Activity-based Stress Relief

Seven Exercises to Rediscover Yourself


ABSR stress management programs offer a set of eight-week courses designed to conquer various types of nervousness. We combine the practical tasks with eurythmy exercises that correspond to the levels of the eightfold path, which forms the background to the everyday exercises.

The program aims to provide support for individuals grappling with stress, anxiety, depression, or pain. With ongoing practical trials and continuous development, it has garnered profound feedback from numerous participants.With their structured structure and holistic approach, the exercises help you to calm down and draw new strength and zest for life.

ABSR Trailer English



The structure and intent of ABSR programs draw parallels to the well-established MBSR programs. Both entail eight-week exercise regimens that amalgamate mindfulness practices, physical training, and behavioral observation to aid individuals dealing with stress-related challenges. Additionally, both programs derive their philosophies from spiritual foundations: MBSR finds inspiration from Buddhism, Zen meditation, and yoga, while ABSR is rooted in the eightfold path, anthroposophical studies, and eurythmy bodywork.

From week to week you will learn about seven different stress factors that trigger blockages or chains of blockages and thus cause stress. But for each of these stress factors, there is a simple practical exercise that counteracts them and, in combination, has an immediate beneficial and liberating effect:

Seven amplifiers of stress factors

playfully transformed and dissolved by

Forgetfulness

Conscious misplacement of objects

Jumpiness and anxiety

Changing handwriting in a playful way

Self-doubt and over-anxiousness

Thinking texts and circumstances in reverses order

Restlessness and loss of control

Changing habits in a playful way

Dependencies

Temporarily refraining from small wishes

Compulsion and indecision

Practicing decision-making with the heart

Being hunted by thoughts

Refraining from criticism and self-criticism


The practical exercises are complemented by simple movement exercises (eurythmy) that focus on the relationship between outer movement and inner experience, promote your sensitivity and self-awareness and allow your breath to become deep and free. They are chosen to illustrate the theme of the week, make it accessible to the senses and reinforce the effect of the exercises.



Self-study

The video materials comprehensively explain the exercises, making the course suitable for self-study, either individually or with friends. Lovingly designed run-throughs are available to enrich your daily practice with suggestions. Through this, humor, tranquility, and self-compassion naturally flourish, evolving into reservoirs of self-assurance and infusing joy into daily life.

Seminars

Discover our guided seminars on our Seminars page, which offer structured and supportive journeys through the program led by certified ABSR Coaches. The seminars include weekly meetings, opportunities for mutual encounters with fellow participants, and interactive dialogues.

Research

Extensive ongoing research on ABSR programs has been in progress since 2017. For more information, explore our Research pages or the bibliography below.

Summary

ABSR programs are pragmatically designed with a secular approach, aligning with the direct life experiences of the participants. ABSR programs comprise seven straightforward yet remarkably effective stress management exercises, facilitating individuals in coping with life's demands. The mindfulness exercises of eurythmy create space for relaxation and recuperation and promote your emotional balance and well-being.

  • Eurythmy4you

    “I am quite new to eurythmy and the ABSR Eurythmy Course is beautiful. My background is in the healing arts; specifically, forms of bodywork and energy work as in massage therapy, yoga and study and practice in shamanic teachings. Eurythmy opens a portal to embody streams of energy that I had never experienced. In practicing eurythmy, I feel held and cared for by these energies in me and around me. I feel part of the ever moving and evolving unseen energy.”

  • Eurythmy4you

    “All of this content and insight bring so many gifts, such as inner structure and context, relationship, creativity, life, light, knowledge, connection. Working together with this substance helps us to understand ourselves, where we are and our capacities, giving us strength, awareness, warmth, positivity. It gives such a calm and experienced invitation to connect with the body. Admiration and gratitude flow to you.”

  • Eurythmy4you

    “I have done Vipassana and other meditation but because as the name suggests: ACTIVE BASED STRESS RELEASE along with the gentleness yet mindful and lovingly-awakened I-consciousness in approaching ourselves through movement, the more I am convinced this is even more potent. We just need to slowly dive into it and discover for ourselves. The world will be a better and peaceful place if everyone does it! Once again Maraming Salamat/Go raibh mile maith agat and blessings of Spring Solstice to everyone behind Eurythmy4you!!!”

  • Eurythmy4you

    “Thanks a lot, this course is great and so generous and fair. I feel like at the beginning of something important for me but not only, I enjoyed to feel this beautiful group from all around the world,(north, south,east,west...). The course was supporting me during these weeks and to day, after the course, I had a strange feeling, like a little lost. As an old beginner the exercises stay very clear in my head and make sense in my daily life, the eurythmy exercises are powerfull and create deep connections.”

  • Eurythmy4you

    “I experienced the Vowels as great forming forces which give one stability and direction and the whole course as very supportive in this very, very difficult time. No word of the world's situation was talked about which was wonderful for, I think, obvious reasons and our true striving could carry on peacefully and quietly in this space. This virtual world that we were all in was a new experience for many of us and I experienced it as very intimate and focused.”

  • Eurythmy4you

    “The ABSR course is a real help to stay tuned to the practice process. Have often tried, on my own initiative, but never been able to get as far as with this course. The instructions are very helpful, particularly because they’re so specific. Often, it's the small details that matter, that help an exercise to be successful e.g. the procedure of making decisions from the heart as opposed to from the gut feeling. I find this method of practice a great help for organizing my own life.”

  • Eurythmy4you

    “The course encouraged and challenged me to take time for the exercises and thus for myself. The careful, calm introduction to the exercises has served me well. It was usually a nourishing break combined with the awareness that, with some continuous action, much can be achieved for one's own well-being.”

  • Eurythmy4you

    “Offering concrete exercises in two fields, this course gives me something that is easy to incorporate into eve-ryday life. Especially in this combination it helps one to gain increased attention, strength with inner peace and balance. That really surprised me a lot!”

  • Eurythmy4you

    “The course greatly helps to build a habit of practice, which is difficult to do on your own without any support. It was amazing that my tiredness disappeared by doing the eurythmy exercises. Like snow in the sun! I gained insight in the functioning of body and mind, and how the exercises can help to work on my main non-constructive patterns. The presentations of the daily exercise make them attractive, realistic and possible to do. I am happy with the course and will certainly continue. The demos are great. I have discovered where there is more work to do.... I will continue, with a milder attitude towards myself.”

  • Eurythmy4you

    “This online course is a great gift for me to familiarize myself, through the eurythmic exercises, with the profound meaning and expressive possibilities of movement and sound. It extends my ability to understand and creates the space to rebalance my body. The everyday exercise invites you to step out of the familiar and find yourself in a more complete and authentic way. I find the instruction, for both the eurythmy as well as the everyday exercises, well conducted and inviting. I hope that many people may benefit and thus better maintain and strengthen their inner and outer spaces.”