Yoga teacher: Breathing key to stress-free holidays

The muscles tense, the heart begins to race, the palms sweat. Stress sets in, and you're paralyzed with breathlessness. Everybody has stress, but in hectic times - like preparing for the holidays - allowing stress to snowball only makes the problem worse.

By planning, shunning procrastination and getting enough sleep, you can take steps to stop stress before it takes hold.

"There are lots of places people can find resources for improving organization or for avoiding procrastination or other things that contribute to stress, but in order to use those tools, a person has to be in a state of calm, maybe not serenity, but calm," said Robin Bewley, a yoga teacher at Athens Regional Medical Center's Mind Body Institute.

Calming down slows cortisol and adrenaline, the hormones that cause stress, as they circulate through the body. Chronic stress can cause long-term health problems such as weight gain, depression, ulcers, hair loss, diabetes and even heart disease, according to the American Psychological Association.

These same hormones cause a flight-or-fight response that slows thinking and pushes the body to react physically to stressful situations. Seventy-seven percent of Americans have reported physical symptoms related to stress in the past year, according to the APA.

Despite the statistics, stress still can be managed with fairly easy-to-use methods.

The key to dealing with stress is to recognize its onset and change your mindset, Bewley said.

"Somebody who is hysterical cannot think about organizing. Someone on the verge of tears or frozen because they are overwhelmed has to find a way to return to center," Bewley said.

Bewley's yoga classes focus on teaching people with stressful lifestyles the tactics that help free them of that stress.

She encourages her clients who are paralyzed with stress to use breathing exercises to ground themselves in the moment.

"A lot of stress is caused by people imagining a scary future, say a paycheck is short or hours have been cut. Rather than seeing what happens, you make up a story or scenario in the future that is awful," Bewle

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