The past year saw stress levels of people across the country increase since they had to deal with a lot of uncertainties due to the pandemic. Stress can cause headaches, agitation, insomnia, chest pains, and tense muscles. It also causes a person to feel overwhelmed and have low self-esteem.
Due to this, you need to perform stress-relieving activities to help you get back on your feet and take control of your life. Here are some ways for you to relieve stress using different relaxation methods.
Focused Breathing
Focused breathing is a simple yet powerful method of relaxation and relieving stress. The method is easy to learn and perform. You can also practice it anywhere. All you need to do is to take a long and slow, deep breath. As you inhale, you should disconnect yourself from any thoughts or sensations that can distract your mind.
Instead, you should focus on your breathing while performing this relaxation technique. You can also hold spiritual beads in one hand. Each time you complete one full breath or inhalation and one exhalation, you can move to the next bead.
But you should remember that this relaxation technique isn’t appropriate for people who have health issues that can affect their breathing. These health issues include heart failure and respiratory ailments. In this situation, you might want to look for other techniques to deal with the stress you’re feeling during the pandemic.
Mindfulness Meditation
Mindfulness is a practice where a person sits comfortably while focusing his mind on the present moment without thinking about the past or the future. Instead of being anxious about the future or thinking about what happened in the past, you should focus your thoughts on what is happening at the moment. It offers several benefits to your physical and mental well-being.
The meditation method helps improve your well-being since you can enjoy the pleasures that you get from life as they happen. Mindfulness also helps reduce blood pressure, relieve stress, lessen chronic pain, and treat heart disease.
Additionally, practicing mindfulness meditation helps treat eating disorders, substance abuse, depression, and anxiety disorder.
Visualization
Visualization is another technique that you can use to soothe your nerves. Also called guided imagery, this relaxation method involves visualizing yourself at peace. When you practice this relaxation technique, you let go of all anxiety and tension you are feeling. You imagine that you are in a place that calms you. It can be a beach, a wooded glen, or a favorite childhood spot.
Even as this relaxation technique reinforces a positive view of yourself, people who have issues recalling mental images find it challenging to use it. You can also use apps to help you focus on soothing images in your head. These images include a panoramic sunset over the water, a dock in a quiet lake, or a grassy hill with birds singing in the background.
You can also imagine drifting into a restful place. It is also normal for a person to zone out in these sessions. You might even feel your limbs getting heavy and muscles twitching. In these instances, you feel that you are in a relaxed state.
Body Scan Meditation
Body scan meditation is another relaxation technique where you focus on your body and note your feelings. It allows you to reconnect with your physical self and effectively introduces yourself to mindfulness meditation. Even though the technique allows you to relax, it also trains your mind to be open. It also allows you t become aware of different sensory experiences.
It combines progressive muscle relaxation with focused breathing. You perform deep breathing exercises at the start of the technique before focusing on a body part or a set of muscles in the body. At this point, you should mentally release the tension you feel on these muscles or body parts. You gradually scan the rest of the body and do the same tension release exercise in the other body parts.
The technique can increase awareness of the connection between the mind and the body. You can start releasing tension from your foot area and gradually work yourself up the entire body. You should also pay close attention to the body part that feels painful or causes discomfort for you. After performing the body scan meditation, you can stretch and slowly open your eyes. You’ll feel refreshed at this point.
The stress of life during the pandemic has a significant effect on mental and physical health. But they can relieve the anxiety and stress that they feel using several relaxation techniques.
