Guided relaxation for stress relief: effective meditation and exercises

Stress is one of the most common ills of our society. and in the long run it can cause many health problems. You will know that you are stressed because you will feel restless, you will worry excessively about everything, you will feel muscle tension, headaches and you will even notice your breathlessness or you will have apneas. When we feel stress, the world seems to work against us, and at a much faster rate.

One of the things that can be used for this is Jacobson’s Progressive Guided Relaxation. In this meditation I guide you to practice this type of relaxation and free yourself from stress.

In addition to doing this relaxation, we can work on two of the most important aspects for good relaxation: conscious breathing and attention.

Guided relaxation for stress relief: meditation

After mindful breathing exercises We will practice this relaxation. You will see that it is very simple and highly effective.

Do the relaxation sitting in a chair with your back straight, but without tension. This way you will surely not fall asleep and you will continue to be comfortable. If you feel like it, it can be rewarding to do the meditation with headphones. You will feel the sound more enveloping and you will be able to better isolate yourself from the outside. If you need to move during meditation, go ahead. If you are uncomfortable, please reposition yourself in a more comfortable posture with gentle movements. If you can, download the entire meditation and then put your device in airplane mode.You can do the meditation at any time of the day. Perhaps you are having a period of punctual or prolonged stress, it does not matter. You can do this meditation just when you feel the peak of stress or as prevention. Put some essential oil in the diffuser or some incense. For stress I recommend aromas that relax you and help you balance your nervous system. I recommend, for example, tangerine and lavender. Plus, the two of them are wonderful together. During a peak of stress try to avoid stimulants, such as coffee or tea. You can choose the rooibos infusion that, although it does not have relaxing properties, I recommend it because it does not have theine and you will find it pleasant as a transition infusion to leave off stimulants. So that it is not too hard at first, you could replace one of the coffees or teas you drink a day with a rooibos. Remember to help yourself with wonderful natural remedies, such as relaxing plant infusions. Opt for infusions of valerian, lavender or lemon balm.

Finally, remember that everything happens and the most important thing is always to take care of yourself and your health. With this relaxation you will feel better and you can practice it as many times as you need!

2 relaxation exercises against stress

The triggers for stress can be many, from overwork to a family problem. Today I would like to propose an exercise that can help you relieve stress and its symptoms.

conscious breathing

conscious breathing It’s important because represents the gateway to the control of our nervous system.If we manage to master our breathing, we can relax and, therefore, relieve stress.

Let’s remember that stress and anxiety are related to hyperactivity of the sympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system is activated when we need to be attentive or when we are hungry or when we face a dangerous situation. Blood travels to the lungs and muscles heart rate quickens and our breathing becomes shallower in order to prepare for the escape. The brain does not distinguish what is real from what is not. Therefore, if we mentally create dangerous situations, our body prepares to flee as if a threat that we are only imagining was really happening.

Instead, what we must do is learn to activate the parasympathetic nervous system. The parasympathetic nervous system is usually active when you go to sleep, when you connect with your emotions or when you are relaxed. If we manage to breathe by prolonging the exhalations through the nose, we will be able to reduce the hyperactivity of the sympathetic nervous system and we will fully enter meditation.

Therefore, during this relaxation you will see that we give a lot of importance to breathing, which must be diaphragmatic, that is, taking the air towards the gut and inhaling and exhaling through the nose. We will guide some very simple and highly effective conscious breathing exercises.

Full attention

As I was saying, our brain does not differentiate between what we imagine and what is really happening. Therefore, if you continue to have fleeting thoughts that cause you stress, such as “I’m not getting to everything”, “I have a lot of work” or “this is beyond me” we will only manage to feed more stress. so it’s important bring our attention to a space of peace and calm where you can relax your mind and relieve muscle tension that you may have accumulated.

For this, too We will practice Jacobson’s Progressive Relaxation. This relaxation is one of the best known. It was created by Doctor Jacobson in 1929 and it is about tensing and relaxing muscle groups. There are certain stress-related thoughts and situations that cause muscle tension. With Jacobson’s Progressive Body Relaxation we tense the muscles expressly, we become aware of muscle tension and then we release it and get rid of stress.