Stress inoculation is a term used for developing anxiety-reducing techniques that can be accessed anytime needed. This would seem especially helpful in the up and down world of web entrepreneurship but this skill can be useful anytime, by anyone.

The goal of stress inoculation is to develop a procedure that will almost instantaneously put you in a calm state. This is not necessarily a completely relaxed condition since many demanding situations won't allow that. The idea, however, is to be able to step back and look at problematic circumstances in a realistic light without feeling too hassled. When you can do this, you make better decisions and your ulcer potential goes down.

Despite its benefits, the use of stress inoculation is not more widespread because most of us are not born with the ability and getting there requires some work. Though you are striving for the instant gratification of immediate composure, getting to this point takes some training that doesn't happen overnight. Anybody can achieve it, however, with a little perseverance. I will show you how in the next few paragraphs.

Practice Environment

First of all, let's consider your practice environment. It is difficult to learn relaxation techniques in an atmosphere of noise or other constant disturbances. Find someplace where you will be undisturbed for about half an hour to 45 minutes. If you can isolate yourself for this amount of time but can't escape outside sound, set up a white noise barrier. This is simply a radio or television turned on in between stations or a fan that you place between yourself and the source of the outside sound. This will help drown out the racket and you will not notice the white noise after a while. Other items you will need are a dim light in the room and a comfortable chair. Having this all set up, you can start practicing.

Let's start with the time-honored exercise of taking deep breaths. I know you have probably heard this before but it is important in any relaxation training. There's no big mystery here, just practice breathing to a slow count of four to inhale and another four count to exhale.

Spend several of your first practice sessions just doing this breathing. Slow breathing can, and should be, practiced all of the time. Learn to do this automatically and breathing, by itself, will go a long way to keeping you tranquil. Try to keep all other thoughts out of your mind while you are doing this. Once you are comfortable with your practice place and have done enough deep breathing exercises to start getting results, it's time to move on to more advanced training. There are hundreds of ways to learn stress reduction and the first one I will teach you is very visceral. It is traditionally called "hands and feet, heavy and warm". I know it sounds like a kung fu mystery, but it is actually based on very basic functions of your body's autonomic system.

Essentially, what happens when we are stressed (frightened, angry, etc.) is that blood starts to pool around our vital organs. It does this to increase our survival chances in case we are wounded and start losing blood.

This blood has to come from somewhere so our bodies take it from parts that won't kill us instantly if we lose them, that is, our hands and arms, feet and legs. (Therefore, expressions like cold feet or clammy hands describing someone who is frightened.)