Not all stress is created equal. Good stress can propel a person to
excel, to reach new heights or to complete a big project on time.
Bad stress is not so good. Stress that stems from conflict or worries.
Stress that keeps a person from sleeping and happiness. Stress that
calls for relief. Here are three stress-relief techniques you can
follow.
Meditation for stress relief.
Can there be a more obvious stress relief strategy than to bring your
entire physical being to a calm? Meditation techniques often involve
visualization of something calm, like a blank screen or clouds. Or it
can mean clearing your mind entirely.
If stress is caused by how we allow our minds to captured by worries
and fears, then replacing those worries and fears with calmer images is
the obvious way to reduce stress.
You can sign up for a free online meditation techniques course at my website.
Exercise to reduce stress.
If relaxing to a state where even your blood vessels are almost still
is the ultimate in stress relief, surely exercise, which gets even your
blood pumping at breakneck speed, must be the ultimate stress demon.
Not so. Exercise is a big stress reliever. In fact, the bigger the
muscles you exercise, the more less stress you will bear. That's
because exercise releases physical tension in the muscles.
Here's another tip: exercise in water to reduce stress even more. Why?
Because you are more buoyant on water; gravity takes a much gentler
toll on your body, so the tension created in your muscles just by
holding you up gets released. For the ultimate stress release, exercise
in water. Or meditate in water. Or laugh in water.
Laughter reduces stress, too.
Yes, laughter also relieves stress. The muscles we use to laugh are
those tense ones in our faces. When we loosen them, we release tension
from our faces. We also allow more blood to flow to the pleasure
centers of the brain (which might be why someone with a 'good sense of
humor' is considered more attractive).
I think I will close with this excerpt from my newsletter, A Daily Dose of Happiness, which shows the value of a little creative humor:
"Little Lady was guarding the space between the trees, as I tried to kick her little ball past her.
"Then an idea struck me. Off to the side lay a large, purple fit ball
that the kids like to be bounced on. A rushed over, rolled it into the
clearing and kicked it toward Little Lady. 'Giant Blueberry Soccer!' I
shouted. She laughed.
"For the next ten or fifteen minutes, we rolled and licked and laughed and shouted, "Giant Blueberry Soccer!"
"What a great family moment, stress relief, joy-injector, fun and more.
My formula was simple, and you can do it too. Look around and find
something that just would not belong, like a too-big ball. Then imagine
what it might be, like a blueberry. Then thrust it into your situation
with all the gusto you can apply.
"Have fun." |
