How to relieve stress and release tension?
Stress and tension seem to be an integral part of life.
Wherever you go, they go after you. There is stress and tension at work, at home, and in relationships. There is stress and tension due to health problems, and stress and tension brought about by one’s financial situation.
Sometimes, you can eliminate or change the external cause; sometimes, you cannot. When you cannot change the external cause, you become more stressed. If you can deal with the external cause, that’s great, but what if you cannot?
Related: 12 Tips for Overcoming Anxiety.
Your Attitude Can Increase or Reduce Stress and Tension
Dealing with stress and tension should begin from within you. External causes might trigger them, but in most cases, your attitude and thoughts are the real causes.
You might not always be able to deal with external conditions, but you can certainly teach yourself to change your attitude.
With a change of attitude, stress and tension would be reduced and might even disappear, irrespective of your external conditions.
Take two different people with different mental attitudes, and put them in the same situation.
If you observe their behavior, you will see two different behavior patterns.
- One might get stressed easily, feel exhausted, and dwell on negative thoughts.
- The other person remains calm, relaxed, and happy, and at the same time also energetic.
Related article: What to Do in Stressful Situations?
There Are Two Ways to Deal with Stress and Tension
There are ways to release stress and tension after they appear, and there are ways to prevent them from being created.
You can do certain first aid things when experiencing stress and tension, and you can learn methods that prevent stress and tension from coming into existence.
The first aid method consists of certain small things that reduce stress and tension, while the second method requires inner work over a period of time.
The second method brings more permanent results, resulting in a changed attitude, a changed perspective of life, and a state of inner peace.
This approach has been explained extensively in my book Inner Peace in the Busy Daily Life.
10 Tips to Relieve Stress and Release Tension
The following tips are like a first aid kit for relieving stress and releasing tension.
Simple ways to relieve stress:
- Pay attention to your body and your muscles. Are they contracted and tense? Release the tension. Pay special attention to your face and scalp; if you feel they are tense, release the tension. If after a few seconds the tension returns, relax them again until the tension disappears.
- When feeling stressed or tense, stand up with your head and back straight, and take a few deep, slow breaths.
- Drinking a cup of water helps too. If you feel stressed or tense before going to sleep at night, a glass of milk, warm or cold, can make you feel more relaxed.
- Think about the thoughts that are causing you the stress and tension. In many cases, you may have created a mountain in your mind that does not exist in reality. Thinking positively about the situation can bring new ideas for solving it and, therefore, eliminate the stress.
- If other people cause the stress, talk to them about it. Don’t bottle it up. Sometimes, people don’t know what they are causing you, and a little relaxed conversation can do wonders.
- Find causes to laugh. Watch a comedy on TV, or read something funny.
- Leave everything you are doing now and take a walk outside.
- Go to swim or to the gym. In fact, if you exercise regularly, your stress level will become lower.
- Take it easy. Don’t pile up tasks, chores, and goals. If you plan too many things to do, you will probably feel stressed. Make a plan, but focus on one thing at a time.
- Try to look with a detached state of mind at the situation that is causing you stress.
It is a good idea to take a step back in your mind and look at the situation you face as if from the outside, as though it has nothing to do with you.
This point of view might be a little difficult to adopt since, in a stressed situation, it is more challenging to stay detached. You will have to remind yourself over and over to remember this tip.
If you wish to go deeper and prevent stress from appearing at all, you will need to gain some degree of a href=”https://www.successconsciousness.com/emotional-detachment-for-happier-life/”>emotional detachment.
