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Stress and anxiety at their most basic assessment are feelings of experiencing abnormal pressure. The pressure that leads to people manifesting feelings of anxiety can stem from many areas of your daily life — such as heightened workload, a falling out with a family member, financial instability, or a recent loss.
As the stressors present in your day-to-day life build, this can take a negative toll on your body and mind so it is important to uncover relaxation techniques for stress management to keep the negative effects of anxiety at bay.
There are many mind and body relaxation techniques that you can utilise to help with anxiety relief and practice better self-care. Here at Nova Recovery, we understand the crucial role that various types of relaxation techniques play in ensuring a person enjoys a higher quality of life, both mentally and physically.
Relaxation techniques, broadly speaking, are methods of reducing stress and anxiety. Various muscle relaxation techniques and relaxation breathing techniques can additionally be employed in order to control symptoms of panic disorders and assist a person in getting through a panic attack.
Relaxation techniques for stress management work by managing the fight-or-flight response that is often triggered among people who suffer from anxiety disorders.
Anxiety relief techniques are tried and tested methods of improving the body’s relaxation response, thus working to lower your heart rate, reduce your bodily tensions, lower the amount of negative thoughts you will be experiencing, and boost your self-esteem and your problem-solving aptitude.
So, let’s go through some relaxation techniques to help you with anxiety relief and to assist you in practising better self-care, from simple deep breathing exercises to yoga and meditation for anxiety.
Deep Breathing Techniques
Breathing techniques can be the foundation of various relaxation exercises and, what makes them so appealing, is that they are also very simple to learn. These exercises are designed to help you to breathe slower and more deeply in order to make you feel increasingly relaxed.
Breathing relaxation techniques are proven to help you become more energised as well as refreshed. Deep, monitored breathing increases your focus — specifically in relation to your breathing process — which leads to a clear mind and better mental health.
The NHS advises a very simple yet effective breathing exercise, which can be a great place to start with understanding breathing exercises. The exercise works as follows, and may be the very thing you need to help alleviate stress today.
Allow your breath to flow deeply into your stomach, as deeply as is physically comfortable. Try to take in your breath through your nostrils and exhale through your mouth. Most individuals also find that it can be particularly helpful to count from 1 to 5 as you inhale.
Once you have inhaled as deeply as you can, hold your breath in your stomach for a moment, then let it flow out gently, counting down from 1 to 5 once more. Repeat this cycle for 3 to 5 minutes, or longer if you feel that you would like.
Breathing exercises are easy to perform and can be done almost anywhere without any preparation, meaning they can be the perfect break from a stressful activity or situation that is overwhelming you.
Yoga And Meditation For Anxiety
There are countless people across the globe who find that yoga and meditation are incredibly vital ways to minimise the detrimental effects of stress and anxiety on the body and mind. Yoga helps people alleviate bodily and mental tension, while also helping individuals to improve their concentration.
Meditation, be it guided meditation or not, can be a fantastic way of assisting you in experiencing a more balanced, relaxed, and focused everyday life. Meditation can be an effective way to control and manage the anxiety on its own or in combination with yoga.
Furthermore, there are many free and paid apps that can be used to help you with guided meditation.
Reach Out To Loved Ones
Taking time to reach out to our loved ones is very important as talking to the people who make up our support network can distract us from the stressors present in our daily life. Doing activities and having a laugh with our friends and/or loved ones can help to alleviate anxiety by releasing positive endorphins into our brain.
In relation to this, an occupational health expert at the University of Lancaster, Professor Cary Cooper also explains: “If you don’t connect with people, you won’t have support to turn to when you need help […] Talking things through with a friend will also help you find solutions to your problems.”
Muscle Relaxation Techniques
Ways to encourage physiological relaxation have a whole host of beneficial side-effects. One method of muscle relaxation is progressive muscle relaxation (PMR), which is a resoundingly efficient technique involving minimising the tension present in your body whilst also reducing any anxious thoughts present in your brain.
Progressive muscle relaxation is the process of tightening and releasing specific and varied sections of muscle in order to ease any tension in your body.
Through the process of focusing upon releasing any internalised stress throughout your body, you’re additionally able to soothe the troubles of your mind.
Positive muscle relaxation, when performed frequently and effectively over a period of time, is perfect for helping you to recognise when your muscles are tightening as a result of stress and, in turn, avoid the physical discomfort both leading to and stemming from your anxiety.
Nova Recovery Can Help You To Achieve The Goal Of A Tranquil Mind, And More
If, despite your best efforts of managing your stress levels and anxiety on your own, you are still struggling with anxiety then the teams of medical experts at Nova Recovery may be able to help you. So, for a free phone consultation, call us at any time on 01475 303998.
Source
https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/self-help/guides-tools-and-activities/tips-to-reduce-stress/
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John Gillen
- Author
- Last updated: September 8, 2023
John has travelled extensively around the world, culminating in 19 years’ experience looking at different models. He is the European pioneer of NAD+ (Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide) treatment to Europe in 2010; and recently back from the USA bringing state of the art Virtual Reality Relapse Prevention and stress reduction therapy. His passion extends to other metabolic disturbances and neurodegenerative diseases. The journey continues. In recent times, John has travelled to Russia to study and research into a new therapy photobiomudulation or systemic laser therapy working with NAD+ scientists and the very best of the medical professionals in the UK and the USA, together with Nadcell, Bionad Hospitals own select Doctors, nurses, dieticians and therapists. Johns’ passion continues to endeavour to bring to the UK and Europe new developments with NAD+ Therapy in preventive and restorative medicine and Wellness. In 2017 John Gillen was made a visiting Professor at the John Naisbitt university in Belgrade Serbia.