Relaxation -
You should be comfortably seated or stretched out on a firm mattress or mat. Until you learn the routine, have a friend recite the directions or listen to them on a tape, which you can prerecord yourself.
Progressive muscle relaxation focuses sequentially on the major muscle groups. Tighten each muscle and maintain the contraction 20 seconds before slowly releasing it. As the muscle relaxes, concentrate on the release of tension and the sensation of relaxation. Start with your facial muscles, then work down the body.
The entire routine should take 12 to 15 minutes. Practice it twice daily, expecting to master the technique and experience some relief of stress in about two weeks.
Few things are more stressful than illness. Many forms of exercise reduce stress directly, and by preventing bodily illness, exercise has extra benefits for the mind. Regular physical activity will lower your blood pressure, improve your cholesterol, and reduce your blood sugar.
Exercise cuts the risk of heart attack, stroke, diabetes, colon and breast cancers, osteoporosis and fractures, obesity, depression, and even dementia memory loss. Exercise slows the aging process, increases energy, and prolongs life.
Except during illness, you should exercise nearly every day. That doesn't necessarily mean hitting the gym or training for a marathon. But it does mean 30 to 40 minutes of moderate exercise such as walking or 15 to 20 minutes of vigorous exercise. More is even better, but the first steps provide the most benefit.
Aim to walk at least two miles a day, or do the equivalent amount of another activity. You can do it all at once or in to minute chunks if that fits your schedule better. Add a little strength training and stretching two to three times a week, and you'll have an excellent, balanced program for health and stress reduction.
And if you need more help with stress, consider autoregulation exercises involving deep breathing or muscular relaxation.
Remember, too, that mental exercises are the time-honored ways to cut stress see box. As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content.
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Surprising answers to this question and more. How does exercise reduce stress, and can exercise really be relaxing? How exercise reduces stress Aerobic exercise is key for your head, just as it is for your heart.
Autoregulation exercise and stress relief Regular physical activity keeps you healthy as it reduces stress. Breathing exercise reduces stress Even without formal meditation and controlled breathing, the gentle muscle stretching of yoga can reduce stress.
Here's how deep breathing exercises work: 1. Hold your breath briefly. Exhale slowly, thinking "relax. Mental exercises reduce stress, too Bodily exercise can help relax the mind, and mental maneuvers can, too. Benson has termed as the relaxation response: 1.
Progressive muscular relaxation Stressed muscles are tight, tense muscles. Here's how it works: Progressive muscle relaxation is best performed in a quiet, secluded place.
Forehead Wrinkle your forehead and arch your eyebrows. Hold; then relax. Eyes Close your eyes tightly. Nose Wrinkle your nose and flare your nostrils.
Tongue Push your tongue firmly against the roof of your mouth. Face Grimace. Jaws Clench your jaws tightly. Neck Tense your neck by pulling your chin down to your chest.
Back Arch your back. And you don't need any special equipment. You can practice meditation wherever you are. You can meditate when you're out for a walk, riding the bus, waiting at the doctor's office or even in the middle of a business meeting.
Meditation has been around for thousands of years. Early meditation was meant to help deepen understanding of the sacred and mystical forces of life.
These days, meditation is most often used to relax and lower stress. Meditation is a type of mind-body complementary medicine. Meditation can help you relax deeply and calm your mind.
During meditation, you focus on one thing. You get rid of the stream of thoughts that may be crowding your mind and causing stress. This process can lead to better physical and emotional well-being. Meditation can give you a sense of calm, peace and balance that can benefit your emotional well-being and your overall health.
You also can use it to relax and cope with stress by focusing on something that calms you. Meditation can help you learn to stay centered and keep inner peace. These benefits don't end when your meditation session ends.
Meditation can help take you more calmly through your day. And meditation may help you manage symptoms of some medical conditions.
When you meditate, you may clear away the information overload that builds up every day and contributes to your stress. Meditation also might help if you have a medical condition.
This is most often true if you have a condition that stress makes worse. A lot of research shows that meditation is good for health.
But some experts believe there's not enough research to prove that meditation helps. With that in mind, some research suggests that meditation may help people manage symptoms of conditions such as:.
Be sure to talk to your healthcare professional about the pros and cons of using meditation if you have any of these or other health conditions. Sometimes, meditation might worsen symptoms linked to some mental health conditions. Meditation is an umbrella term for the many ways to get to a relaxed state.
There are many types of meditation and ways to relax that use parts of meditation. All share the same goal of gaining inner peace. Guided meditation. This is sometimes called guided imagery or visualization. With this method of meditation, you form mental images of places or things that help you relax.
You try to use as many senses as you can. These include things you can smell, see, hear and feel. You may be led through this process by a guide or teacher. Mindfulness meditation. This type of meditation is based on being mindful. This means being more aware of the present. In mindfulness meditation, you focus on one thing, such as the flow of your breath.
You can notice your thoughts and feelings. But let them pass without judging them. Each type of meditation may include certain features to help you meditate. These may vary depending on whose guidance you follow or who's teaching a class. Some of the most common features in meditation include:.
Focused attention. Focusing your attention is one of the most important elements of meditation. Focusing your attention is what helps free your mind from the many things that cause stress and worry.
You can focus your attention on things such as a certain object, an image, a mantra or even your breathing. A quiet setting. If you're a beginner, meditation may be easier if you're in a quiet spot. Aim to have fewer things that can distract you, including no television, computers or cellphones.
As you get more skilled at meditation, you may be able to do it anywhere. This includes high-stress places, such as a traffic jam, a stressful work meeting or a long line at the grocery store. This is when you can get the most out of meditation.
Don't let the thought of meditating the "right" way add to your stress. If you choose to, you can attend special meditation centers or group classes led by trained instructors.
But you also can practice meditation easily on your own. There are apps to use too. And you can make meditation as formal or informal as you like. Some people build meditation into their daily routine.
For example, they may start and end each day with an hour of meditation. Klipper published a book called The Relaxation Response , which gives instructions on tying meditation techniques into daily activities the average person could do.
Although stress levels vary across society, the fact remains that stress can be detrimental to one's health. In order to combat this stress, there have been a variety of methods developed that have been proven to reduce stress and its consequences in everyday life.
The majority of techniques can be classified into either physical , mental or therapeutic techniques. Breathing techniques are one of the easiest ways to reduce stress. They require little effort and can be done anywhere at any time. Proper breathing techniques that incorporate deep abdominal breathing have been shown to reduce the physical symptoms of depression, anxiety and hypertension as well as everyday emotional symptoms of anger and nervousness.
These 5-min breathwork exercises consist of deep breaths followed by extended, relatively longer exhales. Progressive muscle relaxation is a technique wherein people focus on flexing and holding a certain set of muscles and then slowly relaxing them and focusing attention on a group of muscles.
Gradually, from top to bottom, one might feel a deep sense of relaxation. Progressive muscle relaxation is a somewhat adapted version of the Jacobsonian Relaxation Technique developed in the s. Meditation has long been practiced around the world, but has only become commonplace relatively recently in North America.
Studies suggest that in addition to reducing physiological and psychological stresses placed on a body, people who practice meditation have fewer doctor visits for physical or psychological illnesses.
Hypnosis relaxation therapy has recently become another technique used among healthcare professionals to promote relaxation.
When performed correctly, it puts a person into a state of deep relaxation and high vulnerability to suggestions made by the hypnotist. In addition to relaxation, hypnosis therapy is used to treat a variety of conditions. Hypnosis is promoted by the Mayo Clinic for conditions such as smoking addiction, pain, obesity, chemotherapy reaction, asthma, and allergies.
Many relaxation techniques, including physical ones, involve sustaining a passive simple focus. Relaxation techniques used in therapy by a certified counselor or therapist could include any of the previous techniques discussed. Professionals in the fields of psychology or counseling can administer a variety of these techniques.
If they feel it is appropriate they may prescribe medication to assist the patient with relaxation. Although a number of these techniques are simple and can be performed on one's own time, patients may receive better results if they are guided by a professional who is very familiar with the techniques.
Herbert Benson , a professor at the medical school at Harvard University , has proposed in his book The Relaxation Response a mechanism of the body that counters the fight-or-flight response. The relaxation response reduces the body's metabolism, heart and breathing rate, blood pressure, muscle tension, and calms brain activity.
It increases the immune response, helps attention and decision making, and changes gene activities that are the opposite of those associated stress. Benson's meditation technique involves these four steps:.
Autogenics was invented by Dr. Johannes Heinrich Schultz in the s. The process of autogenics is by relaxing muscles deeply, and by doing so, the mind follows through and relaxes as well.
There as six parts to autogenics training: [ citation needed ]. Taking walks in nature can be used to induce or support relaxation. Listening to music or audio can be useful too, [19] [20] [21] in particular various relaxing audio which may include ambient music or soundscapes.
Various substances are known to reduce cortisol or stress in general or to typically contribute to relaxation, albeit effect sizes may be small and vary. These include the substance l-theanine also contained in green tea , [22] [23] [24] [25] as well as some other anxiolytics for short-term relaxation.
Apigenin also contained in chamomile and an aromatase inhibitor , [26] [27] lemon balm , [27] [25] [28] and gotu kola [27] [28] are also under investigation. Some of these chemicals appear to act through increasing GABA levels.
The benefits of relaxation can be found in three main areas of health; mental, physical and physiological. It can elevate mood [40] or induce sleep. Mental health is very important and needs to be worked on every day.
Relaxation can help with many impairments that can occur in one's mental health. There is a higher mood and lower anxiety in those who practice relaxation techniques. With reducing stress, a person can help reduce the negative things that stress can do to the body.
Sleep disorders are an area that can produce stress and mental health issues. Relaxation may help reduce insomnia in those who have sleeping disorders. Those with insomnia may even give up sleeping aids just by practicing relaxation techniques.
Even though relaxation cannot get rid of chronic diseases, it may help dull of the symptoms one may have. Many cancer and AIDS patients are taught relaxation techniques.
Physical health is also something that needs to be worked on daily, whether it is exercise, healthy eating , or relaxation.
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