Tips for When You Can’t Relax
When your life is all work and no play, you’re bound to feel exhausted, frustrated and stressed, at least occasionally. Relaxation…, is that a foreign thought to you? We live in a world that sometimes makes us wonder why we can’t relax and enjoy life. Adults are pressured from all directions. Kids are under a lot of pressure to achieve at an early age. No wonder we are stressed, anxious, and sometimes depressed. All of these things physically interfere with the body’s relaxation mechanisms. So instead of gritting our teeth and clenching our fists trying to make ourselves relax, let’s discuss how to relax, perhaps through relaxing activities or just simply learning how to relax at home.
If you aren’t heading into a vacation (to relax), find time each day to just escape from reality. Give yourself a break from your usual routine and don’t allow yourself to feel guilty about relaxing. Use this time each day to learn how to relax. Yes, learn. It’s not our natural tendency to want to relax when things like dishes, laundry, yardwork or work projects need to be done.
One of Psychology Today’s articles, written by F. Diane Barch, L.C.S.W., suggests one or two mechanisms for doing this and pursue them every day until you start noticing the positive effects on your body and mind. Then, they will just become part of your daily routine!
Meditation, yoga, and breathwork are just a few ways to relax. Let’s take a closer look!
The Cleveland Clinic describes meditation as an ancient practice that dates back thousands of years. Despite of its age, this practice is common worldwide because of its benefits for brain health and overall well-being. Meditation is a practice that involves focusing or clearing your mind using a combination of mental and physical techniques. Depending on the type of meditation you choose, you can meditate to relax, reduce anxiety and stress, and more.
As you meditate, it may appear to others that you are simply breathing or repeating a sound or phrase over and over. Inside your brain, however, is a different story! Studies using imaging techniques like and EEG or MRI show that meditation can positively affect your brain and mental health.
There’s no one correct way to meditate. That’s because meditation can take many forms. Because mental health has a strong impact on the health of your body, you may very well see improvements in your health with meditation.
The Cleveland Clinic also suggests the following as ways to meditate. Pick whichever works for you!
- Body-centered meditation is sometimes called self-scanning. Doing this involves focusing on the physical sensations you can feel throughout your body.
- Contemplation usually involves concentrating on a question or on some kind of contradiction without letting your mind wander.
- Emotion-centered meditation has you focus on a specific emotion. For example, focusing on how to be kind to others or on what makes your happy in your life.
- Mantra meditation is a kind of meditation that involves repeating (either aloud or in your head) and focusing on a specific phrase or sound.
- Meditation with movement can involve focusing on breathing, holding your breath or performing specific body movements. It can also involve walking while focusing on what you observe around you.
- Mindfulness meditation is about staying aware of what’s happening at the moment rather than letting your mind wander and worrying about the past or future. It can also involve a similar approach as a body-centered meditation, using what you feel throughout your body as a foundation for your awareness of the world around you.
- Visual-based meditation is a type of meditation that involves focusing on something you can see (either with your eyes or by concentrating on a mental image).
Check with your healthcare provider
Your healthcare provider or your mental health provider are both great resources of information on meditation. These suggestions are for educational purposes only and not intended to take the place of your health care provider’s recommendations.
If you aren’t interested in meditating, you can learn something else that has a reputation for calming. Paint, draw, cook, even learn to knit! Mastering something new like this can help you learn to relax in a different way. The point is to set up some goals for relaxing that you can actually accomplish.
Relaxing may sound simple but it often gets pushed to the bottom of our “to do” list. Make yourself, your health and mental health a priority with just a few minutes a day of relaxing. You are worth it, no matter how busy your life may be!
