Here Are 10 Relaxing Nature Activities That Will Rejuvenate Your Mind From The Simple To The Life
Its great to get out and #movemore outside, but make sure you #relaxmore, too.
Listen To Your Favorite Tunes
Surely you have a Spotify playlist to pep you up or soothe your soul. Crank it. Just listening to music has relaxation benefits, one study shows Linnemann A, et al. . Music listening as a means of stress reduction in daily life. DOI: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2015.06.008 .And if youre not going to bug anyone else, go ahead and sing along. You know you want to.
Connect With Your Breath
Youre probably already breathing unless youre holding your breath. We tend do that when were in a tizzy. Whether youre holding in your air, taking shallow sips of it, or hyperventilating, you might be adding to the stress response in your body.
The good news is that taking slow, full breaths can calm you. Try a quick breathing exercise to get back to a more relaxed state.
You May Like: How To Calm Down Anxiety And Stress
Things To Do To Relax Your Mind
Relaxation not only helps your physical health but your mental health as well. Adding relaxation to your days can help you think more calmly and clearly. A relaxed mind also means you can perform better at work and in life. It helps you manage the chronic stress that sometimes comes with being a high performer. When your mind is relaxed, you make wiser decisions and generally operate throughout the day with more ease.
Plus, if youve been diagnosed with a mental health disorder, like generalized anxiety disorder or depression, relaxation can play an important role here, too. While stress can aggravate these conditions, relaxation tends to have the opposite effect, leading to a noticeable decrease in symptoms.
If you find yourself caught up in anxious thoughts or ruminating on past events, its a good time to relax your mind. Try one of these exercises to slow down your thoughts and ground yourself in the present moment.
Have a Laugh
When youre feeling stressed, put on your favorite comedy or call your funniest friend. Laughter not only distracts us and gives us perspective, but emerging research suggests that it can lessen stress too.
Spend Time With Loved Ones
When were anxious or stressed out, we tend to isolate ourselves. But in order to relax, we need to be around our community. Science tells us that social support is critical in helping us respond to stress.
Make a Gratitude List
Try Visualizations
Listen to Music
Turn Off Your Tech Devices
Do a Craft Project
Give Your Mind A Break
Hopefully these 13 tips on how to relax your mind gave you some new ideas. You deal with so much on a daily basis, and probably just push through. But remember, just like your body needs a break from physical activity, sometimes your mind needs time to sit and relax as well.
The next time youre feeling mentally drained and exhausted, step away and just relax your mind.
Also Check: What Does Stress Do To The Human Body
How Does Relaxation Help With Stress
Stress is an unavoidable part of life. Its the reason why we have to work hard at school or at our jobs. Its the reason why some of us are so stressed out that we turn to drugs, alcohol, and food. Stress is the reason why some of us become depressed and why others turn to suicide. Stress can be a good thing, but when it starts to take over your life, it can be difficult to control. Thats where relaxation comes in.
When we are stressed, our bodies release adrenaline into our bloodstream. Adrenaline causes us to tense up, making us feel anxious and fearful. This is why relaxation techniques such as meditation, yoga, and breathing exercises help reduce stress by calming the mind and allowing the body to relax.
The good news is that there are several ways to reduce stress. This includes exercise, a good nights sleep, good nutrition, meditation, and even therapy. Many people consider relaxation to be one of the best stress-reducing strategies.
Chomp Some Chewing Gum
Maybe youre stuck in annoying traffic, frantically cleaning the house before your in-laws show, or hammering out that final term paper. Chewing gum is an easy way to keep the stress monster at bay while potentially boosting your mood and productivity Allen AP, et al. . Chewing gum: Cognitive performance, mood, well-being, and associated physiology. DOI: 10.1155/2015/654806 .
Recommended Reading: How To Cope With Post Traumatic Stress
Allow Yourself To Receive More
One of the greatest contributing factors to stress is the idea that we have to do everything on our own rather than receiving. Few of us were taught how to receive. We are taught to work it all out and be independent.
While there is nothing wrong with being strong and independent, what if you could receive too?
One of the greatest gifts I have discovered that assisted with receiving more is something called the Access Consciousness Bars. The Access Consciousness Bars consist of 32 points on the head that when gently touched dissipate the thoughts, feelings, emotions, ideas and points of view that keep you from having joy and ease in your life.
The next time you are taking on the world and its challenges all on your own, stop, take a deep breath, relax, and find something that can provide a different point of view and contribute, such as someone to run your Bars . The important thing is to have a look around at possibilities you have not chosen.
For Maximum Stress Relief Add Mindfulness To Your Workout
While simply engaging in rhythmic exercise will help you relieve stress, adding a mindfulness component can benefit you even more.
As with meditation, mindful exercise requires being fully engaged in the present moment, paying attention to how your body feels right now, rather than your daily worries or concerns. Instead of zoning out or staring at a TV as you exercise, focus on the sensations in your limbs and how your breathing complements your movement.
If youre walking or running, for example, focus on the sensation of your feet touching the ground, the rhythm of your breath, and the feeling of the wind against your face. If youre resistance training, focus on coordinating your breathing with your movements and pay attention to how your body feels as you raise and lower the weights. And when your mind wanders to other thoughts, gently return your focus to your breathing and movement.
Also Check: How To Stop From Stressing
Relax: 6 Techniques To Lower Your Stress
Chronic stress can disrupt almost all of your body’s processes and is a factor in heart disease, sleep issues, digestive complications, fatigue, depression, anxiety, and obesity. Daniel Goleman, Harvard-trained psychologist and author of Emotional Intelligence, developed Relax, a 45-minute audio program to help listeners effectively and naturally reduce stress.
Recognizing there is no one universal path to stress relief, Dr. Goleman’s guided session offers several exercises to suit a variety of personal preferences:
- Deep breathing exercises
- Breath focus and tension release techniques
- Breath count exercises
There’s no shortage of stressors in our lives: money, jobs , health issues, strained relationships and grim news reports from around the world, says Daniel Goleman. Our system isn’t programmed to be in constant fight or flight mode. The body needs regular periods of rest and relaxation. These easy-to-use techniques can help you balance your nervous system, feel more relaxed, and better cope with life’s stressful challenges.
How To Relax And Unwind
This is something we all need to do from time to time. Whether its at work or at home, we sometimes simply need to step aside and find ways to relax, ways to calm down, and engage our mind in relaxing things to do. How we unwind is different from person to person. We all have our own ways to calm down and chill out. For some, this could mean stepping out for a few minutes, talking a nice and relaxing walk. For others, it could be playing some type of sport, doing meditation, yoga or breathing exercises. Some just learn how to chill out by watching their favorite TV-show or corking up a bottle of wine, on a Friday evening.
The important part, is that we all find the ways that works for us, ways that allows us to unwind and enjoy wellness. Being able to fall back onto relaxing things to do will help us learn how to relax. If its a work-related matter, and you are just about to do a big presentation, take a few minutes to step aside and try the square breathing exercise mentioned above. By following these simple steps you will instantly feel a sense of calm coming over you. In addition, for the next time you get this feeling again, you’ll have a better sense of how to calm yourself down effectively.
Recommended Reading: How To Cope With Anxiety Stress And Depression
Create A Bedtime Ritual
Before turning in for the night is an ideal time to relax and unwind. It is a time we associate with tending to our personal needs, a time for rest after a busy day. The important aspect of a bedtime ritual is repetition. This will train your mind to automatically go into a relaxed state as you begin your ritual.
Here is a sample bedtime ritual to unwind: Turn down the lights maybe light a candle. Climb in bed and feel the cool sheets on your body. As you sit there, take a few mindful breaths to begin calming your thoughts. Read a few passages from an inspirational book, and take a few moments to savor the wisdom and beauty of the reading. Turn off the lights, get comfortable in your bed, and go to sleep.
Go To A Biofeedback Session
Read Also: How Does Music Reduce Stress
Establish A Ritual To Get In The Mood
This is especially important for those of us who are working from home. When we work from home, the lines between work and personal life can become blurry because we dont have the usual routines that help signal the beginning and end of the workday. For example, we dont have a commute or the act of physically leaving the office. It might not seem like a huge deal, but those rituals are actually super helpful when it comes to telling your brain its time to get out of work mode and into rest mode.
Luckily, we can create our own transition rituals . When its time to transition from the workday into relaxation time, try picking up a new habit that can function as a signal. Take a walk, meditate, exercise, do a quick chore, write your to-do list for the next day, listen to Closing Time by Semisonicwhatever helps you tell yourself, Okay, the workday is done and its time to rest. Then continue to tap into the intentionality we talked about earlier by setting boundaries by not checking your email, ruminating on the workday, or doing whatever else can suck you back in.
Start With Some Mindfulness
Lets start with your breath. This is a great way to slow down, become present in the moment and connect with yourself:
Do this four times .
Also Check: Can Psoriasis Be Triggered By Stress
How Can We Handle Stress In Healthy Ways
Stress serves an important purposeit enables us to respond quickly to threats and avoid danger. However, lengthy exposure to stress may lead to mental health difficulties or increased physical health problems. A large body of research suggests that increased stress levels interfere with your ability to deal with physical illness. While no one can avoid all stress, you can work to handle it in healthy ways that increase your potential to recover.
There are several other methods you can use to relax or reduce stress, including:
Give Yourself A Squeeze
You know how your cat will go all rigid for a second, tensing all those kitty muscles and then relaxing them? That looks kind of good, right? Well, you can try it too or a version of it anyway.
Progressive relaxation involves tensing and releasing muscles, body part by body part. You may not have time to do your whole frame in five minutes, but just arms, shoulders, neck, and head will suffice.
Don’t Miss: Can Stress Cause Blurred Vision
What Should I Do If I Cant Relax
Sometimes, it can be very hard to calm down, but rest assured that its never impossible. Even the most panicked feelings eventually end.
When youre struggling to relax, its a good idea to change your environment. Go for a walk around the block, around the office, or even around your apartment. It can really help to get your body moving and change your surroundings.
Get Your Green Tea On
This herbal tonic gives you the benefits of L-Theanine, a chemical that can help reduce the bodys stress responses White DJ, et al. . Anti-stress, behavioural and magnetoencephalography effects of an l-Theanine-based nutrient drink: A randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial. DOI: 10.3390/nu8010053 . Plus just staring at a mug of the green liquid on your desk might calm you, too, thanks to the earthy colors ability to soothe vKurt S, et al. . The effects of color on the moods of college students. DOI: 10.1177/2158244014525423 .
Don’t Miss: How To Relieve Stress In Dogs
Understanding Anxiety And Insomnia
Whats behind the more stress, less sleep connection? If youre frequently triggering your stress response, your body never gets back to its baseline, says Johns Hopkins sleep expert Luis F. Buenaver, Ph.D., C.B.S.M.
Stress and sleepless nights are closely linked, Buenaver says. If youre in pain, tend to worry, or are coping with a difficult situation in your life, you may have more stress hormones than usual circulating in your body. A poor nights sleep adds even more. And those hormones may never be fully broken down. Its like running an engine in fifth gear all the time.
Schedule Rest Time And Be Generous About It
When we dont schedule things, we tend to make decisions based on how were feeling at any given moment. And while that can work for rest sometimes , other times it works against us. If you wait for the mood to strike or until you feel like you deserve to relax , you wont rest nearly enough. You have to carve it out on your scheduleeven if its just 15-minute bubbles here and there.
The most important part of scheduling rest: Be honest about what you want and need. You dont want to use scheduling as a tool to try to restrict yourself use it to protect your time. For example, if you know in your heart of hearts you really want a whole day on the couch doing nothing but marathoning your favorite comforting TV show, give yourself permission to do just that from the get-go. Dont block off an hour of time in hopes itll magically make you need less time unwinding and then beat yourself up when you inevitably press Next Episode over and over, anyway.
Also Check: Does Stress Cause High Blood Pressure
