George Arun A
17-03-2023
Managing stress is essential for both physical and mental health. Stress can take a serious toll on your well-being, so finding ways to keep stress levels low can have benefits that resonate throughout your whole life.
Stress creates both physical and psychological tension, and these tensions can feed off of one another. Feeling physically tense can increase your psychological and emotional tension and vice versa.
Conversely, relaxing your body physically can help relieve psychological stress, and relaxing your mind can help you physically relax and release tension in your body. When your stress response is no longer triggered, it becomes far easier to approach challenges in a proactive, peaceful way.
Relaxation techniques
Following are six relaxation techniques that can help you evoke the relaxation response and reduce stress.
1. Breath focus. In this simple, powerful technique, you take long, slow, deep breaths (also known as abdominal or belly breathing). As you breathe, you gently disengage your mind from distracting thoughts and sensations. Breath focus can be especially helpful for people with eating disorders to help them focus on their bodies in a more positive way. However, this technique may not be appropriate for those with health problems that make breathing difficult, such as respiratory ailments or heart failure.
2. Body scan. This technique blends breath focuses with progressive muscle relaxation. After a few minutes of deep breathing, you focus on one part of the body or group of muscles at a time and mentally releasing any physical tension you feel there. A body scan can help boost your awareness of the mind-body connection. If you have had a recent surgery that affects your body image or other difficulties with body image, this technique may be less helpful for you.
3. Guided imagery. For this technique, you conjure up soothing scenes, places, or experiences in your mind to help you relax and focus. You can find free apps and online recordings of calming scenes—just make sure to choose imagery you find soothing and that has personal significance. Guided imagery may help you reinforce a positive vision of yourself, but it can be difficult for those who have intrusive thoughts or find it hard to conjure up mental images.
4. Mindfulness meditation. This practice involves sitting comfortably, focusing on your breathing, and bringing your mind's attention to the present moment without drifting into concerns about the past or the future. This form of meditation has enjoyed increasing popularity in recent years. Research suggests it may be helpful for people with anxiety, depression, and pain.
5. Yoga, tai chi, and qigong. These three ancient arts combine rhythmic breathing with a series of postures or flowing movements. The physical aspects of these practices offer a mental focus that can help distract you from racing thoughts. They can also enhance your flexibility and balance. But if you are not normally active, have health problems, or a painful or disabling condition, these relaxation techniques might be too challenging. Check with your doctor before starting them.
6. Repetitive prayer. For this technique, you silently repeat a short prayer or phrase from a prayer while practicing breath focus. This method may be especially appealing if religion or spirituality is meaningful to you.
The benefits of relaxation techniques
When faced with many responsibilities and tasks or the demands of an illness, relaxation techniques may not be a priority in your life. But that means you might miss out on the health benefits of relaxation.
Practicing relaxation techniques can have many benefits, such as:
Slowing heart rate
Lowering blood pressure
Slowing breathing rate
Improving digestion
Controlling blood sugar levels
Reducing activity of stress hormones
Increasing blood flow to major muscles
Reducing muscle tension and chronic pain
Improving focus and mood
Improving sleep quality
Lowering fatigue
Reducing anger and frustration
Boosting confidence to handle problems.
To get the most benefit, use relaxation techniques along with other positive coping methods, such as:
Thinking positively
Finding humor
Problem-solving
Managing time and priorities
Exercising regularly
Eating a healthy diet
Getting enough sleep
Spending time outside
Reaching out to supportive family and friends
Relaxation techniques take practice.
As you learn relaxation techniques, you can become more aware of muscle tension and other physical sensations of stress. Once you know what the stress response feels like, you can make a conscious effort to practice a relaxation technique the moment you start to feel stress symptoms. This can prevent stress from spiraling out of control and decreasing your quality of life.
Remember that relaxation techniques are skills. As with any skill, your ability to relax improves with practice. Be patient with yourself. Don't let your effort to practice relaxation techniques become yet another stressor.
If one relaxation technique doesn't work for you, try another technique. If none of your efforts at stress reduction seems to work, talk to your health care provider about other options.
Also, keep in mind that some people, especially those with serious mental health issues and a history of abuse, may experience feelings of emotional discomfort during some relaxation techniques. Although this is rare, if you experience emotional discomfort during relaxation techniques, stop what you're doing. Consider talking to your health care provider or mental health provider.
Rather than choosing just one technique, experts recommend sampling several to see which one works best for you. Try to practice for at least 20 minutes a day, although even just a few minutes can help. But the longer and the more often you practice these relaxation techniques, the greater the benefits and the more you can reduce stress.
FAQ
How can I maintain a state of relaxation?
You can maintain a state of relaxation by amassing more resources for dealing with the stressors you face. Becoming less reactive to them can also be helpful. Make efforts to live a low-stress lifestyle, such as learning breathing exercises, doing regular exercise, meditating, writing in a journal, and cultivating relationships.1 Learn how to be more emotionally resilient.
What are the positive effects of relaxation?
Relaxation can have a number of positive effects. It can help promote better memory, more positive thinking, and stronger concentration. It can also have physical effects, including lowering blood pressure, reducing muscle tension, and slowing heart rate. Practicing relaxation techniques can also help with pain, anxiety, depression, and headaches.
Will meditation make me too relaxed or spaced out to succeed at work or school?
In the old days, people used to associate meditation with impractical alternative lifestyles, and they feared they might morph into a laid-back hippie or navel-gazing yogi if they dared to sit quietly for a few minutes. Fortunately, times have changed, and everywhere you look you can find articles touting the scientifically proven benefits of meditation. The fact is that meditation teaches you how to focus your mind and minimize distractions so you can actually get things done more effectively.
How do I know if I’m meditating the right way?
This question reflects the goal-oriented perfectionist in you who monitors your activities to make sure you’re doing them right. The great thing about meditation is that you can’t do it wrong, short of not doing it at all. (In fact, it’s the perfectionist that causes most of your stress. And the point of meditation is to reduce stress, not intensify it.)
As for knowing when your meditation is “working,” you probably won’t notice any flashing lights or sudden jolts of energy. Instead, you may recognize subtler shifts. Don’t look for results, or like the proverbial watched pot, your meditation may never boil. Just trust in the process and let the changes take care of themselves.
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