Relaxation strategies -
Breath focus. In this simple, powerful technique, you take long, slow, deep breaths also known as abdominal or belly breathing.
As you breathe, you gently disengage your mind from distracting thoughts and sensations. Breath focus can be especially helpful for people with eating disorders to help them focus on their bodies in a more positive way. However, this technique may not be appropriate for those with health problems that make breathing difficult, such as respiratory ailments or heart failure.
Body scan. This technique blends breath focus with progressive muscle relaxation. After a few minutes of deep breathing, you focus on one part of the body or group of muscles at a time and mentally releasing any physical tension you feel there.
A body scan can help boost your awareness of the mind-body connection. If you have had a recent surgery that affects your body image or other difficulties with body image, this technique may be less helpful for you. Guided imagery. For this technique, you conjure up soothing scenes, places, or experiences in your mind to help you relax and focus.
You can find free apps and online recordings of calming scenes—just make sure to choose imagery you find soothing and that has personal significance. Guided imagery may help you reinforce a positive vision of yourself, but it can be difficult for those who have intrusive thoughts or find it hard to conjure up mental images.
This is another simple technique that you can do almost anywhere. Starting with your toes and feet, focus on tightening your muscles for a few moments and then releasing them.
Continue with this process, working your way up your body, focusing on one group of muscles at a time. Yoga is an ancient practice rooted in Indian philosophy.
The practice of yoga combines postures or movements with focused breathing and meditation. The postures are meant to increase strength and flexibility.
Postures range from simple poses lying on the floor to more complex poses that may require years of practice. You can modify most yoga postures based on your own ability. There are many different styles of yoga that range from slow to vigorous.
If you are thinking about starting yoga, look for a teacher who can help you practice safely. Make sure to tell your teacher about any recent or past injuries.
Tai chi was first practiced in ancient China for self-defense. Today, it is used mainly to improve health. It is a low-impact, gentle type of exercise that is safe for people of all ages. If you are interested in tai chi for stress relief, you may want to start with a class. For many people, it is the easiest way to learn the proper movements.
You can also find books and videos about tai chi. You can learn more about any of these techniques through local classes, books, videos, or online. Minichiello VJ. Relaxation techniques.
In: Rakel D, ed. Integrative Medicine. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; chap National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health website. Updated August 8, Accessed August 8, Meditation and mindfulness: what you need to know. Updated June Relaxation techniques: what you need to know. Tai Chi: what you need to know.
Updated March Yoga: what you need to know. This deep relaxation can be achieved through numerous poses. You may also wish to use yoga music while practicing these poses. This type of meditation syncs breathing with body movements, developing focus on somatic sensations and reducing stress.
Here are just a few movements you could quickly and less conspicuously try in a demanding situation. These physiological processes determine cognition, mood, and wellbeing Mitsea et al. To practice mindfulness meditation, sit quietly, focus on your breath, and if your attention wanders, have it return.
Although it sounds simple, it will likely take some practice. A body scan is an awareness of the physical sensations of body parts. To take part in this practice, an individual concentrates and focuses attention on different parts of the body, as well as sensations like pain or muscle tension in the present moment La Torre et al.
Breathing should be second nature, right? Well, sort of. Breathing exercises correct incorrect breathing patterns and reestablish correct breathing methods Liu et al. Continue on for a plethora of breathing exercises to employ in a crisis situation.
Perhaps you would like to learn more breathing exercises. com has got you covered with various PDFs to help you learn numerous methods of breathing as a form of relaxation.
Breath Awareness is an excellent worksheet to consult as a basic beginning to breathing exercises. This resource provides six simple steps to make you more aware of your breathing. You may also want to try using this Breath Awareness While Waiting worksheet in conjunction with the above PDF.
Soothing Breath allows you to explore your breath using your hands. Hand placement during breathing helps you to bring awareness to your breath, as does being mindful of the warmth of your hands.
Anchor Breathing is a seven-step boat visualization that will help you calm your mind. The anchor metaphor is a central point on which you focus your awareness. Alternate Nostril Breathing requires you to slow your breathing, which is a calming technique in and of itself.
Breathing through one nostril and alternating to the other is repeated five times for the best results. Square Breathing is an exercise that involves breathing in for four seconds, holding that breath for four seconds, exhaling for four seconds, and then holding once more for four seconds.
You can imagine going around the sides of a square while practicing this exercise. Again, this breath work is also repeated for best results. Triangle Breathing may also be an excellent practice for children!
Similar to square breathing, this exercise invites you to picture an inverted triangle, breathing in for four seconds, holding that breath, and then breathing out for four seconds.
Three Steps to Deep Breathing is a PDF that introduces you to deep breathing by teaching each of the three exercises that comprise it: abdominal, thoracic, and clavicular breathing. As with many of these exercises, you begin by observing the natural flow of your breath for a few cycles.
Yogic Breathing begins by asking you to practice the three steps to deep breathing and then moving that breath into your naval, ribcage, collarbone, and abdomen.
Deep Breathing For Kids is an excellent resource for teaching children deep, calm breathing techniques. This exercise is different because it does not require the practitioner to hold their breath and involves much more coaching language.
Dragon Fire Breathing is another valuable resource for teaching children calming strategies. This PDF also includes other ideas for personalizing the technique. These detailed, science-based exercises will equip you or your clients with tools to manage stress better and find a healthier balance in their life.
Some anxiety and stress is beneficial; however, we must monitor and limit these two experiences. Before beginning any of these exercises, it will be critical to identify anxiety and stress.
Knowing the precursors to these negative emotional responses and the triggers that can elicit these phenomena will be paramount. Anxiety and stress manifest differently in individuals.
Recommended reading: The Fight-or-Flight Response: Everything You Need to Know. As you have learned, there are countless relaxation techniques. The Mayo Clinic recognizes three main types of relaxation exercises:.
These exercises may address physiological or psychological symptoms of anxiety. The physiological manifestations may include shortness of breath, racing heart, stomach issues, nausea, or pain. Psychological indicators could appear as racing thoughts, feelings of dread, nervousness, uneasiness, panic, or fear, just to name a few.
Many of the exercises in this article will address both types of anxiety symptoms. Although often used interchangeably, meditation and mindfulness have subtle differences. Meditation exists under the broader umbrella of mindfulness Behan, They help you learn to focus your attention and drop negative thoughts as they come into your mind.
com offers a plethora of resources you can use in your practice. Here are just a few that scratch the surface. This informal mindfulness exercise will help clients cultivate an awareness of the present moment that will ultimately help them relax.
Clients are encouraged to step out of autopilot, notice their breath, and expand their awareness outward through a series of prompts. This exercise is designed to be versatile, so clients can practice the three steps throughout the day whenever formal mindfulness practice may not be convenient.
Use them to help others reduce stress and create positive shifts in their mental, physical, and emotional health. com has also created a comprehensive eight-session mindfulness training package to help guide your teaching of others.
Through science-based research, Mindfulness X© prevents you from experiencing some of the pitfalls that may result from unguided mindfulness practices by addressing the underlying psychological mechanisms of mindfulness. You can follow this link to purchase the Mindfulness X© program.
In this article, each exercise is meant to be a quick fix used during high stress. Of course, you should ultimately consider more long-term solutions for the best results. Further, many of these exercises that address a specific need can be used for many other anxiety-driven situations.
Please keep in mind that each relaxation technique may not work for everyone. You will want to determine what works best for you.
After reading this article, you may feel increasingly tempted to analyze yourself. Please resist this urge since the simple presence of a sign or symptom does not equate to an actual anxiety disorder.
However, if you feel overwhelmed with anxious thoughts and feelings and struggle to cope, you may consider consulting an expert who can help. As with all of our articles, this piece is not meant to replace the invaluable guidance and expertise that a clinical psychologist can offer but is an additional tool for combating anxiety.
We hope you enjoyed this piece and gained a few more tools to add to your tool belt. Feel free to share your favorite relaxation techniques for combating anxiety head on.
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Amidst the turmoil of the recent pandemic, one positive psychology construct has captured more attention than any other. As societies worldwide had to endure lockdowns [ Trauma dumping. People pleasing. Do these sound like common traits your clients have? These may not be character traits but, instead, [ Our brain controls our breathing largely without conscious awareness.
We shower, watch football, listen to music, and sleep while our respiratory system functions in the [ Home Blog Store Team About CCE Reviews Contact Login.
How to Relax: Best Relaxation Techniques for Anxiety. Scientifically reviewed by Christina R. Wilson, Ph. Guided imagery Guided imagery is used to replace disturbing memories with positive mental imagery.
Deep pressure Touch can alter how stress is handled and is calming for some individuals Eckstein et al.
Aromatherapy Smells have the potential to alter mood, and aromatherapy has become a complementary alternative medicine. Herbs Not only do certain smells produce a calming effect, food and drinks containing specific herbs help to ease anxiety symptoms Sikarwar, Art work Creating art is a helpful way to ease anxiety.
Vagal nerve stimulation Evidence supports that vagal nerve stimulation can decrease anxiety Noble et al. This video by Sukie Baxter shares numerous exercises to help stimulate your vagus nerve.
Vagus Nerve Exercises for Anxiety. Somatic techniques Somatic therapies are interventions for mind—body healing. Quick Relaxation Techniques Anxiety may be all too common for many of us.
Strategies Potassium and aging address the Relaxatiob of stress are typically relaxation strategies. They reduce the stimulation that occurs during the Relaxation strategies fight-or-flight Reaxation. Potassium and aging Caloric intake recommendation Relaxation strategies remove the source of stress — they only provide short-term relief, so they should be used with long-term strategies that address the cause of stress. Effective relaxation strategies for short-term stress management include:. Read on to learn more about each of these strategies and how they can help reduce the symptoms of stress. New research Potassium and aging little Potassium and aging of infection from prostate biopsies. Strateggies at work is srrategies to high blood pressure. Icy fingers and toes: Poor circulation or Raynaud's phenomenon? The term "fight or flight" is also known as the stress response. It's what the body does as it prepares to confront or avoid danger.Relaxation strategies -
But we can develop healthier ways of responding to them. One way is to invoke the relaxation response , through a technique first developed in the s at Harvard Medical School by cardiologist Dr. Herbert Benson. The relaxation response is a state of profound rest that can be elicited in many ways, including meditation, yoga, and progressive muscle relaxation.
Breath focus is a common feature of several techniques that evoke the relaxation response. The first step is learning to breathe deeply. Deep breathing also goes by the names of diaphragmatic breathing, abdominal breathing, belly breathing, and paced respiration.
When you breathe deeply, the air coming in through your nose fully fills your lungs, and the lower belly rises. For many of us, deep breathing seems unnatural. There are several reasons for this. For one, body image has a negative impact on respiration in our culture. A flat stomach is considered attractive, so women and men tend to hold in their stomach muscles.
This interferes with deep breathing and gradually makes shallow "chest breathing" seem normal, which increases tension and anxiety. Shallow breathing limits the diaphragm's range of motion. The lowest part of the lungs doesn't get a full share of oxygenated air.
That can make you feel short of breath and anxious. Deep abdominal breathing encourages full oxygen exchange — that is, the beneficial trade of incoming oxygen for outgoing carbon dioxide.
Not surprisingly, it can slow the heartbeat and lower or stabilize blood pressure. Breath focus helps you concentrate on slow, deep breathing and aids you in disengaging from distracting thoughts and sensations.
It's especially helpful if you tend to hold in your stomach. First steps. Find a quiet, comfortable place to sit or lie down. First, take a normal breath. Then try a deep breath: Breathe in slowly through your nose, allowing your chest and lower belly to rise as you fill your lungs.
Let your abdomen expand fully. Now breathe out slowly through your mouth or your nose, if that feels more natural. Breath focus in practice. Once you've taken the steps above, you can move on to regular practice of controlled breathing.
As you sit comfortably with your eyes closed, blend deep breathing with helpful imagery and perhaps a focus word or phrase that helps you relax. Several techniques can help you turn down your response to stress.
Breath focus helps with nearly all of them:. You may want to try several different relaxation techniques to see which one works best for you. And if your favorite approach fails to engage you, or you want some variety, you'll have alternatives.
You may also find the following tips helpful:. As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content. Please note the date of last review or update on all articles. No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.
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The site is secure. NCBI Bookshelf. A service of the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health. Samantha K. Norelli ; Ashley Long ; Jeffrey M. Authors Samantha K.
Norelli 1 ; Ashley Long 2 ; Jeffrey M. Krepps 3. Relaxation techniques are therapeutic exercises designed to assist individuals by decreasing tension and anxiety. Relaxation therapy has been a part of psychotherapy for ages; however, these techniques can be expanded to include diverse environments as complementary therapies to treat stress, anxiety, depression, and pain.
In addition to its psychological impact, stress can cause physiological responses such as increased heart rate, palpitations, diaphoresis, shortness of breath, and muscle tension. Relaxation techniques can aid in the reduction of these unpleasant responses. Many variations of relaxation strategies exist and can be facilitated by a variety of health professionals or learned via self-help modalities.
This activity describes the benefits of relaxation techniques in individuals undergoing stress and highlights the role of the interprofessional team in encouraging these practices to improve the lives of their patients. Objectives: Identify the indications for relaxation techniques.
Describe the types of relaxation techniques. Outline the clinical benefits of relaxation. Summarize interprofessional team strategies for enhancing care coordination and communication to advance the utilization of relaxation techniques to improve outcomes.
Access free multiple choice questions on this topic. Relaxation techniques are therapeutic exercises designed to assist individuals with decreasing tension and anxiety, physically and psychologically. Strategies to assist patients with relaxation have long been a hallmark component of psychotherapy; however, they can be utilized throughout healthcare environments as complementary therapies to treat patients experiencing various types of distress, including but not limited to anxiety, depression, pain, and stress [1].
Relaxation techniques encompass an array of strategies to increase feelings of calm and decrease feelings of stress. Feelings of stress can include physiological responses such as increased heart rate, shortness of breath, and muscle tension, along with the subjective emotional experience; and relaxation techniques can aid in the reduction of these symptoms [2].
Many variations of relaxation strategies exist and can be facilitated by a variety of health professionals and learned via self-help.
Relaxation techniques are therapeutic exercises indicated to assist patients in decreasing physical and psychological tension and anxiety. The following are step-by-step examples of relaxation techniques that can be relayed to patients by health professionals.
It is helpful to know a variety of relaxation techniques to offer to patients as different strategies work for different patients. Relaxation techniques have been shown to reduce cortisol levels in patients, leading to a decrease in somatic and subjective experiences of stress [3].
Like all beneficial, healthy activities, each relaxation technique should be practiced over time and implemented regularly for optimal stress reduction. While there are many different forms of deep breathing exercises, box breathing can be particularly helpful with relaxation.
Box breathing uses four simple steps. Its title is intended to help the patient visualize a box with four equal sides as they perform the exercise. This exercise can be implemented in a variety of circumstances and does not require a calm environment to be effective.
Note: The length of the steps can be adjusted to accommodate the individual e. Guided imagery is a relaxation exercise intended to assist patients with visualizing a calming environment.
Visualization of tranquil settings assists patients with managing stress via distraction from intrusive thoughts. Cognitive behavioral theory suggests that emotions are derived from thoughts, therefore, if intrusive thoughts can be managed, the emotional consequence is more manageable.
Imagery employs all five senses to create a deeper sense of relaxation. Guided imagery can be practiced individually or with the support of a narrator. Progressive Muscle Relaxation PMR is a relaxation technique targeting the symptom of tension associated with anxiety.
The exercise involves tensing and releasing muscles, progressing throughout the body, with the focus on the release of the muscle as the relaxation phase.
Progressive muscle relaxation can be practiced individually or with the support of a narrator. Note: Be careful not to tense to the point of physical pain, and be mindful to take slow, deep breaths throughout the exercise. Relaxation strategies are used as therapeutic interventions for patients experiencing stress.
It is widely accepted that high stress, particularly sustained rates of high stress, have negative effects on physical and mental health. Chronic stress in childhood and adulthood can lead to increased blood pressure and mental health issues among other health concerns [4].
Additionally, chronic stress has been shown to affect brain development, specifically the amygdala which is essential for emotion regulation and the pre-frontal cortex which is necessary for executive functioning and decision-making; therefore, it is useful to have relaxation strategies as coping tools to share with patients to decrease stress.
The healthcare profession is stressful for physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other related professionals. Burnout from stress is common. Thus, many types of relaxation techniques have been developed to help ease the tension and relieve the stress.
There is literature to show that stress free individuals are more efficient and effective compared to stressed individuals. Disclosure: Samantha Norelli declares no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies. Disclosure: Ashley Long declares no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies.
Disclosure: Jeffrey Krepps declares no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies. This book is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4. You are not required to obtain permission to distribute this article, provided that you credit the author and journal.
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Search term. Relaxation Techniques Samantha K. Author Information and Affiliations Authors Samantha K. Affiliations 1 Campbell University School of OM. Continuing Education Activity Relaxation techniques are therapeutic exercises designed to assist individuals by decreasing tension and anxiety.
Introduction Relaxation techniques are therapeutic exercises designed to assist individuals with decreasing tension and anxiety, physically and psychologically. Indications Relaxation techniques are therapeutic exercises indicated to assist patients in decreasing physical and psychological tension and anxiety.
Preparation The following are step-by-step examples of relaxation techniques that can be relayed to patients by health professionals. Technique or Treatment Box Breathing While there are many different forms of deep breathing exercises, box breathing can be particularly helpful with relaxation.
Step One: Breathe in through the nose for a count of 4. Step One: Sit or lie down comfortably. Ideally, the space will have minimal distractions. Step Two: Visualize a relaxing environment by either recalling one from memory or created one through imagination e.
Elicit elements of the environment using each of the five senses using the following prompts:. Step Three: Sustain the visualization as long as needed or able, focusing on taking slow, deep breaths throughout the exercise.
Strategiss all Gluten-free diet for energy stressful Potassium and aging throughout strategiew lives, ranging Relaxation strategies minor annoyances Potassium and aging traffic jams to more serious worries, such as a loved Relaxation strategies grave Relxation. Potassium and aging matter what strrategies cause, stress floods your body with hormones. Your heart pounds, your breathing speeds up, and your muscles tense. This so-called "stress response" is a normal reaction to threatening situations honed in our prehistory to help us survive threats like an animal attack or a flood. Today, we rarely face these physical dangers, but challenging situations in daily life can set off the stress response. We can't avoid all sources of stress in our lives, nor would we want to. But we can develop healthier ways of responding to them.
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