Everyone goes through a tough time at least once in their lives. As modern life is ideal for stress to build, it is easy to get weighed down by fatigue and negativity. Pent-up stress is the cause of all ill health and one cannot lead a healthy life without overcoming their stress.
Although everyone has a unique method of overcoming stress, there are some very effective generic methods of stress relief. Some examples include hobbies, laughter yoga and meditation, but the method that will be introduced here is progressive muscle relaxation, or PMR.
PMR is very simple and doesn’t take up much time, making it a useful way of relieving stress for busy people.
- Sit back comfortably, close your eyes and rid yourself of all thoughts.
- Breathe in slowly and deeply and then breathe out. Concentrate on your breathing.
- Relax all the muscles in your body into a jelly-like state.
- Squeeze both hands into a fist as hard as possible for 5 seconds, then release.
- Rest 5 seconds and then repeat twice more.
- After three cycles of contraction and relaxation, repeat with your arm muscles.
- Apply the same three cycles on your feet, legs, abdomen, chest, neck and head.
The key principle of PMR is achieving complete relaxation by concentrating all your energy into one spot then releasing it. Furthermore, concentrating on your slow breathing has a meditation effect, resting both your mind and body. Once you are relaxed from head to toe, you will feel all the fatigue in your body disappear.
There is no greater enemy than stress. Therefore, it is best to have your own defence mechanism against it, but it also very useful to know a few general methods.
Now, try the progressive muscle relaxation on yourself to resolve all the stress that accumulated over the day.
