Improv teacher Tara taught me this as a way to “shake off the day” before performing or practicing.I find it to be a weird, fun, and quick exercise to get myself out of a funk, too. Tara never named this, so I’m taking a liberty here by naming it The Funkbuster, but that’s better than “the crazy arm thing Tara taught...

exercises are the foundation of meditation. Deep focused breathing helps get oxygen into your blood and can change your emotional state. I do these short breathing exercises before or after stressful meetings, or really anytime I can safely close my eyes and spend 30 seconds paying attention to my breathing. 

An anxiety reducing exercise that engages all senses. I picked up this exercise from my former therapist. When I’m really anxious and shutting down, this helps me a lot. Apparently stress and anxiety overwhelm your big part of your brain. The prefrontal cortex. That’s where we strategize and plan.When it shuts down, the...