You can read hundreds of stress management books in seach for ways on how to relieve stress - but the most powerful of all the stress management techniques is right underneath your nose... In recent news, it was reported that: 1. Labor chief Sto. Tomas (Philippines) quits due to stress and workload [1] 2. Stress is causing soaring sickness rates among UK teachers [2] 3. Twenty-five percent of university students have sought counselling in the UK to help them cope with the stress of exams (finals) [3] 4. 97 percent of IT professionals feel traumatized by their daily work. Indeed, 80 percent of them get tense just thinking about going to the office. [4] Is it the heavy workload, multi-tasking requirement, replying to time urgent emails, or performance pressure that is creating all this stress and ill-health? Actually, none of these things cause stress. Did you know that when you are feeling rushed, pressured, on the go all the time or overloaded, physical tension builds up in your chest - your chest muscles contract. This forces you to breathe shorter, sharper and shallower. Consistent shallow breathing has been found to cause fatigue, increase in error rates, emotional tension, forgetfulness, and even health issues such as asthma, colds, anxiety/panic attacks, and indigestion. Rapid and shallow breathing increases neck and shoulder tension and raises the risk of hyperventilation [5] Rapid breathing and tension creates a state of stress. Other research has found that when your body's cells are starved of up to 60% of oxygen they become cancerous. A clinical study of thousands of participants over a 30-year period presents convincing evidence that the most significant factor in peak health and long life is how well you breathe [6]. In a recent interview I conducted with Thomas Goode, from the International Breath Association at http://www.transformbreathing.com, he explained why proper breathing habits are essential to good health and relieving stress. (You can hear the entire interview with Tom at www.BounceBackFast.com/interviews.html ) Stress relief is not about escaping the stress in your life. The key in how to relieve stress is creating a sense of calm inside you. It is not people, emails, deadlines, or workload that creates stress - but the way in which our body physically, mentally and emotionally is conditioned to respond to these events. The key, being, your breathing habits. So, what is the right way to breathe? There are many different breathing techniques, depending on whether it is to prepare for a situation (meeting, conflict, presentation), during the situation or after the situation. I have dedicated an entire chapter to Resilient Breathing patterns in my e-book 'Turn Stress into Energy and Enthusiasm' at www.StressManagementSuccess.com Here is a short exert: "One of the most potent keys to expanding your capacity when you are under pressure is to control your breathing pattern during your day-to-day work. Every day you take between 16,000 and 23,000 breaths, and each breath takes in about 250ml of oxygen and disposes of 200ml of carbon dioxide. ...In many Eastern traditions, breath is seen as the 'essence of life' and healing, and is known as 'Qi' (chi), 'prana', or 'life force'. For centuries the Yoga gurus have trained themselves to control their breathing rate to the point where they are able to slow their heart rate down, reduce their blood pressure, dramatically increase or decrease their body temperature, and control the amount of pain they feel in their body. In his book 'You Can Conquer Cancer', Ian Gawler explains how he used breathing techniques and meditation to block the pain during a root canal procedure - an ordinarily very painful process. The rate, depth and quality of your breathing can increase your energy levels, calm your nerves, clear your mind, enhance your health and even block pain." There are 3 general breathing principles that apply to each situation. They are: 1. DEPTH: Allow your abdomen (belly) to move in and out as you breathe. Allow your breathing to be deep in your abdomen, instead of being shallow in your chest. This allows your diaphragm to efficiently draw air in and out of your body. Sitting for long periods often tenses the abdomen muscles, reducing the depth of each breath. As you breathe in, allow your abdomen to move out. As you breathe out, allow your abdomen to move in. (This is the natural way you breathe when you are asleep) 2. POSITION: Remind your body to be in an upright position, instead of stooped or hunched over posture. Being hunched over a computer all day can get your body into the habit of tensing stomach and chest muscles - which restricts your breathing. Every so often, stop what you are doing and deliberately sit up straight (in fact, try it right now as you read this article). Notice the difference your body position can make to your breathing pattern. 3. FREQUENCY: Taking longer rhythmic breaths both calm your body and help to focus your mind. Breathing in for 4-5 seconds, holding for 2 seconds, then breathing out for 4-5 seconds is a good starting frequency to create positive breathing habits. Remember, using your breathing as a stress relief tool is quick and very efficient. This is the most potent of all the stress management techniques because your breathing patterns controls your emotions, and you can control your breathing. REFERENCES: [1] http://news.inq7.net/nation/index.php?index=1&story_id=77469 [2] http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/opinion/viewarticle.aspx?id=372026 [3] http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story/0,,-5852252,00.html [4] http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news? pid=10000039&refer=columnist_lynn&sid=aJgb6enRsPN0 [5] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/07/030714092134.htm [6] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/ Related Articles - stress management articles, how to relieve stress, stress management techniques, stress reduction techniques, manage stress,

The Internet has become a major playing field for buyers and sellers of event tickets. One industry that's arisen as a result of this is the secondary event ticket market. From eBay to the local, online mom-and-pop ticket store, everybody's getting into the act. This article discusses the fairly new sub-industry. The Internet has become a major playing field for buyers and sellers of event tickets in the extremely competitive $10-$12 billion event ticket market -- particularly for sold-out sports games and very popular music concerts and plays. Called the secondary event ticket market, this is the part of the event ticket market that includes tickets bought by professional brokers as well as extras that season ticket holders can't use. People estimate the size of the secondary event ticket market to be at about $2 billion although the estimates of its size vary widely. A huge market with tons of small players, the pre-Internet event ticket market was a perfect match for the Internet around 1999, and as we fast-forward to 2006, hundreds mom-and-pop electronic storefronts, auction-based websites and online destinations now resell secondary event tickets. While many of these are smalltime operators, a few major players also exist. As one would expect, eBay members are also in on the act and in a big way. In fact the biggest players of all in the secondary event ticket market are the members of eBay, which as a group sell more than $300 million in event tickets annually and boast by far the biggest community of buyers and sellers. But members of eBay also offer the biggest potential for fraud. Like everything else sold on eBay, stories abound of people getting ripped off by buying fake event tickets. Although buyers can check out how others have rated a given seller, eBay is largely operated on an honor system and offers fertile ground for fraud. To work around this event ticket fraud problem, some secondary event ticket sellers offer 100% guarantees. If you get a bad ticket, they replace it for free. Other secondary event ticket sellers take possession of the event tickets and verify them before listing the event tickets as being available for sale. Online event ticket sales are growing as consumers become more comfortable shopping on the Internet. One source estimates that online event ticket sales will grow by 27 percent this year. Even professional sports teams are involved in the secondary event ticket market. The demand for Chicago Cubs tickets is so high that the team set up their own secondary event ticket market with a team-owned ticket broker. Reselling event tickets, otherwise known as “scalping,” is not against the law. Selling event tickets, however, is often against the law where the event tickets are sold in the immediate vicinity of an event. Thirty-eight states, including California, have no meaningful restrictions on the resale of event tickets. In twelve states, the resale of event tickets is regulated. In about half those states, ticket brokers who take inventory must register with the state. In the remaining six states, event tickets cannot be resold above a maximum price premium. In these states a broker might be allowed to charge 20 percent more than the event ticket’s face value at a maximum. Michael Merten is an Internet marketing specialist who also works as an event ticket broker on the side. He sells tickets to popular, upcoming events through the Rock Concerts and Events Blog and the Pop Concerts and Tickets Blog that feature news, reviews and tickets to upcoming rock and pop concert events. Related Articles - Tickets, Pop Concert Tickets, Rock Concert Tickets, Ticket Broker, Event Tickets,