Active rest: ways to relax your mind at home or outside

Although sometimes it is hard to admit it, sleep and rest are needed to live with quality and give the best of oneself. But when someone feels very tired or stressed, sleeping or lying on the sofa doesn’t seem like enough.

Allocate also small moments of the day to calm the body and mind without neglecting responsibilities, is a new formula that can help to gain health and enjoy more from day to day.

But resting does not necessarily mean doing nothing. There is what has been called a active restconsisting of incorporate small stimuli into the agenda able to renew ourselves and keep stress at bay despite having the usual pressures.

Specialists in sleep disorders, such as Matthew EdlundAmerican psychiatrist and author of the book Active Restuse this concept to propose a effective method to treat widespread problems such as stress, anxiety, depression or chronic fatigue.

We advance some ideas that you can put into practice in a simple way.

relax the body quickly

Some formulas to achieve greater physical rest throughout the day are:

Take a deep breath

When you get stuck on a problem or feel stressed or down, it can Spend a few minutes taking a full breath.

First breathe slowly and deeply through the nose feeling how the belly swells when inhaling and empties when exhaling. It is repeated several times and then he takes in air through his mouth, with pursed lips, to inhale more oxygen, feeling your lungs fill up.It is also exhaled through the mouth, but slowlyfeeling how the air joins the atmosphere.

This exercise relaxes, oxygenates and helps to feel more relieved and aware.

To do stretches

If you spend too much time sitting, another good way to recover is to do Simple stretches to loosen up and activate circulation.

Stand upright with your back straight, the cervicals are relaxed and the upper part of the shoulders is raised (shrinking them) towards the ears, until feeling a slight tension in the neck. This position is maintained for 5 seconds and then they relax shoulders letting them fall slowly. Next, the right shoulder is pushed down while the head is tilted towards the left shoulder. This comfortable stretch is maintained for 5 seconds and then the same posture is practiced with the opposite side. Still standing the arms are stretched above the head, the fingers are interlaced and with the palms facing upwards they carry the arms slightly backwards. The posture is held in this way, noting the tension in the arms, shoulders and upper back for 15 seconds, without holding my breath.Finally, the knees are slightly bent and the palms of the hands are placed at the height of the hips, with the fingers pointing down. She gently pushes her palms forward to create tension in the lower back, this position is maintained for 10 seconds and the exercise is repeated twice. You don’t have to hold your breath.

Take a nap or sleep without sleeping

About three in the afternoon, After a meal, body temperature drops and it is common to feel drowsy and fatigued that have nothing to do with laziness, but with the biological rhythms of each one.

If possible rest for ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, when activity resumes, the sensation will be of being more clear-headed, rested and happy, and you will yield more.

Can leave the workplace taking advantage of the time of the meal and, if the day is sunny, lie down for a while in a park under a tree or lean on the back of a bench on one arm

You can take a short nap or just take a nap without sleeping, closing your eyes and doing what the psychologist edmund jacobson called paradoxical relaxation.

To carry out this technique we close our eyes and observe how they move under the eyelids. We look at the movements and the different levels of muscle tension. First from the left eye (from the right if we are left-handed) and then from the other, seeing if there is more tension in the corner, in the middle of the eye or in the eyebrow. It is about observing and feeling the intensity of that tension.

Curiously, By focusing on a specific muscle, the other muscles in the body relax. This sleepless nap can also be practiced at the work desk, minimally covering your face with your hands for a few minutes and taking advantage of times when there are fewer people in the office.

Take a hot bath during the day

Just as a bath at night can help you fall asleep, if you can escape home at noon and take a hot bath for eight or ten minutes, the fact that coming into contact with hot water and breaking the routine will completely turn the day aroundespecially when we feel exhausted, upset about something or anxious.

will suffice with fill the tub halfway with waterat a temperature that does not burn, and concentrate on how the heat is diffused throughout the body while breathing slowly. A cold shower at the end will allow you to activate and start the afternoon refreshed.

Two yoga practices to feel stillness

Through postures that are coordinated with the breath and that favor internalization, yoga helps clear your head and feel revitalized. These two, very simple, can be practiced at any time of the day.

The mountain pose. To relax at any time of the day, especially if you feel back pain due to long hours what happens before the computeryou can practice the yogic posture of the mountain.
For this we put Stand with your legs shoulder-width apart with the tips of the feet forward, very straight and looking straight ahead, with the arms extended to both sides of the body, in balance. Then we concentrate on imagine that a straight line crosses our body and that we must align ourselves and keep this axis.
To achieve this, it is very useful in each inspiration to try feel the legs and feet rooted in the earth and notice how the head wants to touch the sky.
With each exhalation we feel how the lungs are completely cleansed and the body relaxes.
Apart from being an excellent exercise for strain the spine and jointsIt brings strength.The mudra of well-being. This ritual gesture of the Hindu tradition performed with the handsacts on the energy meridians that pass through the fingers stimulating the senses and a more positive perception of reality. It can be practiced at any time and place, especially when you have problems in personal relationships.
For it, the hands are joined and the fingers are interlocked without bending themresting the left thumb on the right, and the sides are rubbed of the fingers moving the hands up and down while taking a deep, slow and rhythmic breath.
The position is then held for a few minutes. imagining that we communicate with affection and understanding with the people who surround us both at work and in the personal environment.

relax the mind

On many occasions, especially if you perform intellectual work, physical exhaustion is caused by excessive mental activitywhich is why looking for certain spaces to calm the mind is as important as taking care of the body.

These strategies can help find moments of inner peace between daily obligations:

Walking to the rhythm of the music. Choosing some songs that motivate us and walking rhythmically while they play is a quick and easy way to inject new energy daily. You can take advantage of a journey that is made daily.Walking through a natural environment with your ears covered. Moving to a park, forest or walking along the beach at some time of the day is always a recommended stimulus to connect with nature and feel refreshed, but if we also cover our ears, depriving ourselves of hearing any sound and enhancing sight and body sensationsthe experience will place us in a scenario similar to when descending into the depths of the sea. time seems to stop; certain details gain relevance and life takes on new aspects, offering the opportunity to regain calm.

Sleep better

It is undeniable that energy, state of health and ability to concentrate during the day are proportional to the rest of the night before, to the quality of sleep and the time spent recovering. And it is that sleep influences memory and learningis necessary to regenerate neurons, to strengthen the immune system and keep colds and infections away, as well as to regulate the biological clock, among many other basic functions.

Therefore, create a good sleep routine that helps to calm down and to enter calmly and rhythmically in the rest, constitutes the philosopher’s stone of a good life.

Some of the sleep rituals that can be carried out are:

Have dinner soon. Take one light dinner before ten o’clock at night, without stimulating drinks or food such as coffee, alcohol or chocolate, and if possible, go for a little walk In a park or around the house, it helps to digest food better and relax at the end of the day.Express concerns in writing. After the walk, if something worries us, we can write On the left side from a notebook, in a personal diary or on the computer, what are those problems and, on the right hand sidewhat are we doing or what we think what can we do to solve them. In this way, the brain is trained to distance itself from what is happening, to see it in a more optimistic way and to focus on finding solutions, rather than on unproductive complaints.Take an aromatherapy bath. If it has been an intense day or normally it is difficult to sleep, take a hot water bath with lavender and marjoram essential oils before going to bed helps to loosen tensions and to fall asleep. Five drops of each essence mixed with the bath water are enough.Read for a while. Booking the time to go to bed to read for a while is, apart from a great climax to the day -because it allows you to let your imagination fly, disconnect and learn something new-, one of the best ways to enter the dream. And it’s usually more uplifting than passively watching TV.sleep enough hours. For some it will be seven, for others eight, for others nine… Getting enough sleep allows you to feel refreshed, even if you get up early. The best thing to start the day off right is get up on time and calmlymore than at the alarm clock, and gradually clearing up, open the window to receive the first freshness of the morning and take an invigorating shower.

take care of friends

It is undeniable that much of the joy and satisfaction in life comes from relationships who stay with other people.

Different studies indicate that people who are more prone to depression or mood swings tend to be those who have fewer friends, more conflicts in their relationships, and fewer rewarding contacts. Strengthen relationships…