You live fast, you work fast, you want to relax quickly. Here are four simple exercises to help you relieve stress, remove fatigue, and calm down.

Relaxationis used to relax tense muscles and reduce the internal stimulation of the body. Thanks to relaxation, we save vital energy, because tense muscles absorb energy.

Do you know this: you come home after a day's work, are you tired and irritable at the same time? It is a state of physical and mental overload. The ideal way to quickly regenerate and regain balance is relaxation. Edmund Jacobson, one of the pioneers of relaxation techniques […], noticed that mental tensions - caused by the fast pace of life, the need to adapt to new conditions, information overload […] - affect physical tensions, and thus chronic muscle tension.

Negative emotions and stress cause certain muscles to contract. People who live under constant mental stress often have headaches, their movements are rapid, their breathing shallow, react violently to any changes and sleep restlessly. […] Relaxation proposed by Jacobson consists in gradual tightening and loosening of specific muscle groups. In this way, you learn to distinguish between the sensations of a tense and a relaxed muscle. And relaxed muscles promote inner calming.

Relaxation is mental gymnastics

Johannes Heinrich Schulz is the creator of Autogenic Training, a relaxation method based on Buddhist Zen meditation and yoga. Schulz recommended the use of self-suggestion, which, in his opinion, reduces physical and mental stress.

Suggestion: "my left hand is heavy now, my right hand is heavy now, shoulders are heavy now", it works almost immediately. You can check it now. Schulz believed that autogenic training is a kind of mental gymnastics. You learn to create a feeling of heaviness and warmth in your muscles, slow your breathing and heart beat, calmness.

Exercise 1. Tension - relaxation

Before doing this exercise, check to see if your body is tense or relaxed right now. Are the muscles in the neck taut, are the jaws clenched and the brows furrowed? Now open your mouth wide, tense your muscles like you are saying "aaa".Just hold on for a minute. Now move your jaw as if you are saying "ajajaj". You can speak out loud or in your mind. Try to open your mouth even wider and move your jaw for another minute - it smoothes out wrinkles! But most of all, it relaxes the facial muscles. Now, on the exhale, gently bring your chin to your chest (unless you have an injury to the cervical region). Stay in this position for a minute and raise your head while inhaling. As you inhale, pull your shoulder blades and elbows back tightly, and relax your chest. On the exhale, return to the starting position. Repeat the exercise twice, while inhaling, raise your straight elbows above your head, clasp them together and stretch your spine. On the exhale, return to the starting position.

Relaxation effects

  • calms down internally;
  • helps you fall asleep and brings you deep sleep;
  • regenerates the body and mind;
  • makes nerve cells rest.

Exercise 2. Relaxation at the desk

Here is an exercise to relax a large number of muscles. Sit with your torso slightly forward, feet on the ground and parallel to each other. Rest your elbows on the knees or the armchair's backrest; the head should hang freely. The eyes are closed and the mouth is slightly open (lower jaw relaxed). Stay in this position and breathe deeply. After three minutes, as you inhale, lift your head and chest and bring your arms back. Stretch.

Exercise 3. Relaxing the Solar Plexus

The aim of this exercise is to get a feeling of warmth in the area of ​​the solar plexus chakra (the area between the navel and breastbone). Sit comfortably with your spine straight, close your eyes. Raise your right hand and massage the solar plexus in the direction you think is best. Try to breathe your belly. After two minutes, place both hands on your thighs and start voicing your self-suggestion: "my solar plexus is pleasantly warm." If you find the sentence too long, shorten it: "my solar plexus is warm." Repeat the same sentence several or a dozen times.

Exercise 4. Cool forehead

Your brain can be overworked at times and your head feels like it's overheating. In such a situation, this exercise may help. Sit with your spine straight, close your eyes. As you exhale, say in your mind: "my arms are heavy, my right arm is heavy, my left arm is heavy, my legs are heavy, my body is heavy, my heart is working calmly, my breathing is calm." Shift your attention to your forehead and say, "my forehead is pleasantly cool" (imagine crystal clear mountain water). After a few tries, you can only applyforehead suggestion.

This will be useful to you

The body's reactions to relaxation exercises

  • breathing is calm;
  • muscles relax;
  • heart runs slower;
  • pressure drops;
  • lips open slightly;
  • lower jaw slightly drooping;
  • there is a feeling of being pleasantly attracted by the earth.

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Category:

Psychology