Stress is the response of the mind and body in the event of a challenge.
Stress can affect you emotionally, physically, or mentally.
Stress is part of life and is common to everyone
Stress can affect your normal life by lowering your concentration and behavior changes.
Thus it is essential to find some techniques or methods to deal with stress.
Stress management techniques help you to overcome stress.
There are various types of stress management techniques but we are going to focus on relaxation techniques.
2 Relaxation Techniques of Stress Management
1. Meditation
Meditation is a state of mind that focuses on awareness, attention, and relaxation.
Meditation is meant to calm or relax you down physically and mentally.
Meditation can be practiced through:
- Awareness
This is making sure all your mental processes are undistracted.
These mental processes include projections, verbal thoughts, and mental imagery.
Awareness aims to achieve a cool and calm mind.
- Observation
This is paying full attention to the present activity.
It is vital to notice the present rather than thinking about the present.
- Concentration
This is focusing attention on a single object.
Maintaining attention on a single object helps your mind to stay focused and calm.
Meditation helps to reduce negative emotions and building of skills to deal with stress.
2. Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR)
PMR involves tensing and relaxing your muscles.
How to do progressive muscle relaxation
Step 1: Tense muscles
Choose the muscle group you want to apply tension for example your left hand.
Take a slow deep breath and squeeze the muscles as hard as possible for about 5 seconds.
Squeeze until you feel the tension in the muscles.
You should take care not to hurt yourself while tensing your muscles during this practice.
Step2: Relax Muscles
Quickly relax the tensed muscles after 5 seconds.
Breathe out as you let all the tightness to flow out of the tensed muscles.
PMR is a relaxation technique that helps you release the tension in your body to become relaxed and calm.
Effective stress management helps you to relieve stress so that you can live a healthy and happier life.
When you’re stress-free you become more productive in life.
You should put into practice the above techniques and find out which one suits you.