Need to Relax? Try These Three Techniques
At times of extreme stress — and I mean extreme stress — I find it incredibly difficult to break away from the stress and relax. This is obviously problematic. Sustaining severe stress is bad for your body, and it almost never helps resolve the situation at hand that’s causing the stress in the first place.
Mindful breathing techniques often help, but today I stumbled upon an interesting article called 3 doors to instant relaxation on lifehack that details three relaxation techniques I’d never seen before. Each technique centers on one of the senses: vision, hearing, and taste. For example:
Door 1 is your eyes. Plug your ears (if you have ear plugs, good, if not use fingers). Let your eyes, lazily, slowly drift across any surface near you. Don’t read or identify what you are looking at. Instead, try to just look at the colours and shapes. Is it constant or is there change happening. Can you see definite lines and transitions or are shades blended and fuzzy. If you use only your eyes in this way for a minute or two, you can effectively stop the escalation of stress. You will quickly return to a more normal state of mind and then you can deal with whatever is stressing you.
Intriguing stuff. Next time I’m severely stressed, I’m going to try one or all of these.
(Link: 3 Doors to Instant Relaxation)