All of us always manage to feel stressed, angry, hurt, betrayed, frustrated or even dejected whenever life throws us a curveball. And let’s admit it – it happens to us more often than we’re willing to admit. In such cases, relaxation is key – both mentally and physically. We all know what we have to do, but we don’t know how we have to do it.
Exactly how should you relax when you live in a one room apartment with noisy neighbors and no flat mates whatsoever? Or if you’re a stay at home mom whose children just won’t let her have an hour’s worth of peace in her life?
How Should You Relax and Enjoy Yourself?
If you have children, let them be the adults
Why not? For example, let your girls have car races, teaching them all about traffic rules. Or encourage your boys to play house, make the house rules and punish the ones who break the rules. Obviously, you’re not only letting having a great bonding moment with your children, you also get to teach them about important stuff.
Eat mangoes
Apart from being delicious, mangoes consist of a compound called linalool that has shown to lower your stress. So go ahead and include mangoes in your desert options either at the office or college lunch hours, or after dinner!
Try a coloring book for adults
Yes, they do exist and you can easily order one from eBay or Amazon. And believe it or not, but coloring in between set lines actually does help your mind (and body) relax a lot.
Listen to soothing music
This is a great time to discover new music and genres on YouTube, so go right ahead! Blues, new age, easy music and even classical music are great choices to begin with.
Set goals and achieve them
Now this could be something as small as cleaning your room or getting the laundry done, or completing that art project that you’ve been putting aside for weeks now. One of the best ways on how to relax is to complete/finish the stuff that stressing you, you know.
Eat dark chocolate
They consist of magnesium, which not only calms your nerves, but also increases your body’s energy production levels.
Control your blood sugar levels
Simply put, unstable blood sugar levels result in unstable mood swings. The more adrenaline you have in your body, the more you will be unable to relax. Reduced adrenaline levels will result in you feeling instantly more relaxed and calm.
Read a book
Or an ebook, a newspaper, a blog, a magazine, a comic book or even a manga! Not only will you gain more knowledge, but it will help keep your mind away from your problems, if only temporarily. If you’re a religious person, then turn to religious books to calm your nerves.
Drink green tea
It contains a chemical called of L-Theanine, which instantly helps you feel calmer and thus, more relaxed. You can drink up to 4-5 cups of your fav flavored green tea every day. This is literally one of the most effortless ways on how to relax.
Have a head massage
Now you can opt for a dry massage, or an oil massage. Coconut, almond, jojoba or even olive oil work wonders for not only your scalp, but your hair as well. Massaging also relaxes your mind instantly (given you apply enough pressure).
Get a mani-pedi
If you suck at giving massages to yourself, then getting a mani-pedi done (i.e. pushing down on your pressure points) has the same effect as a head or body massage!
Smell fresh flowers
Our sense of smell is one of our most underrated senses and believe it or not, smelling flowers or pretty much any of your fav smells or scents) can lower your anxiety levels like no other thing! If possible…
Smell an orange
Their smell increases the levels of norepinephrine in our body, a hormone that has been known to lower our stress levels.
Laugh
How to relax? Simple – laugh! Watch funny movies, videos, read a funny book or just visit a standup comedy show. Laughing is important because it releases endorphins or the ‘feel good hormones’ which have been known to make us happier and feel more relaxed.
Get out of your house
The best stress reliever is sometimes just a change of environment, so how about you hang out with friends, go for a walk alone or just visit the local dog shelter and spend quality time with those 4 legged angels.
Chew gum
Now scientists don’t know how gum does it, but chewing flavored gum lowers your cortisol levels, thus helping reduce your anxiety.
Squeeze a stress ball
Kind of a “duh” moment, huh? Stress balls are named as such because of a reason, you know. The next time a coworker makes you angry, your classmate annoys you or your landlord makes you want to strangle his neck, then go ahead and squeeze a stress ball instead of murdering the person annoying you! The best part is that you can carry this ball literally anywhere with you, which means you will know how to relax anytime and anywhere.
Use a golf ball
Place 3-4 golf balls in a bowl big enough to fit your feet and then simply move your feet back and forth on those balls. The ridges in them prove to be especially useful when it comes to relaxing your feet!
Look out your window
When was the last time you did that? Go to your window, open it and jut look out. Even if it’s only for 5 minutes, do it. Observe people going about their daily lives, look at the dogs playing with each other or simply the cars stuck in a traffic jam. It’s definitely a lot more relaxing than listening to TV, I’ll tell ya that.
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