3 Ways to Help Your Body and Mind Release Stress
Dear Mindful Readers,
Here at Mindful, we were straining to find the right words to say about Stress Awareness Month. It doesn’t exactly sound right to say “Let’s celebrate Stress Awareness Month,” or “Happy Stress Month!” So, we finally arrived at:
Stress less this month!
Let that be your motto for April, and how about we start by reviewing a little bit of what we know about stress, because the month is about“awareness” after all, not about feeling guilty about being stressed, which of course just makes us more stressed. #1: Stress is a part of being alive (we need a certain amount of stress to live); #2: It’s easy to get trapped in excess needless stress (fight or flight kicks in over the smallest of things; no saber-toothed tigers are prowling your office); #3: some mindfulness practice can help.
So, during April, let’s all commit to exploring with our mindful awareness the ways we overstress and the situations that cause us to overstress, and then explore how to avoid taking the bait internally and what stressors in our lives we might need to mitigate.
Also, April 2 was autism awareness day. We’ve learned so much in the past few decades about the spectrum of ways that humans being construct a world in our minds, ie, neurodiversity. Consider taking a few minutes to learn more, starting here.
Try these three practices to let go of stress and to soothe yourself with your body’s built-in mechanisms for calm and peace:
1. Move gently. A really tough workout may relieve stress for some, but so can really listening to your body. According to Jillian Pransky, when we’re familiar with how and where we hold tension, it gets easier to notice “how we are closing down or opening up to the current conditions in our lives.” Explore her four simple practices for letting go of unwanted stress.
2. Exhale deeply. This breathwork practice soothes anxiety by making the exhale twice as long as the inhale. “This type of breathing also activates your vagus nerve, which is your ‘rest and digest’ nerve,” explains Ni-Cheng Liang. Try it with this 12-minute guided meditation.
3. Open up to change. Life involves difficult changes for everyone. Instead of making things harder on ourselves by resisting change, we can begin to accept it, without trying to feel differently. “By accepting change, we can bring kindness to our experience, even if it’s painful and sad at times,” says Kimberly Brown.
Warmly,
The Mindful Editors