Tag: relaxation techniques

Relaxation Techniques for Stress Management

The following paragraphs summarize the work of stress experts who are completely familiar with all the aspects of stress. Heed their advice to avoid any stress surprises.

Relaxing in the Midst of Stress

Stress management is an important practice that most people nowadays need to learn. With a fast paced working environment, people are constantly subjected to tremendous pressure that result to reprobate levels of stress in their lives. You ought to be able to cope quickly with the amount of stress that you have to turmoil with since it produces several negative effects on your body in mind.

First off, stress can cause your performance to drop because of your inability to focus on the tasks at hand. Stress can also affect your health and body. Oftentimes, stress power escalate into depression or burden. Relaxation is one of the best techniques used to cope with and reduce the symptoms of stress. Relaxation methods have been utilized for stress management during olden times and they prove to be as effective immediately. Therefore, propaganda how to relax in the midst of powerful much stress in your everyday life will mean a star of difference.

Starting a Relaxation Practice

As with anything, starting a relaxation practice is often the biggest hurdle that people are faced with. Once you begin to notice that you seem to fast lose energy and constantly change your mood, then maybe it’s time to re – evaluate yourself because this can be all caused by stress. There are several relaxation activities that help combat stress in your life whether as simple as deep vital, stretching or meditation, to more advanced relaxation methods such as yoga or tai chi.

To experience the husky benefits of such relaxation methods, you need to take time each year to perform them. Only then would you reproduce able to harness its relieving power so you rap benefit from stress relief. It does not have to take so much of your time each day, maybe at least 10 organ to as much as 20 minutes is enough for stress management.

For better success at developing this practice, take note of the following tips:

Determine a given schedule for each day when you rap perform these relaxation exercises. If possible, schedule once or twice a day, whichever is most apt for you. Then, make sure you follow your schedule strictly.
Refrain from scheduling your relaxation practices imminent bedtime seeing you’re sleepiness could get in the way.
Never opt for an enterprise method that could stress you out all the more. Find a level of practice that are most comfortable and feel relaxed with.

Stress Relief Through Deep Breathing

This is particular of the easiest and simplest exercise you can perform to achieve stress relief. This would allow additional air to get into your lungs. To perform effective deep breathing, proceed from these methods:

Sit straight with one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach.
Breathe through your nose, enough to make your stomach rise. Make explicit that your chest produce elfin movements.
Use your mouth to exhale and push the opinion out with as much force as possible.
Repeat the same proceeding. Take note of the rise and fall of your lower innards.

Muscle Relaxation, Yoga and Meditation

For further stress relief, you can perform different relaxation methods that involve your muscles and mind. In muscle relaxation, your objective is to tense and relax the various muscle groups in your body. To do this, find a comfortable position and start by taking slow and deep breaths. Then, create tension on your body by squeezing them tightly while counting slowly until its time to let go. Focus on the release of the tension in a specific body part until you feel relaxed. When doing this, start from foot and eventually move upwards.

Yoga and meditation are also two other techniques used in stress management methods. These are associated with slow and unbroken movements, as husky as gentle buildup. This practice is best for relieving product in the body and mind, which is why it is recommended for stress relief practices.
This article’s coverage of the information is as complete as it can be today. But you should always leave open the possibility that future research could uncover new facts.

What You should Do if You Had a Panic Attack

What You should Do if You Had a Panic Attack

Experiencing a panic attack for the first time can be distressing not only because of the actual experience during the attack but also because you tend to develop fear of future attacks. Also known as anticipatory anxiety, fear of future attacks causes continuous fear and tension disabling you to relax. Often when the condition is not addressed, it will lead to phobic avoidance wherein you avoid places, situations, gatherings, and events where emergency help is not readily available or where having an attack can be embarrassing.

Take into extreme, this condition may lead to agoraphobia where you begin to avoid much of the activities you usually do. To avoid this, consider the following advices:

1. Consult your medical doctor. Symptoms attributed to panic attacks such racing heart, chest pain, heavy breathing, profuse sweating, agitation, etc., are also common to other physiological and psychological conditions. Seeking for proper diagnosis from your doctor, therefore, will rule out any cause unrelated to anxiety. Tell him your symptoms, when did the attack happen, and how intense the attack was. Your doctor will ask about your past medical history and may run some tests (e.g. urine test, blood test, drug screens, etc.).

2. See a therapist who is properly trained to handle such psychological condition. No, you are not crazy (people who go to a therapist are not crazy). The reason why you have to see a therapist is to process your emotion and prevent future attacks. Do not wait too long to seek help. Left untreated, a panic attack can lead to more severe conditions. Your therapist may subject you to cognitive-behavioral therapy and exposure therapy to process your thoughts.

3. Find the cause of the attack. Some cases of panic attacks may show a “pattern” certain activity, thoughts, time or person you are with at the time of the attack. These give you important clues to eliminate later symptoms.

4. Learn some relaxation techniques you can practice at home or while out. Music, meditation, yoga, and breathing techniques are not only helpful in reducing the symptoms during the actual attack but also in strengthening your body’s relaxation response.

5. Do not add more fear. Absorbing all the fears and other negative thoughts that come with anxiety attack only adds to more fear which worsen the negative impact even further. Instead, recognize that you are afraid and make it work to your advantage.

6. Practice healthy lifestyle (regular exercise, balanced diet, and enough sleep). Studies prove that at little as 30 minutes of physical activity 3 to 5 times a week is a great stress buster, helpful in preventing future attacks. Balanced diet keeps the supply of nutrients and maintains the balance of chemical in the body. Sleeping at least 8 hours each day recharges the body, refreshes the mind, and calms the muscles.

7. Remove all unnecessary stress. Since, panic attacks are closely linked to stress, avoiding things, people, and situations that stress you out help reduce the chance of future attacks.

8. Educate yourself about panic attacks. There are many resources where you can learn more about the condition. Reading books, health magazines and internet articles about panic attack will definitely equip you with the right information on how to combat any negative effects it brings.

Various Treatments for Panic Attacks

The cause of panic attacks is still not fully understood. What is known is that it can happen to anyone, without any reason, regardless of age. Meaning, a happy and healthy person has an equal chance of experiencing a panic attack with those who are depressed and unhealthy. An episode of panic attack chooses no time. It can happen while you are at home, sitting on your couch, watching television, while driving, shopping or walking, at the office, etc. It can even happen while you are asleep.

Given such circumstances, methods of treatment may vary from person to person, depending on his conditions, symptoms, lifestyle, and frequency of attacks. Typically however, treatment involves psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and/or medication. Other treatments that can be employed are meditation, breathing exercises, relaxation techniques and herbal treatment.

Anti-anxiety medications such as Ativan, Xanax and Klonopin provide quick relief from the symptoms panic attack. Benzodiazepines have immediate effects, usually within 30 minutes to an hour. Benzodiazepines, however, are highly addictive and have some serious withdrawal symptoms. Anti-depressant drugs (Paxil, Prozac, Zoloft, Lexapro, and Celexa) should be taken continuously before you can begin to notice the effects, usually up to 6 months to a year. You cannot take anti-depressant drugs just during an attack.

In addition, since you cannot anticipate when you will have such attack, only those who are diagnosed with panic disorder (or recurring panic attacks) can acquire these types of drug.

Panic attacks, as well as panic disorder, agoraphobia and other phobias and related conditions can be treated effectively by psychotherapy. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is proven as an effective way to reduce the symptoms of panic attacks or completely eliminate the condition. CBT focuses on changing the thinking pattern of the person from negative to positive thoughts as well as changing the way a person reacts or behaves when he encounters emergency or situations that can trigger an attack.

Another treatment similar to CTB that is worth mentioning is exposure therapy. This helps the person overcome his fear by letting him face those fearful situations in a controlled and safe manner. The result of this technique is that the person learns how to react positively on what he thinks are fearful situations. Moreover, through this experience, the patient learns that the situations he fears are not harmful and dangerous.

In many cases, medication alone or therapy alone is enough to completely treat the condition, but other cases require both treatment methods to effectively treat panic disorder.

Meditation, breathing exercises, and relaxation techniques have been found effective in reducing the chances of experiencing another attack. They help calm the mind and relax the muscles. Regularly practicing these exercises and techniques strengthen the body’s relaxation response.

Natural herbs such as bacopin, ginkgo biloba, passion flower, St. John Wort, hyperforin, 5HTP (5-hydroxytryptophan), chamomile, rhodiola, are equally effective since they have natural anti-stress properties. In some cases, using these herbs is sufficient enough to combat panic attacks. Many people also react positively using this kind of treatment.

Fresh leaves can be made as tea. Some are also available over-the-counter in oil, tincture, capsule, powder and tea. The best thing about these natural herbs is that they do not carry any side effects as compared to mainstream anti-anxiety and anti depressant prescription medications.