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Emotional Stress Release Technique (ESR)
ESR or Emotional Stress Release is a gentle but powerful tool to help you release stress and feel calmer, and without a doubt, it is one of my favourite kinesiology techniques.
You can use this exercise for any overwhelming emotion you are feeling such as:
• sadness
• anxiety
• anger
• stress
• fear
• grief
• shame
• guilt
ESR allows you to release stressful emotions from your body, increase blood flow to your brain, calm your nervous and limbic systems, and activate the parasympathetic system (healing).
Our past memories are located at the back of the brain, and when we feel stressed, blood rushes to this area.
Placing a hand on the forehead can have a profound calming effect, it also enables blood to flow to the frontal cortex where the capacity for new ideas and new positive choices are created.
How to perform ESR
1. Take a few deep breathes and label the emotion you are feeling. Rate the stress level between 1 (being the least), and 10 (being the most).
2. Place one hand on your forehead and one hand where you are feeling the emotion (throat, chest, gut, etc).
3. For 2–3 minutes, close your eyes while holding those two places and focus on how you are feeling or on the events in your life (connected to the chosen emotion) that are causing stress.
4. Keep breathing deeply, while connecting to a positive feeling or affirmation that feels relevant to you…
