
Even though the stress-inducing elections are over, the economy is still taking a roller coaster ride, causing anxiety with every dip. While you might not be able to afford a luxury spa treatment to reduce your stress, one luxury spa is offering free meditation seminars to help you learn how to chill out and stay centered in these turbulent times.
Scattered across the US with a handful of locations,
Exhale Spa is offering complimentary, weekly meditation sessions during the month of November.

Taking a relaxing bath is a wonderful way to reward yourself after a long run or a tough day at work, so while you're soaking in and letting go, why not reap the benefits of
epsom salts? The salts are very inexpensive and can be found at the grocery store or the drug store — taking care of yourself doesn't have to be costly! Check out these five things about the salts and tell me, have you ever experimented with them in your bath water?

If stress finds its way into the end of your day, and all you want to do is get away from it all, sit on the beach,and feel sun on your skin and the warm sand on your toes. Then go ahead and imagine it.
Just
90 seconds of visualization can work wonders, lowering your stress level.

We all seem to be a little more stressed these days. From the economy to the war to the election, it's tough out there. If your stress seems to be getting the best of you, don't let that stop you from working out.

For those days when you really went hard at the gym, reward yourself by soaking your tired muscles in tea (and no, I am not talking about brewing the world's largest pot of green tea). Cornelia's
Muscle Relaxing Soaking Tea ($6.50) is the perfect addition to any post-workout bath. The soak smells oh so good because it contains sea salts combined with herbs such as peppermint, scots pine, willow bark, horsetail, and birch, all which work together to sooth, smooth, and relax an overworked body.

When I've had a long day, instead of plopping myself on the couch, I love to do a nice relaxing stretch.
Legs Up the Wall is one of my favorites because it feels great in my lower back and hamstrings. Here's a variation that will stretch your hips and inner thighs.

Heat gently soothes sore muscles and can alleviate pain and stiffness, but it can also reduce emotional stress and tension. While, I'm a huge fan of taking a
hot baths, I live in an area plagued by droughts. To save water, I rely on some other warm options to help me chill out:

If you're like me, you use fitness DVDs to get in a good cardio workout on a rainy day or when your kids are napping. A friend lent me this
Step-by-Step Tai Chi ($20) DVD recently, and I decided to give it a whirl one afternoon when I was feeling mellow. Tai Chi master Tiffany Chen begins saying that most people think of this discipline as an elderly person's exercise (just what I thought!), but that everyone can benefit from it.

When you feel like you're burning the candle at both ends, you might want to light some incense. Long associated with religious ceremonies and ashrams, researchers at
Johns Hopkins University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem found that incense lowers anxiety and can create antidepressive-like behavior.
Although the study was performed on mice, researchers believe the effects of incense translates to humans and activates the poorly-understood and under-researched ion channels of the brain to alleviate both anxiety and depression.

We've talked about our own
workout mantras before, but mantras are amazing little things. They not only motivate you, a good mantra can also work to relieve stress, too. In fact mantras can help people stay calm by easing frustration and tension.