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Discover how to relax your mind and body with proven relaxation techniques for anxiety and stress. Quickly enter into a relaxed state with these simple practices.
This article will allow you to take a much-needed breather from the often hectic experience of modern life.
You will be slowing things down and purposefully taking time to relax the mind and body.
Consider this page an oasis – a break from the struggle and striving in life.
Here you will be learning HOW to relax – using highly effective relaxation techniques for anxiety and stress.
You can use these techniques and practices to regain control of your innate ability to relax and let go.
As difficult as it may seem – especially if you have deep-seated anxiety and trauma – being able to relax can be practiced and learned.
Learning how to relax can be similar to practicing self-control or learning a new language.
You have control over your ability to relax and let go – ongoing stress and anxiety can lead you to forget that it is possible.
Learning to let go and relax can profoundly benefit your body and mind if you struggle with anxiety, stress, fear, or trauma.
These benefits can become more significant as you use these techniques daily.
This article will discuss the importance of daily relaxation, how to incorporate it into your everyday life, and easy and effective relaxation techniques for stress and anxiety you can practice RIGHT NOW.
So let's get started!
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Most of us were never taught how to relax.
For many of us, "relaxation" really means distraction or avoidance.
Staring at the television after a stressful day at work or having a few drinks to relax the inner tension we feel.
Few of us take the time to step back and take a break from our thoughts.
Few of us take the time to actively relax our minds and bodies through breathing or physical relaxation.
Even fewer of us know how to release the thoughts or feelings we've been carrying.
This inability to release thoughts and feelings and just let go can be a major reason you are stressed out and anxious in the first place.
Unfortunately, these life skills are rarely taught when growing up.
Today, even in the "self-help" space, there tends to be a strong focus on achievement, reaching goals, improving oneself, and staying motivated – with much less emphasis on learning to relax and taking time to unwind, reset, and let go.
While trying to improve yourself or reach your goals is a good and honorable way to live, if you are unrelenting in your striving to "improve" (whether it is your physical appearance, career, or even your "anxiety"), you will create an imbalance in your life.
As you push yourself more and more to achieve and become "better," you put more pressure on yourself, which can often worsen your stress and anxiety.
This pressure you put on yourself, combined with an already fast-paced lifestyle and the stresses of modern life, could be an underlying cause for feeling overly stressed and anxious.
Developing the ability to relax is essential for reducing anxiety and creating balance in life.
When you are constantly stressed or anxious, you tend to live in a state of "fight or flight."
When you live in a place of fight or flight, your breathing becomes more tense and shallow, your heart rate increases, and your body releases more stress hormones.
You will begin to feel "stressed out, " leading to physical and psychological symptoms.
These symptoms include headaches, bodily pains, anxiety, depression, insomnia, digestive issues, and more.
Learning to relax and taking the time daily to relax and reset is essential to balancing this mounting stress.
The keyword here is BALANCE…
Balancing your daily stress, anxiety, and motivation with relaxation is essential.
Just as it is necessary to balance your waking state with sleep or your diet with proper amounts of proteins, carbs, and fats - balancing your daily stress, anxiety, and motivation with relaxation is essential to positive mental health.
You don't need to eliminate stress entirely; some stress is good and can even be a motivator – but we need balance.
Taking time each day to relax and let go of what you are compulsively holding onto can help immensely to reach this balance in life.
To truly balance your life, you need to be able to induce relaxation in your mind and body.
We recommend setting aside at least 10 mins – preferably more – each day to sit and relax.
Make this an essential part of your nightly routine.
If you're already doing meditation or breathing exercises, you can continue doing those while adding relaxation techniques that you find helpful.
If you plan on doing meditation or other exercises in the future, learning how to relax first can significantly improve your ability to quiet the mind and meditate when the time comes.
Regardless of where you are currently, make time to relax daily.
The ability to induce relaxation in the mind and body can be a profound life skill.
Benefits of Daily Relaxation:
One of the most critical skills for reducing anxiety is learning how to relax the mind.
Anxiety is the opposite of a relaxed mind.
Your anxious mind can become overwhelmed with worry, mental tension, and chronic obsessive thoughts.
By learning to calm the mind and promote mental and physical relaxation, you can reduce the constant influx of stress chemicals and create space in your mind so you are not so entangled in your worrisome thoughts (also known as cognitive fusion).
When you relax, you become more aware and in touch with your current state – pausing from your normal habituated thoughts and responses.
You can reset your mental and emotional state by relaxing into the present moment.
There are four key components to fostering relaxation, calming the mind, and reducing anxiety:
1. Awareness: increasing present-moment awareness allows for a subtle shift from being immersed in your thoughts and worries to noticing how they play out – meditation and mindfulness practices are powerful ways to help improve your ability to bring awareness into your present experience
2. Acceptance: acceptance removes the need to change, control or fight your already overactive mind – it gives you space to breathe and allows you to surrender to life as it unfolds – trying to fight your anxiety or change your thoughts in the heat of anxiety or panic, rarely works
3. Breathing: taking slow deep breaths activates your parasympathetic nervous system, which calms the brain and body, slowing the heart rate and reducing an overactive nervous system or stress response; your breath is your direct path to mental and physical relaxation (and it is one aspect in life you can directly control)
4. Physical Relaxation: when your body is relaxed, the mind typically follows (and vice versa) – this is why massage or focused muscle relaxation can be so helpful in relaxing the mind – even having a more relaxed posture or softening the belly can promote a more relaxed state of mind
All the relaxation techniques below provide these four key components.
They can profoundly influence learning how to relax the mind and promote calm.
These techniques can be valuable for reducing anxiety and stress and promoting greater balance and ease in our lives.
In our view, "relaxation" is NOT staring at the TV, mindlessly clicking through your phone, or reading a book.
Although many of us do these things to unwind at the end of the day, we are discussing a different type of relaxation.
To relax effectively, you will need to set aside distractions. Go somewhere quiet where you won't be disturbed, and set aside at least 10 to 20 mins.
Doing this at or near the end of the day is the best time.
You can see it as a way to unwind from the day's stressors and clear your mind.
Taking a mid-day relaxation break can also be immensely helpful to recharge, refresh and reduce any mounting stress and anxiety you may be dealing with.
We will discuss two types of relaxation techniques: Active Relaxation and Passive Relaxation.
Both can be quite effective.
We purposefully divided the techniques into two types to better suit different types of people.
You may find it easier to relax with active participation in the process.
Or you might find letting go and surrendering to the process more effective.
Only you will know which approach works best for you.
Active relaxation is any technique that involves actively doing something in order to promote relaxation.
Most breathing techniques, muscle relaxation, visualization, and most forms of meditation would be considered active.
You can find more in-depth explanations and additional techniques throughout this site.
Soft Belly Breathing is a simple but powerful technique made popular by James Gordon, M.D., with the Center for Mind-Body Medicine as an effective relaxation technique for anxiety, stress, and trauma. It's been used to help treat war veterans and victims of violence and natural disasters, among others.
You can learn more about Dr. Gordon's work at cmbm.org
Visualization can be a powerful technique for relaxation. Visualization's ultimate purpose and power is its ability to bypass the anxious rational mind and create positive feelings and emotions from the imagination and subconscious mind. The visualized experience can become so real that it realigns your mental and emotional state.
In the technique below, you will be exploring the interior world of your "secret garden."
Directions:
Focused Muscle Relaxation is an effective way to relax the body from head to toe. If you've dealt with anxiety for any length of time, I'm willing to bet you hold a lot of tension in your body. This practice is an excellent way to release that tension and promote greater relaxation.
You will imagine a golden ball of energy passing from the crown of your head to the tips of your toes. As the ball enters each area, you will breathe in and hold the breath and physically contract (tighten and hold for 8 seconds) that area. As you exhale, it moves away, and you will release the tension.
Directions:
Passive relaxation techniques involve standing aside to accept, allow, and let go. Passive relaxation techniques generally involve watching the breath, developing the witness, acceptance, and letting go. These can be combined to make one relaxation session or used independently.
These can be powerful relaxation techniques for anxiety and stress – as they allow you to detach and give you space from your overactive mind and need for control.
Watching the breath is a simple but effective relaxation technique for anxiety – it is also the primary form of most meditation practices. It can help quiet the mind, relax the body and temporarily allow you to let go of trying to control. Watching the breath can also be an excellent introduction to developing the "witness."
Directions:
The witness or observer is pure conscious awareness unattached to your thoughts or ego. It is pure awareness that is always available to you. While it is incredibly simple, it can be challenging to achieve for a long time when first starting. Don't be discouraged. With practice, it will become easier.
The Witness can be used anytime – not just for relaxation. It can be effectively used when dealing with strong emotions or racing thoughts. It can be a powerful technique for experiencing thoughts and feelings without resistance or judgment.
Directions:
The concepts of acceptance and letting go can be applied beyond relaxation techniques. They can be powerful approaches to change, personal growth, healing, and more. Acceptance can be an entire mindset for approaching life and eliminating resistance. Letting go has the power to free you from your past stuck ways. We will focus on these two approaches to enter into powerful relaxation for this practice.
Directions:
While not necessarily for relaxation, meditation can help to reduce stress, detach from anxious thinking, balance the mind, and reduce mental tension and striving.
There are many different forms and techniques of meditation. Too many to cover in this one article on relaxation.
If you're interested in learning more about meditation and meditation techniques, you can check out our in-depth article, which covers different types of meditation, mindfulness, postures, and tips. You can find that article HERE.
We have provided several simple but effective relaxation techniques that work great for anxiety.
If you are extremely anxious or having trouble sitting still long enough to do these techniques, try some of the following suggestions.
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