Use Stress Relaxation Techniques to Relieve Stress By Sarah Martin At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Experiencing stress in our daily lives is quite common and is healthy. However, it is important to manage the stress that you feel so that it does not cause other medical conditions because of the effect that it has on your body.

Relaxing the body is one of the best ways of relieving your mind and body of the stress that is causing you to be worried or feel the discomforts of aches and pains. When you practice stress relaxation techniques (http://www.wilddivine.com/wellnesslibrary/45.html) on a daily basis they can help you feel better about your life and do a lot to help reduce your feelings of being stressed.

When you practice relaxation techniques, you will learn how to replace negative feelings with positive ones so that you feeling happy and peaceful. When you are stressed, your body and mind are in a constant state of tension and adrenaline is constantly preparing your body for a flight or fight response to every situation you encounter.

This state of always being on the alert does wear down your body over time. When you learn to relax, this helps to bring your body back into balance, slows down your heart rate, reduces the amount of stress-related hormones your body is producing and reduces your blood pressure.

There are many stress relaxation techniques (http://www.wilddivine.com/wellnesslibrary/47.html) that you can learn, none of which are difficult or time consuming. Once you try several techniques you will likely find one that you enjoy and will practice this on a daily basis. You do need to set aside ten to twenty minutes a day for this practice.

You can start by setting aside this amount of time every day in which you focus on yourself instead of tasks or other people’s needs and demands. You shouldn’t practice these techniques when you are tired because they will cause you to fall asleep.

Deep Breathing

One of the stress relaxation techniques you can start with is that of deep breathing exercises (http://www.wilddivine.com). The key to this technique is to learn to breathe from your abdomen so that you get oxygen into the deep recesses of your lungs. Sit comfortably, with one hand placed on your chest and the other on your stomach. Breathe in through your nose.

If you are doing this correctly, the hand on your stomach should rise, but the hand on your chest will not move very much at all. Breathe out through your mouth pushing as much air out of your lungs as possible to rid it of the carbon dioxide that has built up. Again the hand on your stomach is the one that will move the most. Continue to breathe in this manner counting your breaths as you do so.

Muscle Relaxation

A lot of the stress in your body accumulates in your muscles making them feel tense and achy. In this technique you follow a routine in which you tense and relax the different muscle groups in your body. To start make sure you are in a comfortable sitting position and that your clothing is not too tight.

Breathe in slowly and deeply a few times to make sure your body is relaxed. Start with the muscles in one foot. Tense up your foot and focus on the feeling, holding this for the count of ten. Then relax the muscles and again focus on the feeling. Continue this process with the other foot and then all the parts of the body all the way up to your head.

Mindfulness Meditation (http://www.wilddivine.com/wellnesslibrary/62.html)

Mindfulness meditation involves concentrating on the various parts of your body in a fashion very similar to the muscle relaxation technique. You can do this whether you are sitting or standing or even eating. You focus on what your body is doing right now. Some people may remark that you look as if you are zoned out if you practice this technique in public, but this is due to your increased concentration.

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