Stress Reduction Exercises

Written By Colēgia

Stress can feel debilitating at times since it can be incredibly distracting. It can cause us to lose our focus along with making worse decisions. Being able to work on how we handle stress is crucial both in school and for life in general. Today we want to talk about some effective exercises to help reduce stress and make us more capable of handling it.

Box Breathing

An extremely helpful breathing technique that can help us calm down is box breathing. The idea behind this is that it actively helps our nervous system find a state of stability by calming down. In fact, this technique is so effective it's even used by the Navy SEALS for high-stress moments! One way to do this is by counting to one and breathing in. Afterward, hold it for one second then release for one second. Lastly, wait for one second. After doing all of these steps increase the breathing to two seconds for the next cycle. Keep doing this until you reach four seconds for each of these steps and you've successfully done box breathing. The good thing about this is that it works by gradually getting your body and mind accustomed to doing something slightly longer each time and this helps us focus on relaxing more easily.

“An extremely helpful breathing technique that can help us calm down is box breathing.”

Writing Down Your Thoughts

Sometimes we might find our minds racing with all the thoughts we have. This can feel overwhelming since we might not be able to properly express what we're thinking at times. One powerful way to help manage this is by writing down your thoughts. Whether it's on paper or on a Word document, the act of doing this helps us reflect on what our minds are thinking about. The benefit of this is that it can soothe the restless mind before bed by acting as a sort of self-therapy option. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that we are not our thoughts and freewriting is one such way we can help with this. This is effectively writing the first thing that comes to mind without fear of judgment and with less structure than most types of writing. Writing in general allows us to more tangibly reflect on our thoughts in a practical and creative manner.

“The benefit of this is that it can soothe the restless mind before bed by acting as a sort of self-therapy option.”

Going For A Meditative Walk

There's nothing quite like a meditative walk to help clear the mind of stress while also getting exercise in the process. Establishing a good exercise routine can make it much more likely that we associate taking positive action when faced with stress. Exercise is great as an outlet to help with this since it gets our body moving and focused on the present. Oftentimes when we're stressed it's because our mind is preoccupied with future events that we may be anxious about. Usually, it's not worth sacrificing the entire day worrying about something since it robs us of all the wonderful things we have going for us. The key to managing stress is recognizing when it happens and taking the appropriate action to make it easier on us.

Colēgia

Colēgia

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