7 Quick Relaxation Hacks To Calm You Instantly

“Shallow in and out nasal breathes

Take eight long, slow and shallow nasal breaths (5–9 seconds in-breath and 5–9 seconds out-breath) and allow your entire body to relax via the out-breath.

Read 3 pages of fiction

Reading is like an active form of meditation.

We’re using our thoughts very differently when we read than when we over-analyse. Read a story and immerse yourself in your own imagination for a few minutes.

Play with your ability to conjure a scene in your mind. Hear the sounds, taste the environment, be there.

Reading soothes because you can’t overthink and read at the same time.

Relax

I know this seems too obvious, but it’s crazy how we can forget to do this.

Many of us stay tight as a tin toy truck because there’s a belief somewhere that says we need to be rigid to be safe. No.

The more physically tense we are, the more stress we’ll feel. Tension is the antithesis of performance in any context.

The solution? Drop your shoulders.

Breath through the gut. Scan your body and get back into your senses. Let go. It makes all the difference.

Core tension-release exercise.

A tension-release exercise that loosens the belly.

When we get anxious, a typical response is to tighten here.

This is a result of millennia of protecting the torso from attacks and punches. But we still tighten up even with no threat.

Do this: stand up, bend backwards slightly using your central hip area as a hinge — hands on hips. Now breath in and out through your mouth and into your belly.

Go for a short awareness walk.

There’s nothing like a walk to get out of our heads and back into the sensations of movement.

Calm always increases in awareness and decreases in self-consciousness. I.e. when we overthink, we become agitated.

So, when we walk, our attention is more on our environment, especially when we are more conscious about doing this, and we slow our movements when we walk.

Even a five-minute stroll can be calming.

Ask yourself:

‘What’s funny, curious, enjoyable, or interesting about this moment?’

Questions are very effective in directing the trajectory of our thoughts. When we’re anxious, we’re writhing in a quicksand of chaotic and meaningless thoughts.

When we ask a question, particularly one that prompts us to look for the beauty in the world,

We become a new person.”

Read the full article on Medium

✨Takeaway: These exercises can be helpful when you need a quick method to calm down. Some involve breath-work. But, if breathing exercises don’t normally work for you, there are other exercises as well such as reading 3 pages of a book or asking yourself questions to redirect your thoughts.

✨Reflection: Would you try these relaxation exercises?

#Relax #Breathe #Calm #Mindfulness #Anxiety #Stress