These are Eastern arts just like aromatherapy and, like aromatherapy, have been around for thousands of years. People in the West tend to want to hurry everything along, which can be one reason why we are so much more stressed than people in the East. Yoga involves a series of stretching exercises that are designed to allow you to concentrate on something other than yourself. Meditation is the process of clearing your mind of negative thoughts and concentrating on nothing. Both are equally effective at calming you down if you understand how to use these techniques towards alleviating stress.

Yoga and meditation work pretty much the same way as exercising, cleaning and counting do to relieve stress - they draw your attention away from the stressful situation and to something else. This is the secret to controlling your stress - to focus your attention on something that is either positive or neutral. Once you have learned how to use these different techniques to alleviate stress, you can then work on controlling how you react to stress.