Hello,
I'm Aaron Hubach.
I'm a management professional and life transformation coach.
In this talk,
I'll go over four ways to calm and relax yourself and quick tips on how to do so.
You'll find a lot of material here on Insight Timer that talks about the topics I'll discuss,
But I want to treat this as a quick guide for you as the listener to think about as you look for some easy ways to think through how to calm and relax yourself.
You might be asking yourself,
Why do I need to listen to an audio track to learn how to relax?
Well,
For some people,
This is easy.
You don't need to do anything.
You just sit or lay down and the relaxation just happens.
But for others,
This may be hard to do.
So I'll talk through four ways on how to relax.
Number one is to stop what you're doing.
This is real easy to do.
Just stop what you're doing or get to a good stopping point.
Stop interacting with the things that are making you anxious as this is one of the best strategies to relax.
If you're in the middle of conversation,
It could mean that you need to tell the person or persons that you need a short break.
Just kindly excuse yourself for a moment.
Get away from the stressful situation and find a quiet area to think calming thoughts.
You'll find many things here on Insert Timer that can help with this.
Number two is to refocus your senses.
Our bodies enter a flight or flight mode when we're frightened,
Disturbed,
Or enraged.
Our sympathetic nervous system activates hormones like adrenaline to put our bodies into high gear.
These hormones quicken your breathing and your heartbeat.
They tighten up your muscles and narrow your blood vessels.
Put aside whatever is triggering the stress and concentrate on what your body is going through.
This can assist you in maintaining the present moment and lessen automatic reactivity.
Automatic reactivity occurs when your brain develops patterns of responding to stimuli such as stressors.
Every time your brain is exposed to that stimuli,
These habituated pathways are activated.
According to studies,
Your brain can develop new habits by interrupting the circuit of this reaction by focusing on what your sensory experiences actually are.
Another way to refocus your senses is also to recognize your experiences without passing judgment.
For instance,
Your face can feel heated or flushed and your heart may be racing more quickly if you're extremely furious about something that someone just said.
Recognize these sensory characteristics but avoid labeling them as wrong or right.
Number three is to breathe.
You'll find a lot of material here on InsideTimer about breathing and breathing techniques.
One of the first things that happens when stress triggers your body's sympathetic nervous system is your steady,
Even breathing.
Many advantages come from concentrating on breathing deeply and consistently.
It increases the amount of oxygen in your body,
Controls brain wave regulation,
And lowers blood lactate levels.
You can relax and feel calm by doing these activities.
Here are some breathing techniques to try.
Use your diaphragm to breathe rather than your upper chest.
You should be able to feel your abdomen rise at each inhalation and lower with each exhalation if you place your hand on your tummy just below your ribs.
To assist in keeping your chest open,
Sit up straight,
Stand,
Or rest flat on your back.
Slouching makes breathing more difficult.
Take a slow,
10-count inhalation through your nose.
Your tummy and lungs should feel like they're expanding as they take in air.
Next,
Take a deep breath out with your mouth or nose.
Aim for 6-10 cleansing,
Deep breaths each minute.
Pay attention to the pattern of your breathing.
Don't allow anything or anyone to divert your attention,
Especially potential anger.
If you notice yourself becoming distracted,
Count your breaths or repeat a soothing word or phrase.
As you inhale,
Picture a lovely golden light,
Which stands for acceptance and love.
From your lungs to your heart and then throughout your body,
Feel its soothing warmth.
Imagine that all of your stress is leaving your body as you softly exhale.
The fourth way is to relax your muscles.
Your body's muscles stiffen up and tighten when emotional or stress reactions take place.
You may genuinely feel wound up.
There's a technique called PMR that stands for progressive muscle relaxation and what that is,
Is tensing and then relaxing specific muscle areas.
The PMR technique can assist you in deliberately releasing tension from your body.
With a little practice,
PMR can greatly speed up the process of relieving tension and anxiety.
So here's how you'd practice this.
Find a cozy,
Quiet area and it should be fairly dark.
You can sit or lie down,
Remove or loosen any restrictive clothing.
Concentrate on a certain muscle group and either begin at your toes and work your way up or begin at your forehead and work your way down.
Contract as many of the muscles in that group as you can.
If you're starting with your head,
For instance,
Raise your brows as high as they'll go and widen your eyes.
Release after five seconds of holding.
Keep your eyes completely closed.
Release after five seconds of holding.
As you do this and work your way down or work your way up,
Think about some of these muscle groups,
Your lips,
Your neck,
Shoulders,
Arms,
Chest,
Stomach,
Thighs,
Lower legs,
Foot,
And toes.
So that was four techniques to think about on how to relax and be calm.
A lot of times people see relaxing and calming as just sitting down or going to lay down and not be bothered.
Although this works for most people,
These four techniques aren't very often thought about and if you're aware of them and practice them,
They can aid your relaxation journey.
You can do all four or choose your favorite ones and focus on them for relaxing.
Thank you for listening.
