” Smile, breathe and go slowly” by Thich Nhat Hanh Zen Buddhist
Feel more relaxed and peaceful on the inside by simply turning 100% of your awareness inwards. Yes, give yourself permission to disconnect from the busyness around you (even if its only for a few moments) and re-direct your energy and breath inwards.
Once your awareness is gently guided away from the overstimulating, overly demanding outside world – you can then draw upon one, two or more natural relaxation practices (tools) that you know will bring relief or at the very least take the edge off how you are currently feeling.
You are your own best expert of your body …….. and know in this moment ………… whether you are living life from your calm, peaceful centre ….. or responding to life from a fatigued, stressed, exhausted place.
Know, there are things you can do, if you find yourself feeling anxious, stressed, tension building up or simply fried.
I personally use the practices below, for myself and with my Bali retreat participants, whenever needed. It’s all about taking the time to support your body better and consciously choosing to trigger the relaxation response in your body at different times throughout your day or as the need arises.
Calm your nerves and release the tension:
1: Melt the frown. Smile and release the worry. It takes energy, lots and lots of energy to hold a tense, tight frown on your forehead. Check in with your forehead now – lose the frown then relax the skin across your forehead. Notice how you release the pressure in your temples as well when you melt the frown. While you are at it, pay close attention to your teeth and jaw. Un-clench your jaw, relax your tongue (very important) and part your teeth slightly. This will help enormously release facial and neck tension. You might even notice your shoulders relaxing and dropping at the same time.
Melt the frown, un-clench your jaw and drop your shoulders.
2: Take a chill pill. Close your eyes, cup the palms of your hands over your ears, now listen to the sounds of the ocean playing inside your head. Continue until you feel your nerves a little less frazzled, your thoughts a little calmer and your breathing more relaxed.
3: Turn off the noise: Silence nourishes your body, mind and soul. Silence is very restorative. Toxic urban noise is never ending and can be a constant background stress that you may not be aware of. Tune into your hearing and notice which sounds irritate you. Take a five minute “no noise” break. Alternately turn down or turn off any unnecessary stressful noise.
4: Repeat a calming mantra: Use your thoughts to fuel your body with a constant stream of calming and relaxing thoughts. Mantras work because they take your focus away from the stress and drama (just for a moment) and invite more peace into your life. Here’s a few of my favorites that you might like use. “I will remember to breathe and relax moment by moment” One of my personal favorites is “Every cell in my body is loved and healthy”. Breath in “I am calm” breathe out “I smile”
5: Take a mental health break: A less crowded mind means your nervous system is calmer. Take regular breaks from too much thinking and bring your awareness back into your body. Do your best to have an enjoyable morning and afternoon tea away from your desk in a pleasant environment. Listen to the requests of your body, drink when thirsty, stretch and move when you need to and never skip a meal. An added bonus; A quiet mind has direct access to wisdom and insight.
6: Adjust your breathing: Find some calm: Make your “out” breath twice as long as your “in” breath. This will immediately calm you down. Your breathing directly reflects your stress levels. If you breathing is fast, tight and shallow then I encourage to read my article 12 great reasons to start alternate nostril breathing:
7: Calm your nerves by turning your back to the world: This is in my top 3 all time favorite relaxation postures in the world. Its such a simple way to calm an overcrowded mind, call back your scattered energies back, calm your breathing and relax. Click here for full details. I promise you’ll love it.
8: Hug well and hug often: Give a hug or receive a hug, either way hug well and hug often. Heh, even give yourself a hug. Hugging and cuddling is therapeutic, healing and calming. According to Virginia Satir a family therapist; we need 4 hugs a day for survival, 8 hugs a day for maintenance and 12 hugs a day for growth. Whats your daily hug quota?
* 10 Hugging tips to grab on the run:
9: Rest your eyes: When you relax your eyes you are inviting your mind and body to follow. Do yourself a favor and grab yourself a yoga eye pillow and enjoy 5 minutes of relaxation. You may even want to make your own find out more here about the benefits of yoga eye pillows:
10: Self massage nourishes your nervous system: I love my early morning “warm” oil massage. Touch is healing and extremely nourishing to your body. Self massage releases happy feelings into your body, improves circulation and supports the removal of toxins from your body. There are simply loads of benefits.
Whilst “self massage” might seem like hard work at first, I can guarantee you’ll soon notice a difference. I recently wrote an article on self massage which you are very welcome to read here:
11: Cancel, clear, delete your energy drains: Notice what zaps your precious energy and reduce your exposure to gossip, shopping centers, busy places, certain friends or family members. Better still cancel, clear and delete their existence in your life.
12: Give yourself a chocolate facial: Warning! This is very addicted. Licking is definitely allowed as long as no one is looking.
13: Hum your worries away: Time to Hum. Place your hand on top of your head, smile, now start humming. Feel the healing vibration of the hum reach the top of your head. Your clever hum will brush away the cob webs, soothe your mind, relax your face muscles and nourish your nervous system.
* 12 instant benefits of humming
14: Sip a calming potion: If all else fails then do what I do; grab for my bottle of passion flower. I know for a fact that the medicinal herb of passion flower calms my energies in an instant. It great for insomnia and nervousness and has a sedative effect on your nervous system. Around one teaspoon sends a warm calming feeling throughout my body.
* 3 potent natural herbal sedatives:
* An awesome shake that soothes your nerves:
* A fabulous restful yoga and mindful breathing DVD:
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What I’m loving at the moment:
Sarah Wilson, health practitioner, writer and TV presenter quit sugar as an experiment to support the health of her auto-immune disease. She noticed such a huge change to her health and emotions that she wrote an e-book about it. Not sure I could go 100% no sugar but it’s interesting learning about how dangerous and addictive sugar is.
Click here to visit Sarah Wilson.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for your contribution to my Take Charge of Your Health Care Carnival. These are great relaxation tips. I like the picture of blowing bubbles. I have to try that again some time.
Some excellent advice in this very hectic time of year! I love your picture. Taking a breath and forcing yourself to slow down can really be difficult but is so effective! I also love #8. I’m going to start counting.
Nice post..U covered all the ideas for de stressing very well. The day to day clutter really gets u down and this was a must read..
One point that also helps is listening to soft songs
These are great! I like to drink chamomile tea at night to unwind. I also do Energy Medicine exercises in the morning.
Your advice was uplifting thanks changed my life in so many ways in relaxing can already feel calm
Thank “YOU” for your peaceful inspiring inspiration on Peace, calm, solitude and so much more. I feel the zen and we all must learn how to feel it and keep it close daily!!! Blessings, Peace and Hugs! P.S. Blowing bubbles and scented baths with candles, and scented oil massages are so calming…… TRY IT!
Sheila you are most welcome
For obvious reasons I would not recommend doing this all the time – but a big jolt of sugar often works. I first discovered this at uni when I started bringing a few boiled sweets into long exams to keep my grey stuff working. I noticed that it helped my nerves at the same time as keeping fatigue at bay (again – short term quick fix only, I’m not saying eat piles of sugar 24/7).
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