Stress. Who doesn’t have a little bit of stress in their life? Okay — or a lot. As we all know, there are many different things that cause stress, but there are also many ways to help manage and relieve your stress. More often than not, we deal with stress as a normal part of life and do not focus on trying to manage it but rather just push it off. In honor of Stress Awareness Month, we wanted to give you some ways to manage this stress in hopes that it will help you live a more worry-free life!
Deep Breathing
Deep breathing seems like such a simple thing, but the benefits of this ‘simple thing’ are astounding. In fact, it is one of the best ways to lower stress in your body. During the deep breathing process, your brain is signaled to calm down and relax by increasing the oxygen supply, which also relaxes your body and reduces tension. You could try the 4-7-8 breathing exercise when doing this. During this process, you exhale through your mouth completely, close your mouth and inhale through your nose for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 7 seconds, and exhale completely through your mouth for 8 seconds. Repeat this for a few more times and it’s complete!
Yoga
Fight off stress and find serenity with yoga. Yoga is a mind-body practice that like many of the other stress-reducing exercises, has many benefits beyond reducing stress. Some of these include lowering your heart rate and your blood pressure! A few of the most popular yoga poses are the child’s pose, standing forward bend, downward facing dog and the upward facing dog. These are some poses you will see in most yoga classes. If you’re feeling stressed, yoga is definitely worth trying.
Stretching
Stretching helps with stress in many ways, but especially by reducing tension in your back and neck by getting your blood flowing. Releasing said tension helps you relax and improve your mobility to keep your blood moving and your body productive. When stretching, it is important to stretch all over including your fingers, arms, neck, ankles, legs and spine – literally anything you can stretch, do it. You won’t regret it!
Exercise
We all know the benefits of exercising for our health, but it is not always thought of as a solution when you’re stressed. It is important to exercise regularly in your daily routine for your health, but doing specific exercises when you are stressed such as kickboxing, dancing, cardio or anything above the normal will help a little extra as a stress reliever. Try it out, it just might be for you!
Sleep
Who doesn’t love a good night’s rest? As most know, sleep does wonders for the body. Helping relieve stress is just one small benefit, but a great one at that. The National Sleep Foundation recommends teenagers get 8-10 hours, adults get 7-9 hours and seniors get 7-8 hours. So when you’re feeling a little stressed, check your sleep schedule and see if you’re getting enough every night!
As you can see, there are many ways to relieve your body of stress. If you feel your pain is coming from stress and need physical therapy, contact us today!