings and I can help myself soothe myself through them. I am willing to acknowledge these feelings, soothe myself, and see what this feeling is trying to tell me I need. Now you're gonna go under your clavicle here, I am willing to acknowledge this, breathe into it, and soothe it. As I tap, I am helping my body release this stress physically so that I can figure out what this stress is trying to tell me. What might I need to do differently? How How could I support myself better in this situation? Change a pattern and possibly create a new way of functioning that helps life be better. Go ahead and just stop. That was just one round, guys. And go ahead and do a body scan again and just think about that stressful thing and see how it feels now. I feel tingly again.

Right, your energy's moving.

I think, I think you have a freeze response going on. I do. Energy pathways happening. Yes. And I just want to say, doing that simple, simple tapping, um, protocol, you can do it many times. So if you felt some relief from this, if you do it 2 or 3 more times, whatever that stress was, if there's still a little bit there, you ultimately can release it down to a zero. It's phenomenal. Yeah, yeah.

So that's a really, really good way. This is called— so, uh, is it— it really is EFT, right?

Well, there is— there's a technique called EFT, Emotional Freedom Technique. There's also something called the Tapping Solution out there. These are just— these— both of these techniques utilize meridian tapping points like I just used. When you're actually tapping something, you are stimulating energy flow through the meridian point, and that's why it opens it up and again frees energy through it so that any blocked tension can be released and you restore proper energy flow, but you also are adding strength to the point, which is adding strength to the meridian, and thus supporting the positive emotional aspect of it versus the more negative one or the one that's more aligned with lack.

I see. I want to get to some of the questions because there's been a couple questions that have come through. So I think people are doing this with us because I'm seeing some stuff coming through saying people are having tinglings, that the ears have so many points. I want to talk about— so Barbie on LinkedIn says, I never know what to say while tapping. Well, Barbie, you can rewatch this video with Lara and you can go through it. But any suggestions there, or are there mantras that people can say, or what should they do?

Well, I mean, there's a lot of things to do, but the simplest thing to remember is the one that I used, which is I want to acknowledge what I'm feeling and help my body release it. So, you know, one of the things that comes up around tapping is we're not just trying to get rid of the feeling. We are— we want to acknowledge it because it's telling us something. I can acknowledge this feeling and help my body release it so that I can get clearer on what I want. Because a lot of times, this is the way I see feelings actually. Feelings are a major sign to stop. It's like, stop, look at what's happening. Listen to what your heart really wants in this situation before you continue on, before you cross the street, because the way that you are continuing in your life now is not really aligned with your desires. And when we look at it in this way, it is so empowering because it means our emotions are not disabling. They are actually informative. Of positive change. And if we listen and we allow them to inform our choices, ultimately they allow us to create a better situation than what we're in now.

Sure. It's about intention setting and noticing yourself and all of that, which I, which I love. Kathy on Facebook says she loves it. It's making her yawn a lot. Yawning.

So I love what Paula said about tingling. Yawning is a, is a way that you're releasing energy, blocked energy, as well. Whenever I see any of my clients yawn, I know it's working. So that's great.

Good. Awesome, Kathy, you're doing it. Uh, Bob has a question from LinkedIn, um, about these exercises for teenagers and tips on how to convince a teenager to practice the exercises. Uh, specifically, it's a 15-year-old girl who is on the autism spectrum and suffers from sensory overstimulation.

So one of the things I will say about anyone with any kind of sensory issues, tapping could be a little bit overstimulating. So one of the things that you could do is flip the hand over or just have them hold points. And I would say possibly start with one that is more soothing. There is a wonderful, relaxing, so easy to do exercise that is a calming stress reliever to do at night before bed. And again, for chronic stress, anybody who's under chronic stress, so it's kind of like all of us right now, should be doing this at night before bed because it helps you calm a stress state and move into a parasympathetic restive or restorative state so that you basically bring your stress set point down to zero so that then when you're sleeping, your body can actually use its energy to repair versus continuing to fuel a stress reaction while you're actually sleeping, 'cause then you're not really repairing. So guys, this means it's better for your skin, it's better for your immune system, it's better for everything if you calm first. And this is so easy. You simply take one hand across your forehead like this, you put it right above your eyebrows. Then you put the other hand across the ridge, across the back of your head. I place pillows under my elbows 'cause you don't wanna hold your arms up, you wanna relax into this. And you just rest in this position until you feel strong, matching pulses in your hands, or actually you'll probably just fall asleep, and you will feel the stress draining from your body as you do this. I think this exercise in particular would be a great one to just show her. And, um, I'm actually adding this to— at the end of the day today, this will be added to the page that I am giving you guys where I am showing you all these exercises we're doing today again. So you'll have them in video form, and so you could just Show her this exercise, have her try it, and see how it works. Often they will feel the difference. Um, my son has some sensory issues and it is remarkable. He now— so he had a taste sensitivity and, you know, he's just a little guy, he's almost 2. He now puts his hands on the, um, eating tray in front of him on his high chair and man literally does this for me, waiting for me to like do my— his energy.

Oh, he knows, he knows it feels good. It feels good.

You'll know, she'll know it feels good, and she'll know if it works for her. And like all the videos on my site, by the way, too, are also ones you could just— if this works, direct her there, because I have them on a lot of different subjects, and she can pick and choose what resonates with her.

Yeah, absolutely. And so I want to show that, that, um, freebie that you have, your Stress Detox. If you go to laraRiggio.com/stressdetox, you can grab it there. And I highly recommend it. Lara, I'm hanging out with you all the time. I mean, I text you and I'm like, "Hey, I loved that one you did," or, because you do these quite often. Sometimes I request things, just saying. Thank you. But I have to say, bringing back the original point that I came to in the very beginning about you as a business owner and you creating videos early on before anybody else. Else. I mean, what you do really does lend itself so much to video. But I wouldn't be doing my job as a media trainer and coach without talking to you about it just briefly and saying, how has this helped incorporating video into your business and showing people what you do? How has that helped you?

Well, I mean, it's enabled me to help people way beyond what my— way beyond working with them one-on-one and being with them. And it's so beautiful that I mean, I have people in a course right now that are from all over the world. I'm working with people in Australia and India, and it's just remarkable that, and they find me through these exercises and tell me, Lara, this exercise helped me do this, this, this, and this and this. And you know, these exercises are changing people's lives and I haven't even touched these people physically. So it allows me to reach reach so many more people and, um, just touch the lives and hearts of more people than I ever thought, you know, ever imagined was possible.

Yeah, absolutely. And it's, it's just a nice way to also, um, show people how it works, right? Because people, you know, like we said, they might be like, what is this? This is strange. I don't know what's happening here. And but this is like the introduction. This is how you do it. Uh, and so this has been, this has been great. Barbie agrees. She says thank you for these from LinkedIn. Um, so thank you guys for, for for watching and participating and doing these exercises with us. You can rewatch this and of course sign up for Lara's stress detox and stay in touch with her. Lara, thank you so much for being here.

My pleasure.

Thanks for having me. And I have a freebie for you too. If you go to paularizzo.com/list, you can get my list-making starter kit, which of course lists are a really great way to manage stress and, you know, get all of that stuff that you have to do out of your head and down onto paper. So go check that out. I'm also a LinkedIn Learning instructor, so you can check out all of my courses LinkedIn Learning, the power of lists to get stuff done, as well as lots of others like how to set boundaries and protect your time. Because you know what? Yeah, these exercises do take a little bit of time. So you want to protect your me time to actually do them. Put it on your calendar. Say, hey, this is how I'm going to relieve some stress today. I hope that you try it and I hope that I see you all next time. Thanks.