Author: Dr. Alyssa Boyer, DC, DNCert
When it comes to the topic of vitality, one of our main focuses should be stress reduction. This sounds pretty obvious I’m sure, but truly, reducing stressors on the body have been proven to optimize our longevity and quality of life. It seems like common sense, but I think oftentimes we become so accustomed to stress that it becomes our new norm. Our “normal” baseline is actually a “stressed state.”
Relaxation techniques are a fantastic method to help with stress management. Relaxation is not only about peace of mind or being the best at relaxing. It’s a process that lessens the stress effects, therefore decreasing oxidative stress at a cellular level, on your mind and body. There are many ways to relax that can help you cope with everyday stress. These options can help with long-term stress or stress related to many health problems, such as heart disease and pain.
As you continue to learn relaxation techniques, you can become more aware of muscle tension and other physical ways your body reacts to stress. Once you gain an understanding of what the stress response feels like, you can try to do a relaxation technique as soon as you start to feel stress symptoms. This can prevent stress from getting out of control and hindering your quality of life.
Remember that relaxation techniques are skills. As with any skill, your ability to relax improves with practice. Practice, practice, practice. You’re not going to be a master of any of these techniques without practice, so don’t give up! You may not even notice a change until you’ve done it a couple times, so be patient with yourself. Don’t let your effort to try relaxation techniques become yet another stressor.
These techniques can help: slow heart rate, lower blood pressure, lessen activity of stress hormones, increase blood flow to major muscles, ease muscle tension and chronic pain, and many other benefits.
Breath work is one of the major techniques included in this discussion. I have another blog post that goes into depth about breathing techniques if you wish to go into that a little further, but breath work leads me right into another technique called progressive muscle relaxation. If you’re a yogie, then you may know this as Shavasana. This pose isn’t meant to stretch or strain, it is complete relaxation allowing you to tune in with your body and relax every single muscle, like the tiny muscles in your jaw and eyebrows.
There are little things like this that we can practice everyday that builds our resistance to everyday stressors. We can’t change the stress in our lives, in fact, it usually continues to build and things continue to happen that are out of our control. The things that we CAN control are HOW we RESPOND to stress. The more you practice this, the more equipped YOU become to handle it. Namaste.
