Well, here I am again. If you can’t tell from this article and the last, I’ve had a pretty rough few days. Thankfully, I can turn my pain into all of our profit though. Previously, I wrote an article exclusively focusing on exercising your stress away. Today another though came to me, though. What happens when you’re still stressed even after a workout? Well, today I’m going to leverage my nerves into some research and find myself a good stress management technique.
I’ve looked into several different methods of stress management techniques and I’ll lay them out for you. This way, you and I both can decide our favorites and put them into action.
Guided Imagery
When you’re nervous and stressed, guided imagery can be a big help. Guided imagery is a stress management technique that involves using your imagination. Picture a person, place, or thing that makes you feel more at peace and happy. And this doesn’t mean just imagine with your mind’s eye, also recall the sounds of the location. Is your happy place a hike in the woods? Remember the call of your favorite songbird. Things like that will help you use this technique more completely. Studies have found that using this technique can genuinely reduce your blood pressure. There’s science that backs this up, so don’t bash it before you try it.
Reading about this honestly just sounds a bit like daydreaming to me. And don’t take that as me being negative, I love daydreaming as a distraction. When I’m out on a run or just doing anything that I’d rather not be, I daydream all the time. Imagining myself as a super hero fighting a bad guy to the beat of the song I’m jamming to genuinly helps reduce my stress. Give this a shot the next time you feel a deadline or something creeping up on you and bringing you down.
Self Care as a Stress Management Technique
Now, this next technique is something I ascribe to big time. You know how a hot bath helps you relax? Well, a lot of self care can do that. But it doesn’t have to just be things like a hot shower or a trim. Things like getting enough sleep and eating better help to. I touched on this a little in my exercise article, but when you look your best you feel your best. You may not notice right now that these little things are keeping you down, but you will when they’re gone. Walking around all day with pit funk since you haven’t showered in days can damper your mood and the people around you. Jump in that hot shower, comb your hair, eat some grapes, and then hop in bed early.
It’ll be tough, but you can do it. And you’ll feel way better for it.
Yoga
This is a stress relief exercise that I haven’t done myself. I’ve always been interested, though, so excuse me if this article sounds a bit more distant. I’ll be relying more on data I can research than personal experience. From what I can tell, yoga practiced in the right way can be very soothing. It’s used by millions of people as a method to reduce tension and relax their bodies. Nothing like getting limber to work the tension out, I guess.
Yoga also seems to be a pretty effective tool in relaxing your mind as well. The poses aren’t easy to pull off, so you’re forced to focus on nothing but maintaining it while you’re practicing yoga. This keeps your mind from wandering to focus on whatever’s been stressing you out recently. I’d like to write more on this topic, but I’ll wait to go more into detail when I try it. Some day.
Conclusion
Well, there you go. Some of these I was able to speak from experience, some not so much. But even just sitting down and writing about them has helped. Hey, writing for stress relief? That’s gotta have something to it. It makes sense anyway, it distracts your mind and forces you to concentrate on something else. That really seems to be the key: focusing on something else, keeping yourself busy. Work towards a goal, any goal, every day. No matter how small it is. Cleaning your room, going for a walk, trimming your nails. Just accomplish something every day and that should help as well, right?
Anyway, I’m rambling. If you’d like to read my article exclusviely about exercise as a stress management technique: click here.
