For clearer thinking, better health and simply to feel good, learn to manage stress in your life with techniques that work anywhere. Stress-proofing benefits from a regular exercise program that incorporates aerobic activity and strength training. It gets an equally big boost from breathing and visualizing techniques and quick relaxation tricks that restore inner calm.
Creative Visualization
The Mayo Clinic recommends a number of stress-reduction activities to restore balance. A simple one is to sit in a quiet place where you won't be distracted or disturbed and visualize a peaceful, beautiful setting. Use all the senses to help make the image real: smell the mountain pines and feel a misty rain on your face; hear the waves gently slapping against the hull and feel the warm wooden deck under your bare feet; feel the sun's heat and smell the fragrance of a meadow full of wildflowers. Stay in that place until you feel calm and replenished.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
You can practice muscle-relaxation anywhere --- on a bus, in the office, lying in a hammock in the backyard. Beginning at your toes, slowly tense and relax each muscle group for a count of five seconds tensed, thirty seconds relaxed. Go all the way up to the eyebrows and the forehead. Be very aware of the difference in physical sensations between the softened muscles and the tense ones. By the time you reach the hairline, your body should have relaxed dramatically from the combination of contraction-release moves and intense concentration on the exercise.
Autogenic Relaxation
Choose a relaxing image or idea and one word that embodies that thought for you. Repeating the word, silently to yourself or as a soft mantra, hold the relaxing idea in your mind even as it directs you to breathe deeply and slowly, steady your heart rate, or start relaxing muscles one by one. Feel the physical sensation of the breath, the heart beat or the muscles contracting and releasing.
Breath Control
Deep, slow breathing sets off the parasympathetic nervous system. The parasympathetic nervous system counters the sympathetic nervous system that is flooding the body with cortisol and adrenaline, activating the fight-or-flight response and resulting in quick sips of breath. Deep breathing flips the switch. The heart rate slows, the muscles relax and tranquility is restored. Concentrate on expanding your rib cage as you inhale to draw more air deeper into your lungs.
Aerobics
Get a move on and lose the tension. A vigorous session of aerobic activity oxygenates the blood, shuts off nerve-racking mind chatter and releases endorphins, the feel-good chemicals that are responsible for a nice post-workout emotional glow. Runners know endorphin release as "runners' high" and can become addicted to it. A session at the gym or a vigorous bike ride can help cut anxiety and restore serenity almost instantly.
Yoga and Tai Chi
Both of these Eastern practices engage the whole body in focused activity with precise moves and controlled breathing. A study cited by Vanderbilt University found that yoga helped to manage hypertension by increasing stress resistance, lowering the heart rate and sympathetic nervous system activity, and improving high blood pressure. For long-term tension management, sign up for a weekly yoga or tai chi class and then continue a daily practice on your own during the rest of the week.
