STRESS RELIEF

Relaxation techniques for stress relief

Many relaxation techniques can help you achieve the relaxation response. Those whose stress-busting benefits have been widely studied include deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, meditation, visualization, yoga, and tai chi.

Learning the basics of these relaxation techniques isn’t difficult. But it takes practice to truly harness their stress-relieving power: daily practice, in fact. Most stress experts recommend setting aside at least 10 to 20 minutes a day for your relaxation practice. If you’d like to get even more stress relief, aim for 30 minutes to an hour.

Keep in mind that there is no single relaxation technique that is best. Many techniques are effective, but only when practiced regularly: so choose a relaxation technique or combination of techniques that resonates with you and fits your lifestyle.

Starting a daily stress relief practice

The best way to start and maintain a daily stress relief practice is by incorporating it into your daily routine. Schedule a set time either once or twice a day for your relaxation practice. You may find that it’s easier to stick with your practice if you do it first thing in the morning, before other tasks and responsibilities get in the way.

All you need to start a relaxation practice are:

A quiet environment –
Choose a secluded place in your home, office, garden, place of worship, or in the great outdoors where you can relax without distractions or interruptions.
A comfortable position –
Get comfortable, but avoid lying down as this may lead to you falling asleep. Sit up with your spine straight, either in a chair or on the floor. You can also try a cross-legged or lotus position.
A point of focus –
Pick a meaningful word or phrase and repeat it throughout your session. You may also to focus on an object in your surroundings to enhance your concentration, or alternately, you can close your eyes.
A passive attitude –
Don’t worry about distracting thoughts that go through your mind or about how well you’re doing. If thoughts intrude during your relaxation session, don’t fight them. Instead, gently turn your attention back to your point of focus.

You can either stick to this straightforward relaxation exercise, or branch out into other relaxation techniques. Keep in mind that traditional relaxation techniques aren’t the only effective stress reducers. Spending time in nature, talking to a friend, listening to music, curling up with a good book, writing in a journal—anything that you find calming can relieve stress.

Deep breathing for stress relief
If you’d like to explore relaxation techniques, deep breathing is a good place to start, since it is used in many relaxation practices including yoga, meditation, and visualization. Deep breathing involves not only the lungs but also the abdomen, or diaphragm.

Most of us don’t breathe from the diaphragm. Instead, we take shallow breaths from our upper chests. When we’re stressed, our breath becomes even shallower. The problem is that shallow breathing limits the amount of oxygen we take in—which makes us feel even more tense, short of breath, and anxious. Deep breathing, on the other hand, encourages full oxygen exchange throughout the chest and lungs.

Chest Breathing vs. Abdominal Breathing

When you breathe from your chest, you inhale about a teacup of oxygen. Instead, you should breathe from your abdomen. When you breathe from your abdomen, you inhale about a quart of oxygen. The more oxygen you inhale, the better.

How you breathe also affects your nervous system. Chest breathing makes your brain create shorter, more restless brain waves. Abdominal breathing makes your brain create longer, slower brain waves. These longer and slower brain waves are similar to the ones your brain makes when you are relaxed and calm. So, breathing from the abdomen helps you relax quickly.

With its focus on full, cleansing breaths powered by the diaphragm, deep breathing can help you get your stress levels in check. The next time you feel uptight, try taking a minute to slow down and breathe deeply:

Sit comfortably with your back straight. Put one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach. Breathe in through your nose. The hand on your stomach should rise. The hand on your chest should move very little. Exhale through your mouth, pushing out as much air as you can while contracting your abdominal muscles. The hand on your stomach should move in as you exhale, but your other hand should move very little. Continue to breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Try to inhale enough so that your lower abdomen rises and falls. Count slowly as you exhale. If you have a hard time breathing from your abdomen sitting up, lie on the floor, put a small book on your stomach, and try to breathe so that the book rises as you inhale and falls as you exhale. Breathing techniques can be practiced almost anywhere and can be combined with other relaxation exercises, such as aromatherapy and music. All you really need is a few minutes and a place to stretch out.

STRESS MANAGEMENT OVERVIEW

Stress Management

What happens when you are stressed?

Stress is what you feel when you have to handle more than you are used to. When you are stressed, your body responds as though you are in danger. It makes hormones that speed up your heart, make you breathe faster, and give you a burst of energy. This is called the fight-or-flight stress response.

Some stress is normal and even useful. It can help if you need to work hard or react quickly. For example, it can help you win a race or finish an important job on time.

But if stress happens too often or lasts too long, it can have bad effects. It can be linked to headaches, an upset stomach, back pain, or trouble sleeping. It can weaken your immune system, making it harder to fight off disease. If you already have a health problem, stress may make it worse. It can make you moody, tense, or depressed. Your relationships may suffer, and you may not do well at work or school.

What can you do about stress?

The good news is that you can learn ways to manage stress.

To get stress under control:
Find out what is causing stress in your life.
Look for ways to reduce the amount of stress in your life.
Learn healthy ways to relieve stress.

How do you figure out your stress level?
Sometimes it is clear where stress is coming from. You can count on stress during a major life change such as the death of a loved one, getting married, or having a baby. But other times it may not be so clear why you feel stressed.

It may help to keep a stress journal. Get a notebook and write down when something makes you feel stressed. Then write how you reacted and what you did to deal with the stress. Keeping a stress journal can help you find out what is causing your stress and how much stress you feel. Then you can take steps to reduce the stress or handle it better.

To find out how stressed you are right now, use this Interactive Tool: What Is Your Stress Level?

How can you reduce your stress?

Stress is a fact of life for most people. You may not be able to get rid of stress, but you can look for ways to lower it.

Try some of these ideas:
Learn better ways to manage your time.
You may get more done with less stress if you make a schedule.
Think about which things are most important, and do those first.
Find better ways to cope.
Look at how you have been dealing with stress.
Be honest about what works and what does not.
Think about other things that might work better.
Take good care of yourself. Get plenty of rest.
Eat well.
Do not smoke.
Limit how much alcohol you drink.
Try out new ways of thinking. When you find yourself starting to worry, try to stop the thoughts.
Work on letting go of things you cannot change.
Learn to say "no."
Ask for help. People who have a strong network of family and friends manage stress better.

Sometimes stress is just too much to handle alone. It can help to talk to a friend or family member, but you may also want to see a counselor.

How can you relieve stress?

You will feel better if you can find ways to get stress out of your system. The best ways to relieve stress are different for each person. Try some of these ideas to see which ones work for you:

Exercise. Regular exercise is one of the best ways to manage stress. Walking is a great way to get started.

Write. It can help to write about the things that are bothering you.

Let your feelings out. Talk, laugh, cry, and express anger when you need to.

Do something you enjoy. A hobby can help you relax. Volunteer work or work that helps others can be a great stress reliever.

Learn ways to relax your body. This can include breathing exercises, muscle relaxation exercises, massage, aromatherapy, yoga, or relaxing exercises like tai chi and qi gong.
Focus on the present. Try meditation, imagery exercises, or self-hypnosis. Listen to relaxing music. Try to look for the humor in life. Laughter really can be the best medicine.

SELF DEFENCE & STRESS RELIEF

This Article was written by Aidan Carroll who has has been involved in martial arts for over 20 years. He has studied many arts including Shotokan, Ju-jitsu, Aikido, and holds a 2nd degree black belt in kickboxing. Aidan is one of only 4 Irish men in the world to hold the instructors diploma in Krav Maga. Check out Aidan's Links in Red. Aidan is very kind and approachable and is well respected in the community for his professionalism, care and commitment. if stress is affecting any part of your life and you want to make a positive and lasting change both to your overall fitness and confidence Contact Aidan and make that change today.

How Self Defence can help Release Stress

Many students who attend my classes & seminar’s will be somewhat nervous on their first day. This is very normal & natural. This feeling of nervousness is the result of adrenaline release. It is sometimes referred to as our “Flight or Fight” response. What we must remember is that when we experience this feeling that it is there to help us and not to defeat us, although it will and can defeat us if we let it.

We will always fear what we don’t know or understand. I clearly remember as a young boy joining my first Karate club. The nervous excitement was overwhelming.

I thought by continuous training this feeling would LEAVE ME ALONE! And the good news is it doesn’t. What’s good about that? I hear you say. Well let me explain. Think of a situation or problem or task that makes you feel nervous. The most common being public speaking. If you have to deliver this speech and you experience very little adrenaline release, chances are this is the time you will mess things up. Over confidence will defeat you. This is when we should be experiencing adrenaline release and keeping it under control.

There is no such thing as NO FEAR. Any living being feels fear. Everything we do in life has a consequence; it is the result of these actions that we fear. Have you ever felt like leaving your job, or taking a trip around the world, or leaving an unhappy marriage? Ask yourself what stops you from doing this. The answer is FEAR.

It sounds great at the time, but once we step out of our comfort zone, it doesn’t feel so great anymore. Let me give you an example. I work full time as Personal Trainer & Self Protection instructor. A big part of my job is to motivate people. Only yesterday in the gym I had a client who has just started on her programme. The goal set for this particular client was to fit into a particular dress for an upcoming wedding. This should not be the reason for wanting to start training. All my clients are told that training should be a regular part of life. But this is often requested, and most when seeing results will continue to train.

Any way back to the story. When a client wants to tone up or improve there fitness levels they have to be willing to step outside of their comfort zone. Most are not willing to do this -at least not on a regular basis. I initially started the client off at a medium level of intensity, and each week progressed the intensity. It is when the intensity level steps up that we step out of our comfort zone. However most commercial gyms lose clients because the client does not see any results. If you are or have been a member of a gym how often has your programme and intensity level been assessed?

Once, twice, never or every 4- 6 weeks? If your answer is the latter then you have found a good gym with dedicated staff, so stick with them. As a Personal Trainer I need to take clients out of there comfort zones on a regular basis. But this brings us back to our old sparring partner FEAR. We fear the discomfort-we fear the pain. The growth is in the pain & the discomfort. My client was not willing to step out of her comfort zones. She said she really wanted to get into this dress for the wedding and was willing to do whatever it takes, but every time I stepped up the intensity, she wanted to quit. This is when I need to change the client’s mind-set. I ask them how bad they want to achieve their goals. They need to trust me as fitness professional and accept that no ambition or goal will be reached without hard work. There is no substitute for hard work. I basically told this client if you want this toned physique you are going to have to work for it, otherwise you are wasting my time and yours.

This brings us to the main topic of this article. How exercise can help relief stress. If you feel good about your body you will most likely have a positive mind-set. At one time or another we will all over eat. How does this make you feel? Well it doesn’t make you feel good about yourself. So say you don’t exercise regularly and your diet is not as good as it should be, and as we get older our BMR-basal metabolic (the rate at which our body burns calories at rest) decreases so our waist line increases every year.

This of course will be stressful. Combine this with problems we face each day, such as meeting dead-lines in work, bringing the kids to school, collecting the kids from school, preparing meals, etc. and knowing you need to get yourself into shape will be certain triggers for STRESS.

You need to take control or stress will kill you. I know that sounds very blunt, but it is FACT. STRESS KILLS.

Many of my students initially started Self Defence training out of fear. The fear of not being able to protect themselves or a loved one in a conflict situation. This feeling of fear causes stress. It is extremely satisfying for me to help people feel more confident about themselves, be it from changing there physique or changing there fear into confidence.

Many who attend my classes come along for the opportunity to release some stress after a busy day at work. It is so therapeutic to let your adrenaline, stress and or aggression out by hitting the pads during a self defence session. And the cardiovascular and toning benefits of this type of training all help to keep you in shape and release the STRESS.

Some key points to remember:

It will be obvious to you what causes stress in your life, one by one eliminate them in order of importance. At some time in our lives we will be blind sided by stressful situations, such as a loved one being struck by illness, the death of a family member or friend, we can little or nothing to change this, but ask yourself how much more stressful this will be to you if you have not already addressed the other stressors in your life.

We should strive to have as much positive influence in our life as possible. This could be the books we read, the films we watch, and the friends we keep. If we constantly chose to read negative books, watch negative films, and most of our friends seems to be always crying on your shoulder or constantly telling you how life has dealt them a crap hand this will most definitely effect our stress level. Our brain is like a sponge, what we see and hear shapes our character.

I am not saying you should live in a bubble. We all know and are aware of the negativity that surrounds us every day, but that doesn’t mean you have to live with it.

Aidan Carroll
Aidan Carroll has been involved in martial arts for over 20 years. He has studied many arts including Shotokan, Ju-jitsu, Aikido, and holds a 2nd degree black belt in kickboxing. Aidan is one of only 4 Irish men in the world to hold the instructors diploma in Krav Maga. Having done door work in many different pubs and clubs in Ireland for 3 years, Aidan quotes " When a situation becomes live and is taken outside of the Dojo (training arena) with respect , no other art I have studied is more practical than Krav Maga". Aidan graduated from the University of Limerick and holds a level 2 NCEF diploma in Anatomy and Physiology and Personal training. Aidan is also a sports injury rehabilitation therapist and a strength & conditioning coach and is also trained in emergency first aid and CPR.