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22 Jun 2008 10:50 PM

5 Quick Ways To Relieve Stress

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

There are good stresses such as the stress of preparing for a new baby or a graduation and negative stress such as illness, financial worry or fear of failure. A by-product of stress can be a suppressed immune system. A person's stress increases, as they become ill at the most inopportune times: during exams, when a final project's presentation arrives, during the move from one house to another.

Finding a way to cope with daily stress works towards your health maintenance as regular services for your car. Employing a few of the following techniques allows a body to relieve stress can improve your body's physical, mental and emotional health.

Meditation

Meditation summons an image of a figure sitting cross-legged in front of incense and murmuring 'ohm' in pseudo-religious format. Take ten minutes and shut off the rest of the world. Using a method of controlled breathing, inhaling for a count of four, holding for a count of two and releasing the breath for a count of four. Closing your eyes and letting your mind blank for those ten minutes while you breathe allows your mind a respite from the day's tensions. Imagine as you inhale you are gathering all of the tensions of the day and upon exhaling they are expelled from the body. Ten simple minutes can help relax the mind, restore focus and ease the onset of a headache.

Exercise

Exercise often promotes physical health by keeping the body in good cardio-vascular and muscular health. It is also an outlet for the physical tensions that wind a body up. Understanding that stress triggers the fight-or-flight instinct in the body, tensing muscles so they are coiled and ready to run at greater speeds, increasing the heart rate and restricting blood flow to non-essential systems, also explains why physical exertions such as 15 to 20 minutes of brisk walking, biking or jogging can allow the body to relieve itself of the need for action. Exercise also releases endorphins, the body's natural chemical high.

Chunk Your To Do List

Chunk your to do list so that you are not looking at a list of thirty items that must be completed in a limited amount of time and begin to feel overwhelmed that you cannot complete everything on the list. Modifying your expectations so that as you check off each item, you allow that success to relieve tension can limit the distress to your body.

Laugh

Laugh, whether through social conversation or viewing a sitcom on television. Laughter is therapeutic and can temporarily elevate your heart rate, help digestion, relax muscles, ease pain and like exercise, release endorphins.

Massage

Massage, whether you make an appointment to visit a masseuse or use your finger tips to rub your temples and the back of your neck, using vigorous circular motions. The external pressure on the muscle works to relieve the tension within the muscles. A professional massage which can last anywhere from 25 to 50 minutes, promotes a time when you have nothing to do but relax.

Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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