Dial Back the Stress
By making just a few changes, you’ll infuse some welcome relaxation into your daily routine.
Our wellness experts have assembled their favorite methods for de-stressing. Employ them and enjoy them! As you learn to manage your stress, remember to aim for a step-down approach to relaxation. This is a physiologic process. Just like you can’t take a car from 100 miles per hour to 0 on a dime, the body takes time to go from a state of high excitement to relaxation.
- Pray or find your own spirituality to give positive meaning to the challenges you face. Studies have shown that having spiritual beliefs lowers heart disease, liver cirrhosis, and suicide risk.
- Practice yoga. Yoga improves circulation, boosts immunity, aids bone and muscle health, provides deep relaxation, and can have a profoundly rejuvenating effect on organs and systems in the body.
- Take regular exercise, such as walking, dance class, martial arts, or any other form of exercise—preferably earlier in the day, as it may disrupt sleep if done in the evening. Exercise has a huge range of physical benefits which, in turn, should help improve resistance to stress. Exercise also boosts the body’s production of endorphins, the brain chemicals that make us feel happy and relaxed.
- Practice deep breathing. Stress causes us to breathe more shallowly, while deep breathing enables oxygenation of body tissues and has a relaxing, rejuvenating effect. Start by sitting cross-legged in loose clothes and keeping your spine straight. Relax. Inhale and exhale slowly, expanding your chest and lower abdomen as you breathe in. Count to five. Breathe out all the old stale air and imagine the fresh, new air coming in and reaching all the parts of your body.
- Go for a walk somewhere beautiful. Experiencing the vast timelessness of nature can help us to get perspective on our problems.
- Have a hot soak in the tub by candlelight and think about all the things that annoyed you that day until you feel they have been processed. Then congratulate yourself for having dealt with them!
- Treat yourself to a massage or reflexology session.
- Have a glass of wine or cup of tea with a good friend and share any problems you have. Allow yourself time each week to enjoy some kind of social life with people who make you feel good about yourself.
Have nothing scheduled? Be proactive and arrange something.
- Laugh. Watch a funny video or read a humorous book. Studies show that laughter boosts immune cell production. You could also join a laughter therapy class—check the web to find one near you.
- Take up a soothing, immediately gratifying hobby such as music (either listening to it or making it), knitting, carpentry, gardening, painting, or pottery.
- Gain control. If you worry about things you need to do and when you are going to do them, make a list and schedule each task. Tick tasks off as you complete them—and enjoy a satisfied sigh when you finish the list.
- Be realistic about time. Don’t ask too much of yourself or spread yourself too thin. Talk to your boss if you feel you are being given unrealistic deadlines or an unfair workload.
- Practice empathy. If someone seems needlessly aggressive, remember it’s their problem, not yours. Try not to take it personally. They are probably having a bad day.
- Get lost in an absorbing book to distract you from your daily worries.
Relax your whole body
Ready for more relaxation? Here’s a step-by-step progressive relaxation routine that you can practice once or twice daily. You should feel results immediately.
[View a video of this exercise, listen to an audio of this exercise, or download a printable copy of this exercise.]
- Hold tension in forehead until uncomfortable, then let it drop.
- Notice the radiation of relaxation, allow the warmth to move to the scalp, back of head, ears, temples, cheeks, and nose.
- Open mouth and chin, relax jaw, whole face.
- Relax neck muscles, let head tip forward, flow into shoulders, arms, and hands, then down back, over front to chest and abdomen to base of spine.
- Let buttocks go limp, spread to thighs, legs, feet, and tips of toes.
- Take a moment starting from the top of head and working down to check and see if any part is not relaxed.
- Inhale a deep breath and send it to this area, bringing oxygen and comfort.
- Exhale through the skin replacing tension with relaxation.
- When quiet and relaxed, remain a few minutes more to enjoy it, then slowly rouse yourself.
Sleep
….the ultimate in relaxation. Make sure to get enough good-quality sleep. Experts recommend 7 to 8 hours each night. Sleep is important for keeping your immune system strong, allowing your nervous system to rest and repair, and releasing hormones. In order to get a good night’s sleep, follow these tips:
- Go to bed at roughly the same time every night and get up at the same time every morning so that your body clock works efficiently and you feel sleepy at the right time.
- Avoid caffeine or sugar in the evening.
- Avoid watching television before bed—it can be over-stimulating.
- Keep lights dim in the evening.
- Have a bedtime ritual to relax you, such as having a bath and then reading a book. Or, practice the relaxation technique described above.
