We all face stressful situations in our lives at various phases, ranging from minor annoyances like traffic jams to more serious worries, like a loved one’s grave illness. No matter whatever be the cause, you become stressed, and there are certain hormones that are released in your blood. These hormones trigger a certain response which becomes hazardous for the health of the individual. As a result, there are several repercussions like your heart pounds, your breathing speeds up, and your muscles tense.
The so-called “stress response” is a normal reaction to threatening situations, honed in our prehistory to help us survive the threats like a flood or an animal attack. In today’s age, we rarely face these physical dangers, but challenging situations in daily life can set off the stress response. Even if we want to, we cannot avoid all the sources of stress in our lives, nor would we want to.
But we can develop certain healthier ways of responding. As many have begun to realize this, there has been a significant rise in the creation of relaxation classes. These trendy relaxation classes are very prevalent, especially in the big cities where the stress level of the individuals and families are comparatively much more. With the onset of COVID-19 affecting our society and many us now being placed in quarantine, we can’t attend these fun classes.
Therefore, to help you stay fit and in good spirits, I wanted to share with you some techniques taught in the famous relaxation classes that could reduce your stress levels and improve the quality of your life. I hope you can enjoy trying some of these techniques in the comfort of your home!
Breath focus
This is a very simple yet powerful technique where you take long, slow and deep breaths (also known as abdominal or belly breathing). As you start to breathe, you gently disengage your mind from the various distractions, sensations, and thoughts. Breath focus can be especially helpful for those people having eating disorders, and this helps them in focusing on their bodies in a more positive manner. However, this particular technique doesn’t seem to be appropriate for those suffering from health issues, which makes breathing difficult.
Body scan
This particular technique blends breath focus with certain progressive muscle relaxation. After a few minutes of practicing deep breathing, you focus on one part of the body or group of muscles at a time and mentally releasing any physical tension you might feel there. A body scan can indeed help you in boosting your awareness of the mind-body connection. If you have had a recent surgery that affects your body image, then this technique may be of less help to you.
Guided imagery
Most of the famous relaxation classes will focus on guided imagery. For this particular technique, you conjure up soothing scenes, experiences, or places in your mind in order to help you focus and relax. Make sure that you choose imagery that makes you feel relaxed and that has personal significance. The guided imagery may help you in reinforcing a much-desired positive vision of yourself, but this can be difficult for those you have intrusive thoughts or find it hard to conjure up mental images.
Mindfulness meditation
Anther technique followed by famous relaxation classes is meditation. This particular technique involves sitting comfortably, focusing on your breathing, and bringing your mind’s attention to the present moment without possibly drifting into concerns about the past or the future. This particular form of meditation has enjoyed increasing popularity in recent years. The research suggests that this may be helpful for the people suffering from depression, anxiety, and pain.
Repetitive prayer
For this technique, you silently repeat a short prayer or phrase from a prayer while practicing breath focus. Repetitive prayer may be appealing if spirituality or religion is meaningful to you.
As you try these…
Rather than just choosing a single technique, experts usually recommend sampling several of them to see which one works best for you. I’m sure any of these famous relaxation classes will help you in relieving your stress and in making you more relaxed. Happy exercising!
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