We’re living in a world where relaxation can often seem like a luxury we can’t afford. For those living busy lives, with family demands and career schedules to worry about, finding a moment to sit down and unwind seems almost impossible.
However, the reality is that failing to find the right ways to relax from time to time could be putting you at serious risk. Constantly placing yourself over mental and physical pressure increases the amount of stress on your body.
The more stress you deal with on a daily basis, the more likely it is you’ll fall victim to various health problems, and ailments. Learning how to relax correctly can keep you healthy in both your mind and body, protecting you from whatever life has to throw at you.
Here’s why it’s so important to relax more often, and some advice on how you can find more effective ways to improve relaxation.
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The Value of Finding Time to Relax
Health professionals around the world constantly champion the benefits of regular relaxation. Spending time on relaxation balances the mental and physical effects of stress that most of us encounter every day. With relaxation, you can think more clearly, and make better decisions, because your mind isn’t over-run by panic. Relaxing also:
- Helps you manage your emotions and prepare yourself for future stressors
- Gives you a more positive outlook on life and your experiences
- Improves physical health, lowering your breathing rate and reducing blood pressure
- Reduces your risk of heart attack and autoimmune diseases caused by stress
- Minimizes the risk of mental health disorders associated with stress.
Children are even encouraged to take up relaxing behaviors in their day-to-day lives tend to be better focused and more likely to learn than those who feel more stressed. Finding time to relax, at any point in our lives, is a crucial part of staying happy and healthy.
What Happens When We Don’t Relax Often Enough?
One of the reasons people today make so little time for relaxation, is they don’t know how dangerous it can be to ignore moments of self-care. As we know, stress is a common part of life – in small doses, it can even be a positive thing, motivating people to act, or ensuring you know when to react in a dangerous situation. Most of the stressors we experience are small, like dropping something on the tube, or being late to work. However, excess stress can quickly build up.
Over time, the more we expose ourselves to stress without any form of relaxing outlet, the more the pressure builds up – emotionally and physically. Relaxation is important for detoxing your system, and helping you avoid risks associated with too much stress. If you don’t relax often enough, you might encounter problems like:
- Frequent headaches and body pains
- Sleeping problems like nightmares or insomnia
- Confusion and forgetfulness
- Heart problems and chest pain
- Stress related illness
- Weight gain or weight loss
- Increased use of alcohol, tobacco and drugs
- Loss of interest in life
- Feelings of depression
- Increased irritability or anger
- Poor performance at school or work
The longer you go without relaxation, the worse the side effects become, to a point where excess stress can really threaten your day-to-day wellbeing.
Easy Ways to Relax
Finding the right way to relax is a personal process. Some people find yoga and meditation helpful, whereas others prefer to take a few moments to unwind in a hot bath. Even without a lot of time in your schedule, there are some ways you can relax quickly, and easily, such as:
- Reduce Physical Tension: Exercise is an excellent way to get rid of physical tension and improve your health at the same time. If you don’t want to go for a run or take up boxing, you can try simple exercises like yoga. There are various different kinds of yoga, including poses excellent for beginners who want to minimize stress in their body. Over time, you may notice your strength, balance and endurance improves too.
- Using a Vaporizer: A lot of people use vaporizers as a safer and healthier alternative to cigarettes and tobacco. If you’re a fan of high-quality vapor and fast heat up times with extensive temperature control, investing in a vaporizer can help you to live the kind of life you love. Products like the Arizer Solo 2 are perfect for around the house, providing great battery life and fantastic results.
- Breathe it Out: Breathing exercises are some of the simplest and most effective strategies for relaxation. One simple way to relax using breathing is to sit in a quiet and safe space, and breath out to the count of three, then breath in to the same count of three. If you can, gradually breathe out for longer than you breathe in.
- Write Down Your Thoughts: Often, when we’re feeling stressed and anxious, it can be difficult to calm down because we can’t get a leash on our thoughts. Writing everything down that’s worrying you can be a good way to let all of the emotion out of you in a safe way. Once you’ve written everything down, you can begin looking through your concerns to see if there are any obvious solutions you might try.
- Get Outside: One of the best ways to calm yourself almost immediately is to go outside and interact with nature. Just a few minutes spent with nature can help you to relax. Even looking at images of nature with plenty of greenery can help to calm you down. Even if you’re located in a city with no natural spaces nearby, you can still use the natural, organic world to relax. If you have access to your own outdoor space spruce up your outdoor space so that it’s somewhere you actually enjoy spending time.
Finding the Right Way to Relax
There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy for relaxation that works for everyone. You’ll need to invest in finding solutions that make sense for you. However, one thing is certain, everyone should have a strategy for unwinding and relaxing as often as they can. Try some of the techniques above, and speak to a doctor if you think stress is getting the best of you.
