Relax To Reduce Anxiety

Anxiety is more than just an emotional sensation. It has the potential to make a serious dent on your physical health as well as the possibility to take a toll on the overall functioning of your body. Anxiety is not just an emotion – it is your body’s defense mechanism against perceived threats.

Hence when you are anxious, your heart will pound faster, your breathing will pick up, your muscles will tense up, and you might even feel lightheaded. The more your anxiety levels rise, the greater will be severity of these sensations. Contrarily, the more relaxed you are, the lesser will be the severity of these same sensations, meaning a relaxed person’s heart beat would be slower, his breathing would be more normal, his muscles would be more relaxed and his blood pressure would normalize thus eliminating any feelings of lightheadedness.

Since anxiety and relaxation are obvious opposites, learning to relax can help you counter anxiety with ease and with fun.  The key to learning lies in practice, rather regular practice. Ideally you should set aside half-an-hour of each day to go over your relaxation exercises. As the days go by, you’ll notice that you have far greater control over your body and that you are able to relax with greater ease and that too, within a short amount of time.

There are three main exercises that you can make use of to relax. The first of these is called Progressive Muscle Relaxation. When anxiety suddenly makes its unwanted appearance, this technique can help you to release the tension in your muscles and basically take a break from your worries. Progressive Muscle Relaxation involves systematically tensing and then relaxing the various muscle groups of one’s body. As the body begins to relax with the progression of the exercise, so will the mind.

Similarly, the second technique, Deep Breathing, aims to fight out anxiety by asking you take deep breaths. If you are ever anxious, you will notice that your breathing is at a rate that is faster than normal. This in turn might cause other discomforts such as dizziness, breathlessness, and tingly feelings in the limbs. By taking deep breaths, you will not only stop the feeling of anxiety but you will also be able to nullify all the other discomforts mentioned.

Lastly, you can also turn to meditation as a means to solve your anxiety problem. Meditation has proved to be very successful in allowing one to control one’s emotions. In particular, mindfulness meditation, has shown great potential as being a solution for anxiety. With regular practice, meditation is actually able to alter your brain such that the left side, which controls feelings of joy and serenity, is given a big boost.