Stress Archives

December 1, 2023 By Satish Kurapaty 1 Comment

5 SIMPLE WAYS TO OVERCOME STRESS

There is no escape from stress. Stress has become an inseparable part of urban lifestyle. Research studies across the world continually uncover new ways in which stress can negatively impact both the physical health and emotional health of a person. With so much at stake, shouldn’t we learn how to battle and overcome stress?

Not only depression and anxiety are associated with Stress, people with excessive stress seldom respond to treatments. This increases their vulnerability to common ailments like the flu, common cold and even heart diseases.

Now that you know how bad stressing over that deadline can be for you, here are 5 simple and easy ways that will empower you to beat stress:

Spend time with yourself – Stay away from your smartphone/computer/tablet and spend some time with yourself. The reason behind your stress can be an overload of information that happens as a result of being constantly connected with the world through your devices. Ensure you make time for yourself; even a 10 minute break where you switch off all devices and spend some quality time enjoying nothing but the silence will help you feel more stress-free at the end of the day.

Stop stressing over stress – A little bit of stress can actually do you some good. A small amount of stress can be the trigger that pushes you to the optimum level of productivity. It’s just stressing to the point that you’re always stressed out which does you harm.

Take relaxing baths – Most of us feel better after a hot bath. It relaxes sore and tired muscles and takes away the stress. It’s been discovered that a bath washes away negative thoughts and feelings like remorse, post-decision doubt, and guilt. So go ahead and spend some extra time soaking in hot bath/shower and you will feel more relaxed.

Follow your passions – It just cannot be that you do not have any passion or hobby. In the busy schedules that we have one often forgets that they have a hobby that they can pursue. Pursuing your hobbies can do more than just build your skill set. It also helps you beat stress. Pursue activities those are enjoyable and stimulating to the brain. This will only uplift your mood and even lowers blood pressure levels.

It could be cooking, playing, painting or listening to music doing something you are passionate about.

Make time to exercise – Believe it or not, more often than not your stress is a result of frustration. And exercising is the best way to channel all anger and frustration in to doing something constructive. It also releases serotonin in the body that uplifts your mood, makes you feel energized and keeps the harmful impacts of stress at bay.

Believe me, it’s not that hard to beat stress. As long as you keep in mind that the goal is to still all inner ‘chatter’ and focus on unwinding and relaxing. It doesn’t always have to be yoga and meditation; simple fun activities that you enjoy doing are just as effective in battling stress. The key to stay stress-free is to experiment, explore and be open to new ideas that could quiet your mind and make you deal with your problems more effectively.

If this article helped you, let us know your thoughts in the comments below. You can find more articles and techniques to beat stress here. You can also reach out to a GOQii Coach for expert guidance by subscribing to Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce

October 2, 2023 By Shilpa Govindan 1 Comment

Cue to happiness

Happiness is a very subjective matter and differs from person to person and ultimately all our efforts and desires lead us to one underlying fact of attaining happiness in life. Don’t we all live to be happy?

Many thought processes exist within us. These ‘thoughts’ create our belief systems, these beliefs urge us to have ‘emotions’, these emotions seep into our ‘energy body’ or the ‘aura’ and then finally settle down in our ‘physical body’ or ‘physical world’.

To elaborate, the brain sends out electromagnetic waves to the body for any action or reaction and basic functions of the body, including breathing, heartbeat, hormone secretion etc. are controlled by the mind whether we are awake, asleep or in a state of trance.

So, if the Mind can do all this, it would be natural for us to assume that the mind is also capable of restricting the blood flow, heart rate and movement. It can even restrict the functioning of the digestive and liver thereby decreasing metabolism and adding weight, causing BP, Cholesterol etc. At the end of the day, we may call this Disease and one of the most important factors of its cause is dependent largely on our thought process or rather how we think.

Disease originates from our mind-activity and it has been researched subjectively that worry affects your spleen, fear affects the kidney, and grief targets your heart and so on. The impact of our thinking mind has a resultant effect on our physical body, good and bad.

Therefore, when it comes to healing yourself, you have to also sort it out at the thought level and soon you will realize that it will have a positive and long-lasting effect on your physical body. The same goes with your physical world and surrounding. It is the inner workings that have the most result.

All this energy and thought process also reflects our real-life circumstances. You may have experienced that if you feel upset one morning, there is a chance that your entire day would be bad. Repeated negative thinking, once ingrained into the mind can create repeated negative experiences outside control. The good news is that it is not permanent and can be changed!

Here’s why and how,

Happiness in itself is a HABIT- a conditioning or association the Mind has received from a very early age through REPETITIVE thinking. All habits are created through repetition. So, learning to be thankful and having gratitude for simple things, even the very oxygen we breathe, is essential, so as to understand how not react to troubled situations but instead respond with ease, peace and compassion.

With our awareness and understanding and wisdom to respond positively to a situation, we find that the issues in life that used to upset us miraculously feel minuscule and sometimes even disintegrate. Our energy body changes in frequency and vibration thereby attracting more positive opportunities and experiences to us.

How we cultivate this habit of happiness, can vary widely, we can choose to;

1) Meditate regularly teaching the body and mind to regularly let go of stress and create an environment of peace and calm

2) Use a hobby as a trigger for happiness

3) Use a technique called ‘Affirmations’; where we use a statement that is completely opposite to our current limiting belief, and repeat the sentence as many times with feeling. It is to pass a command from the conscious mind to the subconscious mind. The subconscious mind has the ability, to accept anything as true, to do whatever it takes to turn it into reality, creating a new neuro-pathways in the brain. For eg; Limiting belief – It’s hard to lose weight. New belief you want to cultivate – Losing weight is easy for me

4) Express gratitude or keep a journal of thankfulness

5) Not to identify with suffering, loss, or illness as being who you are. Being kind to yourself and others is a skill and developed with practice and mindfulness, which leads to happiness.

Lastly and most importantly, is to keep consistent because we are all human. Emotions and experiences are a part of growth and learning and wisdom of a wonderful life, meanwhile, we can always train our minds to ‘let go’ of things that affect us adversely.

Learn Happiness!

We hope this article helps you become your health detective. If you found this information valuable, share your thoughts in the comments below. You can find more articles to help you manage stress here. For further guidance on managing stress and lifestyle, speak to a certified expert by subscribing to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

#BeTheForce

July 12, 2023 By Divya Thampi Leave a Comment

Three Powerful Relaxation Techniques For Immediate Relief From Stress

Tight deadlines, erratic working hours and sometimes being unable to manage the work-life balance can take a toll on your health. There are many factors that contribute to stress and if you find yourself feeling sad, anxious, angry, confused or scared without explanation, you are not alone. The specific reasons for stress are as varied as the people themselves but there’s hardly anyone who can escape the clutches of stress. How does one remain grounded and feel a sense of equanimity? Here’s help!

Powerful Relaxation Techniques You Can Practice

Following are three go-to relaxation techniques that therapists use to help their clients relax. Not all techniques may work for everyone but at least one of these should work for you.

1. Progressive Muscle relaxation

This exercise is very effective in lowering stress levels and can also reduce physical problems like headaches or stomachaches that accompany feelings of stress. This practice also improves sleep. When you are stressed your muscles tighten without your conscious awareness. Regular practice of PMR helps you to become aware of the difference between a tensed muscle and a completely relaxed muscle, thus improving your ability to recognize your bodily response to anxiety and mitigate it.

Sit down on a chair with a backrest such that you are sitting erect but not tensed.
Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths.
Once you breath slows down, progressively tighten one muscle group (neck and shoulders or upper arm and lower arm) at a time for about 10-15 seconds.
Once the time is up, release the tension in the muscles completely with a long exhalation and observe the sensation in the relaxed muscles.
Continue this with each muscle group from head to feet.
You could do this 2-3 times a day and even before going to bed.
Avoid doing this with any part where there is a sprain or other injury.

2. Diaphragmatic Breathing

Also known as belly breathing, it is the optimal way of breathing as it actively engages your diaphragm. Belly breathing leads to improved oxygen flow to the rest of the body. This kind of breathing triggers a relaxation response by stimulating the vagus nerve, the longest nerve emanating from the brain. This nerve has a significant role to play in reducing blood pressure, heart rate, improving calmness, relaxation, and digestion. When engaging in breath based meditations most people practice belly breathing. Chest breathing is something we learned to do as a reaction to stress. For belly breathing, follow these steps:

Sit comfortably or lie flat on your bed or any other comfortable surface and relax your shoulders.
Place one hand on your chest and the other on your stomach.
Breathe in through your nose for 2-10 seconds (according to your capacity).
Feel the cool air moving through your nostrils into your abdomen, making your stomach inflate. During this type of breathing, make sure your stomach is moving outward while your chest remains relatively still.
Press gently on your stomach, and exhale slowly for about 2-10 seconds.
With every exhalation you will notice the stomach deflate under your palm
Repeat these steps several times and observe your body relax.

3. Guided Imagery

This is a focused practice that involves all or most of the 5 senses, to kindle calming responses in the mind and the body. Guided imagery uses imagination to take one to a calm, peaceful place, internally. This is a powerful tool that has a positive impact on blood pressure, breathing, oxygenation and heart rate. It can reduce pain and also improve the healing process of the body and mind. Our body reacts the same whether we experience something in reality or imagine it. So when you imagine yourself sitting in a beautiful green meadow and watching a clear stream of water flow over smoothened rocks, your body responds as if you were actually in the meadow.

Sit down or lie down comfortably and close your eyes.
Take a few deep breaths to help you relax.
Imagine a scene that is calm and peaceful. This could be a beach, a meadow, a valley, the mountains or a riverside, according to your preference.
Visualise the scene and slowly add some details, like a gentle breeze, fragrance of the grass, gurgling sound of water or the chirping of birds. Is the sky a clear blue or do you see fluffy white clouds?
It helps to visualise you walking through the scene and experiencing the beauty and serenity using all your senses.
And as you walk through the scene and go deeper you feel more and more relaxed.
Continue to breathe slowly and experience the sense of peace that envelops your body and mind. Think of a word or sound that you can use in the future to help you mentally return to this place.
When you feel ready, gently bring yourself back to the present. Tell yourself that you will feel relaxed and refreshed when this is done and slowly open your eyes. Notice how you feel right now.
You could also use a recorded guided imagery audio, which is generally available on many of the free versions of meditation apps.

If these techniques helped you, let us know in the comments below! Find more articles to help you manage stress here. For further guidance on managing stress and lifestyle, speak to a certified expert by subscribing to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching.

#BeTheForce

June 6, 2023 By Sunita Arora 3 Comments

Deep Breathing Techniques to Help You Beat Stress

Picture this: You’re sitting at your desk, tackling mountains of paperwork and crunching numbers on Excel like a keyboard wizard. Just when you thought you had it all under control, bam! You’re summoned to a meeting and bombarded with even more projects. Your desk is now drowning in a sea of paperwork, and you find yourself juggling tasks like a stressed-out circus performer. Deadlines loom ominously, and stress levels skyrocket. It’s like being trapped in a never-ending desk nightmare. Yikes! But fear not, for there is a simple solution to vanquish stress in this chaotic scenario: Deep Breathing!

Deep breathing is the secret weapon you’ve been searching for, and it doesn’t require any fancy equipment or a specific time and place. It’s a stress-busting technique that works wonders! When you take a moment to breathe deeply, your brain sends signals to your body, coaxing it to relax. By incorporating deep breathing into your routine, you can reap all the incredible benefits it has to offer.

What Are These Magical Benefits?

Zen-like Calm: Deep breathing has the power to soothe your mind and nervous system. You can literally feel the stress melt away!
Oxygen Boost: Ah, sweet oxygen! Deep breathing helps you take in more of this life-giving gas, nourishing your body and brain.
Heart Party: Your heart deserves some love, and deep breathing delivers. It lowers your heart rate, respiratory rates, and blood pressure, giving your ticker a much-needed break.
Sleepy Time: Need to catch some Z’s? Deep breathing is your go-to sandman. It helps you drift off to dreamland, soothes your muscles, and even speeds up your meditation mojo.
Stress Ninja: When tension strikes during exams, interviews, or dreaded deadlines, deep breathing comes to the rescue. Consider it your trusty stress-busting sidekick.
Energy Flow: Deep breathing helps clean and rejuvenate your body’s energy channels, like a refreshing spa day for your inner chi. It keeps your heating and cooling cycles in check, so you can stay balanced and invigorated.
Breath of Fresh Air: Say goodbye to shortness of breath! Deep breathing prevents pesky air from getting trapped in your lungs, making you feel refreshed, centered, and ready to take on the world.

Now that you’re armed with this knowledge, let’s dive into two simple yet effective deep breathing exercises.

1. Simple Abdominal Breathing Exercise

Feeling anxious? No problem! Try this relaxation technique that you can perform anywhere, anytime – standing, sitting, or lying down.

To practice this technique, you need to:

Inhale slowly and deeply through your nose. Keep your shoulders relaxed. Your abdomen should expand and your chest should rise slightly.
Exhale slowly through your mouth. As you blow the air out, purse your lips slightly, but keep your jaw relaxed. You may hear a soft “whooshing” sound as you exhale.
Repeat this breathing exercise for several minutes.

Begin with just 5 minutes. If you feel 5 minutes are too long, you can start with just 2 minutes. Increase the time when you begin finding it easier and comfortable. You can practice this multiple times a day.

2. Equal Breathing

Now, let’s take deep breathing to the next level with some equal breathing magic. This technique focuses on inhales and exhales of the same duration, usually between 3 and 5 counts. Once you’ve mastered it, you can do it during yoga, or even while conquering your daily activities.

To practice this technique:

Take a comfortable seated position and breathe in and out through your nose only.
Count during each inhale and exhale to make sure they are even in duration. Alternatively, choose a word or short phrase to repeat during each inhale and exhale.
You can take a slight pause after each inhale and exhale if you feel comfortable (normal breathing involves a natural pause).
Continue practicing this breathing technique for at least 5 minutes and you can increase the duration up to 10-15 minutes.

So there you have it! Deep breathing is your ticket to a calmer, more relaxed you. Remember, stress may try to trap you at your desk, but with these breathing exercises in your arsenal, you’ll be the master of stress, deadlines, and paperwork mayhem. Take a deep breath and let the relaxation flow through your veins like a cool breeze on a sunny day. You’ve got this!

#BeTheForce

5 SIMPLE WAYS TO OVERCOME STRESS

Cue to happiness

Deep Breathing Techniques to Help You Beat Stress

What Are These Magical Benefits?

1. Simple Abdominal Breathing Exercise

2. Equal Breathing

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