You are the sunshine. You are the moonlight. You are the peace. You are bliss. But, when stress engulfs you like hovering clouds all your light gets blocked and peace gets disrupted. As a result, you live in a continuous state of worry and anxiety. Further, this state makes you feel so exhausted that you wish to spend your life sleeping, rather than waking, for it gives you an escape from worries. But, hold on!
Why try to escape from stress when you have all the power to confront and manage it well?
This blog for you- the bearers of light and peace. It elucidates 5 effective techniques of stress management, through which you can invoke your hidden power and manage stress well. Believe me, once you learn how to manage stress, you won’t have any need to find an escape from it. Thus, you can again start living fully without stress and anxiety. Here you go:
1. Dive in the magic of Breath:
Your breath is one of the best anchors you have against stress. It is so powerful that it can set you free from the firm grip of stress and become peaceful again. Now, you may question that if breath relieves stress then why do we feel stressed, when we all keep breathing naturally? To this, the simple answer is that there is a big difference between conscious and unconscious breathing. Most of us breathe unconsciously.
Whereas, it is only when you take conscious, long, deep breaths through your nostrils, that you can find relief from stress. This is because by inhaling conscious deep breaths, you increase the supply of oxygen to your brain. As a result, your brain starts feeling calmer and you become peaceful. Further, deep breathing also enhances the secretion of endorphins- the feel-good hormones, in your brain. This causes your stress level to lower down.
This is how your breath works magically against stress. So, from now on, you should try inhaling conscious, long, deep breaths. While doing so, it is also important for you to focus subtle attention on the tip of your nose. Moreover, it is natural to lose the track of conscious breathing, when you get engrossed in work. But, the moment you start feeling stressed, whether because of work or something else, remember to dive back in the magic of your breath.
2. Practice Yog
Stress occurs mostly because our mind is absent from the present moment. It is either busy thinking about the past or wondering about the future. As a result, we get exposed to stress. But, if you manage to bring your mind back into the present moment and make it stay, you can lower your stress levels.
For this, ‘yoga’ is one of the best-known techniques. It connects the mind and the body. Once your mind gets in perfect alignment with your body, it stops strolling in the past or the future. This is because your body is always present in the now. So, you can manage stress well by practicing yoga. Further, given below are two effective tools which you can utilize to practice yoga at home:
YouTube Videos:
YouTube videos serve an amazing platform for you to practice yoga in the comforting vicinity of your home. Yoga with Adriene, Yoga with Tim, and Kinetic Vigilantes are some of the most popular Yoga channels available on YouTube. Further, you can search for YouTube and select a Yoga channel that appeals to you the most.
Yoga Apps:
Just like YouTube videos, Yoga Apps are also great to utilize for practicing yoga at home. These apps offer some attractive features like structured yoga plans, detailed info about different yoga asana and step by step video instructions to perform yoga asana. Once you download a good yoga app on your smartphone, you can play videos of different asanas and practice them along. Pocket Yoga, Yoga Studio, and Simply Yoga are examples of popular yoga apps which you can download on your smartphone.
3. Take a dose of laughter
‘Laughter is a great medicine’. This is a very old and popular saying, which is also true. When you laugh wholeheartedly, your body gets flooded with endorphins- the feel-good hormones, which also have pain-relieving effects. The secretion of endorphins thus lowers your stress level and also heals stress inflicted physical troubles such as headache, heaviness in the chest, and muscle tightness. This makes taking a dose of laughter an important technique for stress relief. Now, if you are wondering about ways to make yourself laugh, then the following list will be of great help to you:
Watch Funny videos on YouTube:
Funny videos can work well in cracking you up. You can access plenty of such videos from YouTube. The Ellen Show, David Dobrik, and College Humor are some popular YouTube channels that are often termed as the funniest.
Watch a stand-up-comedy:
Stand up comedies can also make you laugh like crazy. Just like funny videos, you can also watch stand up comedies on YouTube. The Laugh Factory, Just for Laughs and Jeff Dunham are some popular YouTube channels for stand up comedies.
Create a laughing club:
This is an interesting activity to do for laughing. It involves creating a laughing club where the members can be both from your family or friend circle. In short, anyone who wishes to have a crazy laughing therapy can join your laughing club. The more the members, the fun the laughter session becomes. Once you have created your laughing club, you have to gather all the members together every day. Then, all of you have to stand with your arms raised towards the sky and start laughing (begin with a fake laugh). But, make sure to make your fake laugh a funny one. As you all begin doing so, looking at each other actually starts making you laugh. So, you can create a laughing club and laugh along with your friends and family for stress relief.
4. Listen to your thoughts in silence:
If you look closely, you get to realize that first some thoughts arise in your mind and then you start feeling stressed. But, why does it happen so? This is because you associate yourself with your thoughts. In other words, we can say that if you learn the art of remaining unaffected by your thoughts, you can save yourself from stress. Further, you can learn this art by listening to your thoughts in silence. For this, you have to do nothing but sit at a peaceful place every day for at least 20 minutes, silently. As you sit in silence, you get to notice that even when you aren’t speaking anything from your mouth, a constant chit-chat is going on in your mind. This is what you have to listen to as a distant listener. You have to listen to all the chit chat going on in your mind as if you are listening to someone else speaking. As you practice this technique, you slowly develop the ability to let your thoughts be without associating with them. Thus, no stressful thoughts won’t trouble you anymore.
5. Heal yourself with self-talk
You are the only one who knows what exactly makes you feel stressed and the extent to which it impacts you. It is in this awareness that you can serve as the best therapist for yourself. But, for this, you have to first confront your stressors and face them every day while standing in front of a mirror. You have to speak out the different things which make you feel stressed and let your mirror reflection know about them.
As you do so, you start feeling a sort of relief deep inside. This happens because speaking out your stressors gives your worries a kind of vent. After this, you have to dive into the role of a therapist and talk to yourself as if you are talking to a little child. In your self-talk, you have to motivate and empower yourself. For this, the best way is to make yourself remember the moments when you have had the toughest times in your life and survived them. This simple activity ignites your inner strength and makes you feel courageous. With this, stress eventually loses its impact over you.
To conclude, you have no need to find an escape from stress and worries. You are capable enough to confront and manage them well by igniting your inner power and the techniques mentioned above will help you with the same.
