10 Tips for Relaxing – Part 2

mettaadmin — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 21:00:46 +0000

5. Eat Healthy

For many people, when day-to-day living is often a battle of being too stressed out and having too little time, diet is one of the first areas to be neglected. Stressful living leads to stressful eating, with one reinforcing the high. Fast food, instant snacks, and drinks that are loaded with carbs and sugar have flooded grocery stores, snack machines, and checkout lines. Often devoid of nutritional content, these snacks can cause your blood sugar, and consequently energy levels, to go haywire. The massive ups and downs can make it difficult to achieve the type of calm, clarity, and focus that often comes from deep states of relaxation.

There are a number of quick tips and techniques for immediately shifting your diet to promote more relaxed living. Don’t skip breakfast, limit your grocery shops to the perimeter isles (processed foods are almost always in the middle isles), eat lots of vegetables, try to limit your carb intake, drink lots of water, and eat smaller, but more frequent meals throughout the day. All of these will help you maintain a consistent blood sugar level, and keep your energy levels stable.

4. Exercise

The runner’s high, the yogi’s glow, or the weight-lifter’s pump, there’s many names for the states of well being that often come from exercise. Physical activity is on of the most tried and true ways to combat stress in your life is through. Maintaining an active lifestyle can boost feel-good endorphins that stay in the body well after you’ve left the gym, make your feel more confident, combat the signs of aging, decrease anxiety, and increase the quality of your sleep.

A good sweat a few times a week can move a lot of energy through and out of your body, often leaving you feeling serene, calm, and relaxed afterwards.

3. Meditate

Meditation can bring about a sense of peace, calm and serenity that benefits both your state of mind and general health. Even five short minutes of meditation can sometimes completely change your state of mind.

Plus, meditation is easier than you think and costs nothing. If you don’t have a cushion, find a comfortable chair that promotes good posture, or lie down on your back and close your eyes. In this basic meditation, you’re simply going to count from 1 to 10 as you inhale and exhale. On the first inhale silently count off 1 to yourself, two on the next exhale, etc. When you hit 10, start back over at 1. If you’re mind wanders and you forget what number you were on, start back at 1. That’s it! Non-obtrusive and relaxing music, like our RelaxationSonics collection, can also help reinforce your meditation if played softly in the background.

2. Listen to Music

Whether at the office, in your car, walking through town, or sitting at home, music is a fantastic, quick, and easy way to quickly change your state of mind. In the case of relaxation, instrumental, ambient, and longer pieces work best, as they give your brain and nervous system time to fully decompress. RelaxationSonics, the latest collection from us here at MettaSonics, is perfect music for relaxation. Each track is 60 minutes of continuous instrumental music underlaid with the famous Schumann Resonance to promote to help you relax and promote deep states of calm.

1. Breathe

One of the most visible signs of relaxation is breathing. When stressed out, breathing is often very shallow and quick, whereas when relaxed the breath is often much deeper and slower. A quick and easy way to get yourself breathing more deeply is to try belly breathing. Belly breathing is a simple technique that will slow down your heart-rate and increase the level of oxygen in your blood, simultaneously making you feel more energized and relaxed.

To practice belly breathing, sit comfortably with good posture and a straight back. When possible, breathe through the nose which filters warm air and acts as a natural humidifier. Place your right hand across your chest and your left hand across your belly. This will make it easier to keep your attention on your belly as you breathe. As you start to inhale, your left hand across your belly should start to rise, while your right hand barely moves at all. Now exhale as fully as you can while contracting your ab muscle, you’re actually compressed your diaphragm. As before, your left hand should move in as you exhale, while your right hand should remain fairly stationary. Repeat that for 5-10 minutes for a complete session of belly breathing. The more you practice, the more you’ll find yourself breathing this way automatically and the more you’ll feel the stress reducing rewards.

Click here for Part One

10 Tips for Relaxing – Part 1

mettaadmin — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 17:47:52 +0000

10. Get More Sleep

If you’re having trouble relaxing during the day, you may not be getting enough sleep during the night. Not getting enough sleep can easily impact how you eat, what you drink, whether or not you exercise, and the overall health and balance of your body. Short 20 minute power naps can also be a great way to reboot your body and mind with a midday recharge. If you have trouble falling asleep, you might want to consider getting some music for sleeping. Drifting off to soothing tones like those of the RelaxationSonics collection can be a great way to signal to your brain that the day is over, and that it’s time to relax and recharge.

9. Take a Hot Bath

A tub, some suds, and some hot water can also make for some instant relaxation. As relaxing the body almost always helps relax the mind, a hot bath can do wonders for the mind. The warm water relaxes you physically, loosening tight, stiff muscles and helping you let go of worries on the mind and stresses in the body. Throw on a RelaxationSonics track and the soothing soundscape can take your bath to an even deeper level of relaxation.

8. Head Outdoors

Sometimes a little sunlight, some fresh air, and the inherent beauty of the natural world is all it takes to transport us into deep states of relaxation. Whether as simple as a short walk to the nearest park, or taking a week long off the grid backpacking trip, getting out into nature can help break up routine and make it easier to relax.

7. Drink Less Coffee

Simply drinking less coffee can help reduce stress and promote relaxation. Caffeine, while an excellent stimulant, increases your heart rate and can often cause high levels of anxiety. Caffeine can also become additive, meeting that over time its take more of it to get the same ‘hit’ as when you started it and then when you miss a cup you can often get the dreaded “coffee headache”

Additionally, just one single cup of coffee can raise cortisol levels for 12 to 14 hours.Cortisol is the hormone secreted by your body during times of stress and is necessary for survival, but when levels are chronically elevated for extended periods of time, can take a massive toll on your system. Fatigue, a suppressed immune system, cold hands and feet, brain fog, and depleted adrenal glands can all be side effects of drinking too much coffee.

So in short, try drinking less coffee and you may find your overall mood more relaxed, spacious, and calm.

6. Get a Massage

Treating yourself to a full body massage given by an trained professional can be one of the most rewarding, and relaxing ways to change up your state of mind. Deep tissue massage can release tensions stored deep in the body, reducing stress leves, combatting soreness, and helping induce deeps states peace and serenity. Relaxing music, can be used in conjunction with Aromatherapy to bring your massage experience to an even deeper level.

Click here for Part Two

((( MettaSonics )))