Relaxation

We all lead very busy lives and many of us forget to look after ourselves, this in turn leads to anxiety, stress and low mood. Sometimes we all need a little help, giving yourself a little bit of relaxation time can make a huge difference.

Help yourself and your family to flourish, build these simple relaxation exercises onto your day.

Deep breathing: Many of us are unaware of the importance of proper deep breathing. Deep breathing relaxes the body & mind. It helps to increase the flow of oxygen in our body. Oxygenated blood keeps the nerves, brain, spinal cord and other muscles healthy. It helps to lower the stress and makes the mind calmer.

Belly breathing: Sit upright and place your hands on your stomach. Breathe slowly and feel your stomach rise as you inhale and sink down as you exhale. imagine a balloon inflating and deflating.

Relax: Keep your eyes shut and tense your entire body. Hold for two seconds and relax completely. Then breathe in and out slowly. Repeat this process twice. Also sit upright, poor posture reduces lung capacity, leading to fatigue.

Daydreaming: Spend a few minutes visualising something positive. Imagine yourself walking along a beach on a warm sunny day, or lying in a meadow listening to the birds sing, or relaxing in a secret garden.

Eye palming: Your eyes get puffy and tired at the end of a long day and especially while working continuously on computers. In order to relax them, rub your palms together and place them lightly over your closed eyes. Breathe deeply and slowly a few times and then enjoy pleasure of calmness. Relax your eyes and mind and then slowly open your eyes.

Massage; Go on give yourself a gift, book yourself in for a massage, or get your partner to massage your feet or shoulders. you can even massage yourself. Get those feel good endorphins flowing.

Practise mindfulness: Focus on one thing - the sky, a plant, or even your hand, think about how amazing it is, examine it in intricate detail, notice things you have never noticed before.

Play the glad game: See if you can see the good side in everything that happens in your life. If your car breaks down. Think about how you are glad that you have one to break down. If you get ill think about how glad you are that you live in a country where we have a free NHS service. If you lose your job see it as an opportunity for change.

Take regular exercise: You don't need to run a marathon or go to the gym 5 times a wee. Just become aware of keeping your body moving. Wash your car by hand. Park at the furthest end of the car park. Dance to some music. Use the stairs not the life. Make journeys up the stairs in your house (if you have them) often.

Increase your confidence and dispel anxiety - MAGIC

STEIN CLENCHED FIST TECHNIQUE

Is great for increasing confidence and dispelling anxiety. Try it and see…

Allow your inner mind to identify a time when you felt particularly confident and strong about your ability and your performance.

In your imagination, float back through time and space until you are actually there. As you enjoy that experience again, you can begin to sense those feelings associated with it - feelings of confidence and competence. And when you are aware of experiencing those feelings again, notice how those feelings get stronger, as you enjoy that experience again in your imagination. Feel all over again how really proud and sure of yourself you are. Let yourself feel again and again that ʻcan doʼ attitude. Let that strength and that pride flow through you. And now as you feel those powerful feelings, tighten and clench your dominant hand, and as you do so these positive feelings become even stronger. Feel that confidence and pride grow even stronger, the tighter you clench. That fist is a sign and symbol of confidence and determination. Allow that confidence to fill your entire body while your unconscious mind memorises all of these wonderful feelings. Because in the future, whenever you close your dominant hand into a tight fist like this, you will once again feel these feelings of confidence and strength flowing through you. Whenever and wherever you want to experience these feeling again, all you need to do is clench your dominant hand into a fist and that feeling of confidence will begin to fill you.

Even now as you relax that fist the confidence remains. Now once again go back in time to the time when you felt really good about yourself and once again re-experience that calm, competent feeling as you squeeze that dominant hand into a strong, powerful fist. (repeat with same procedure until the picture comes back easily when you clench your fist.

It will be interesting to note that, in the future, any time you clench that

dominant hand, you will feel those same feelings sense of wellbeing increase.

Now you will have the opportunity to learn an effective way to replace any feelings of uncertainty or self-doubt with feelings of confidence and winning

strength. Go back in your imagination to another time when you were

feeling nervous and worried. As you remember that time and those

negative feelings, let them flow down the other arm into your hand, and let them collect there. Notice how these negative feelings can be transferred and displaced into the non-dominant hand as you close it into a fist.  Alternatively you can let current worries and anxieties go into the non-dominant hand.When you are pretty sure that most of those bad feelings are collected there, locked in a fist where you yourself put them you can open your tight fist and let go of those unpleasant, nervous feelings. Move those fingers around, allowing all those unpleasant, negative feelings to flow out of your hand. Perhaps as if they are evaporating. As you do this begin to clench your dominant hand into a strong, confident, happy fist. And you will discover that memory of unhappy, unpleasant feelings disappears and is replaced by feelings of confidence, strength and

determination. Feel all that confidence and pride flow through you.

You now have a method to control your own feeling and create this same

sense of well-being whenever and wherever you need to. Whenever you

notice any self-doubt about your ability to do your best, just close that non-dominant hand into a fist. As you do so feel those unpleasant feelings and sensations flow down into that hand collecting and concentrating there.

When those unpleasant feelings are there in that hand then you can

neutralize them by simply squeezing your dominant hand into a strong,

powerful fist as you open your non-dominant hand and let go of the self-doubt and uncertainty. The positive feelings will increase the tighter you

squeeze that dominant hand. Just clenching that fist will infuse your whole being with so many good feelings and natural endorphins.

For more information, help and advice http://www.youcanbe.co.uk