Anxiety and stress are common experiences for most people. A survey revealed that 70% of people in the United States face stress or anxiety daily. A stressful life affects the quality of life and your overall health.
Sometimes, stress can be helpful if you need to work hard or react quickly. For instance, it motivates you to complete an important work on time. But prolonged stress is not good for our health. It can affect our physical and mental health and may be associated to back pain, trouble sleeping and headache. It can also affect the immune system.
Relieving stress is very important to keep you mentally and physically stable and to maintain good health. Here, Dr. Andrew Weil proposes four things to ease stress, these are:
Breathing Exercise
Breathing exercise is very effective in getting relief from stress. Regular practice of mindful breathing can produce calming effect and energize you. You can also do “the relaxing breath,” an effective breathing exercise. According to Dr. Andrew Weil, the relaxing breath is the most powerful tool for managing stress. Doing it twice a day can give you the best result. You can do it anytime, anywhere to combat stress or to enhance sleep.
Aerobic Exercise
Exercise is a great way to reduce your stress and to release the tension and anxiety that you got during the working day. It is also an effective remedy for getting relief from moderate to mild depression. It is vital to maintain your mental and physical health. Dr. Andrew says that involving in aerobic exercise may stabilize your mood, promote your heart health and give you good sleep.
Walking
A brisk walk for around 30-45 minutes will help you in reducing stress. Walking outside in fresh air improves your blood circulation and boosts endorphins which can reduces stress hormone. It is good for your physical as well as mental health. Spending some time in the natural environment is a good idea for managing stress.
Muscle Relaxation
You can also consider the progressive muscle relaxation for releasing tension. If you want to try this technique, you can seek the help of a massage therapist or psychologists. You can also join exercise or yoga classes to get the instructions for performing this method.
Dr. Andrew Weil shares a common technique for progressive muscle relaxation This technique involves the following steps:
- Lie on your back and be comfortable.
- Take a series of sequential deep breaths and try to focus on different parts of your body. Make sure that you are not experiencing any muscular tension. Begin with relaxing the upper facial muscles, then move on to the jaw, shoulder, neck, back and chest, arms, thighs, feet, and toes. Then, repeat the same down the back of body.
- Keep lying with your eyes closed, focus on your breath, keep calm, and feel the tension releasing from your body.
Once you know how to do the process, you can incorporate it in your daily routine. You can modify it for a sitting position and use it to manage stress at work.
