The following is taken from the excellent newsletter put out by the Laurence Schmidt Center www.veralloyd.org which is worth subscribing to.
Calm Your Nerves with Relaxation Exercises
By Madeline Vann, MPH
Breathing exercises are the mainstay of relaxation exercises that you can do anywhere, at any time. And they can make a world of difference in how you feel.
Try it: Take a deep, slow breath and exhale – and repeat the process one more time. Do you feel better?
Relaxation Exercises: Why They Work
When we are stressed, our muscles tighten up and our breathing changes and becomes shallow. As you breathe more lightly, you are participating in a vicious circle, because your body responds to the change in breathing with a fight-or-flight response, adding to your tension and stress.
So the most basic thing you can do when you start to feel stressed out is to stop and take some deep, even, slow breaths.
“If you sit and even just take five or 10 deep breaths and really try to just relax your breathing, that can be tremendously helpful,” says Mary Coussons-Read, PhD, professor of psychology and health and behavioral sciences and associate dean of the University of Colorado in Denver.
Sometimes it is remembering the little things that we can do when we are tense that can make a significant difference. Tomorrow, some additions from this article.
