We all worry from time to time or feel anxious about daily stressors, but living with anxiety is an entirely different experience that, at its worst, can paralyse your ability to meet your daily goals and enjoy life. If you’ve been struggling with heightened stress or panic attacks, you probably know all too well the uncomfortable and painful symptoms like shallow, fast breathing, dizziness, or sweaty palms. While there’s no magic solution other than starting anxiety therapy or taking medications, depending on the severity of your issue, focusing on your mental health can make a significant difference. There’s so much you can do to release the tension and soothe your nervous system in the present moment. In this article, we explore different relaxation techniques that effectively help reduce stress and share tips on incorporating them into your daily practice to successfully deal with anxiety and regain control of your life.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and not medical advice. These relaxation techniques are general suggestions – please consult a healthcare provider before starting any new wellness routine, especially if you have existing health conditions or severe anxiety.
Finding The Best Relaxation Techniques For You
Imagine your nervous system as a playground seesaw:
- On one end, your sympathetic nervous system (SNS) detects danger and keeps you safe by activating your fight-or-flight or stress response. If you perceive a particular situation as a threat, SNS will prepare your body for a potential fight by speeding up your heart rate and oxygenating your body.
- On the other end, the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) produces a relaxation response, balancing out your SNS. It leads to slower heart rate, lower blood pressure and better digestion, helping us recover. Deep breaths can further activate your PNS, encouraging a sense of calm and aiding in the body’s natural recovery process.
This mechanism works well in healthy individuals, ensuring survival and sustainable development. However, for those with anxiety or chronic stress, the seesaw gets stuck on the side of the SNS, causing a constant state of alert and health problems.
We’re all unique and have different triggers that activate our stress response. We also have other preferences or types of relaxation techniques that can soothe us best. The key is to experiment, try these relaxation activities in practice and find the perfect fit for you.
The Benefits of Anxiety Relaxation Techniques
When faced with numerous obligations or a demanding illness, relaxation can become a problem or inconvenience. However, prioritising your health and scheduling your relaxation activity makes all the difference, offering a plethora of benefits, such as:
- slower heart rate and lower blood pressure
- slower, deeper abdominal breathing,
- improved focus, memory and mood control
- better digestion and quality of sleep
- decreased chronic pain/muscle tension
- reduced levels of stress hormones
- helping individuals manage insomnia
- stronger resilience and problem-solving skills.
Deep Breathing Exercises
Did you know that when stressed, we breathe from the chest, but when relaxed, we breathe from the belly?
Professionally, the first type is called thoracic breathing, while the latter is referred to as abdominal. To calm your body and mind, it’s best to breathe into your diaphragm so that your belly rises and falls with each inhale and exhale, not the chest.
Next time you catch yourself feeling anxious, take some time to:
- Place one hand on your belly and the other on your chest.
- Slowly inhale through your nose into your stomach and notice your hand rising while the one on the chest remains still.
- Wait three seconds there.
- Then exhale slowly through your mouth, and observe the sensation of your belly falling – while your chest remains still.
- Wait three seconds here as well.
- Repeat the sequence at least ten times or until a wave of calm and relaxation washes over you
That relaxation method allows you to slow your breathing, provide more oxygen and direct your focus away from distressing thoughts and onto your bodily sensations.
Visualisation Exercises
Let’s say you’re about to give an important presentation at work, have a job interview, or take a driving test, and you feel increasingly anxious. Rather than imagining optimistic scenarios, your mind fixates on the worst scenario possible: failing the test, embarrassing yourself in front of coworkers, or saying something stupid.
That’s where visualisation techniques like guided imagery step in. Using your imagination, you can think of something calm, like a happy memory, a relaxing place, a natural landscape, or a soothing activity.
All you need to do is:
1- Relax your body.
2- Breathe in and out slowly.
3- Pick a relaxing scenario, i.e.:
- a lush green forest.
4- Engage all your senses, i.e.:
- feel the texture of moss beneath your feet,
- smell the ground after a rain,
- hear the gentle rustling of leaves.
5. Stay in this environment for a while and enjoy your happy place.
Mindfulness Meditation
A common misconception about this anxiety relaxation technique is that it involves sitting cross-legged with your eyes closed and a pristine mind, not contaminated by a single thought.
Quite the opposite – mindfulness meditation is about observing your thoughts, emotions and body in the present moment and returning to the here and now whenever your mind wanders. It’s about:
- taking a step back,
- letting go of expectations,
- remaining non-judgmental and curious – like a scientist monitoring a fascinating phenomenon.
Read more on mindfulness meditation here.
Muscle Relaxation Exercises
“An anxious mind cannot exist in a relaxed body”, claims Dr Edmund Jacobson, the author of progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) – a relaxation treatment that boils down to slowly tensing and relaxing different muscle groups, starting from toes and passing through each part of your body to end with your neck and head. When done without rush and focus, this technique helps loosen your muscles, soothe any pain, release tension, and provide stress relief.
Here’s a link to a guided version of this exercise.
Get Professional Help with Therapy Central
If you feel like anxiety is really affecting your life, relaxation techniques might be insufficient in dealing with this issue since they alleviate symptoms but don’t cope with root causes.
Lucky for you, anxiety therapy like CBT has high treatment success rates, helping you:
- address underlying problems,
- recognise unhelpful thoughts or behavioural patterns,
- learn using practical tools like deep relaxation techniques to manage the paralysing effects of anxiety.
Contact us here for a 15-minute consultation so that we can find an experienced professional who’ll best assist you on your healing journey.
FAQ
The best relaxation techniques for stress management depend on your personal preferences and needs. Common and effective methods include deep breathing exercises, mindfulness meditation, progressive muscle relaxation, and visualization exercises to improve your quality of life. You might also consider practices like yoga, tai chi, massage therapy, or aromatherapy to enhance your relaxation routine. Experiment with these different types of relaxation techniques to find what works best for you.
Relaxation exercises like deep breathing or mindfulness meditation activate your parasympathetic nervous system, which counteracts the opposite of the stress response. This results in a slower heart rate, lower blood pressure, and improved focus from slow breathing, helping to soothe your mind and body.
When practicing a relaxation technique, it’s important to acknowledge distracting thoughts that may arise and gently redirect your focus back to the present moment without judgment or frustration. Listening to an audio guide on relaxation techniques can further enhance your practice. Regular practice of anxiety relaxation techniques as part of your daily routine and a healthy lifestyle, along with appropriate health care, can improve mood, sleep quality, and resilience.
muscle relaxation, and mindfulness-based therapies. These relaxation treatments not only alleviate stress but also improve physical and emotional well-being. Incorporating a relaxation technique, such as deep breathing or visualization, into your daily routine can provide immediate stress relief. Regular practice of a relaxation exercise helps build resilience, enabling you to better manage anxiety over time.
Deep relaxation techniques like visualisation and autogenic training involve imagining a calming scenario or memory. For example, you might picture a peaceful forest, engage your senses by imagining the texture of moss, the sound of leaves rustling, and the smell of rain. These techniques shift your focus away from anxious thoughts to a relaxing activity.
Yes, relaxation techniques are often integrated into clinical practice guidelines for therapy for anxiety disorders, including panic disorder. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and other forms of treatment use relaxing therapy methods like mindfulness meditation and deep breathing to help manage symptoms. However, for long-term relief, professional therapy is often essential to address the root causes of anxiety.
If relaxation techniques and self-help methods don’t alleviate your symptoms or if anxiety is significantly impacting your daily life, consider seeking professional help. Therapy, such as CBT, offers tools like relaxation therapy for anxiety and helps address underlying issues, providing a more comprehensive approach to recovery. Get in touch with us today to start working on your difficulties with one of our qualified therapists.
