Relaxing

 Wellbeing from Relaxing 

To have enough energy to study, work and lead your daily life, it’s important to relax every now and then. There are many relaxing methods and techniques for you to try and pick from. It promotes your wellbeing to have frequent small, pleasurable, relaxing things every day. Some people find it easiest to relax when they’re watching films, spending time with their friends or being outdoors.

We often think that the nicest things in life are big and one of a kind, like falling in love, a huge party, or an exotic trip. However, the nice and relaxing things in life don’t need to be anything grand or special. The point is to just do things you enjoy.

If you don’t seem to have time to relax, start arranging them consciously. Add short relaxing break to your calendar tomorrow, like taking time to have a cup of coffee, watching a good TV show, or calling your friend. When you decide to arrange a small, nice break every day, you take care of your mental wellbeing and have something fun to look forward to. Thinking about the pleasant things ahead can also help you through unpleasant tasks.

It’s important to relax and rest enough. Relaxing is a vital part of stress management that helps you get through your daily life. You don’t recover enough by deciding that you’ll rest during the weekend if you rattle through the week. Instead, you’d need rest every day. This means taking breaks every one to two hours. On your break you could take a short walk, have a chat, or just stare out of the window.

Make sure you also have longer periods for relaxing during the week. Then you shouldn’t concentrate on achieving anything but just taking time for yourself. On holidays you have the opportunity to recover as you can rest and relax for a longer time. 

Easy Relaxing Methods  

One way to relax is to use relaxing techniques. They can help especially if you have prolonged stress symptoms. Doing relaxing exercises has both instant and long-term effects, and it differs from sitting front of the TV or soaking in a tub to calm down after a workday. The instant effect kicks in when you relax. You notice your blood pressure getting down, heartbeat and breathing slowing down, and oxygen consumption reducing.

Regular relaxing exercises also reduces anxiety and depression symptoms. They also support you in stressful situations. Take time for relaxing. If you make relaxing exercises daily for 20–30 minutes for several weeks, it’s likely that you’ll start feeling more relaxed constantly. When you’re relaxing, you might experience uncomfortable thoughts and emotions. You can’t necessarily tell where these feelings come from. Stop and think whether there are some unaddressed issues in your life. Have the courage to face these feelings. They might not arise the next time.

Benefits from Relaxing Exercises

• You’ll feel less distressed.
• Stress will cumulate less.
• You’ll be feel more energetic and productive.
• You’ll be better able to focus and remember things.

• You’ll sleep better and feel more refreshed.
• You’ll be more self-confident and less self-critical.
• You’ll get better access to your feelings. Tense muscles often block emotion recognition.
• You might have less psychosomatic symptoms.

Relaxing technique: breathing

You can learn how to relax in situations which make you feel tense or anxious. Focus on your breathing. Take a few long, calming breaths. You can feel your mind and body wind down. Choose an affirmation that you repeat during the breathing exercise. You can say for example:

• Everything is fine.
• I love and accept myself.
• It’s ok to feel this way.
• I’m safe.
• I’ll let go of things I don’t need.

If you’re alone and it feels good to repeat the affirmation out loud, do it. You’re the best person to come up with sentences that are the most calming for you. Choose lines that are positive. “Everything is fine” is a better phrase than ”There’s nothing to worry about”. If you remember how you were consoled as a child, these might be good affirmations. You could make up more and use them in other situations as well. You can also use the breathing techniques and affirmations when you’re going to bed at night. When you have a moment to yourself, do longer breathing exercises.

Relaxing your muscles in an active relaxing technique

A simple and concrete way of learning how to relax is to recognise the difference between a tense and relaxed body. Here’s a way to practice:

• Sit on a chair with your legs and arms down
• Take a deep breath
• Tense all your muscles
• Blow the air out of your lungs
• Relax all your muscles
• Notice the difference between a tense and relaxed body

Mindfulness exercises

Our mind often wanders uncontrollably to the past and the future, or to our feelings and interpretations. Ruminating and constantly comparing your situation in life to how you think it should be, can be stressful. You’ll start feeling worse if you keep living in the past or future worries or misfortunes. Mindfulness or being consciously present without judgement is stopping to the here and now. Conscious awareness means paying attention to the present moment non-judgmentally and without comparison.

You can practice mindfulness by concentrating on this moment. What you sense around you, in your mind, body and other people. You can concentrate on one sense at a time. You can for example close your eyes and listen what this moment sounds like. The simplest technique is to follow your breathing, how the air moves in your nose, towards the lungs and diaphragm and then back. The aim of this technique is not to change your breathing but examine how it makes you feel and how the air flows.

You can do anything when mindfully present: eat, walk, listen to a lecture. A short mindfulness exercise before a presentation can help you feel grounded and live in the moment. You’re listening to the lecturer, not focusing on other plans or tasks for the day. For instance, you can close your eyes and listen to the sounds surrounding you before the lecture. Be here now.

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