Relaxation Techniques

A friend asked for some advice on relaxation and so I thought I'd post the techniques I shared with her.

1. You need to find the time and your personal medium to relax. What ever it takes for you to have time for yourself, to take your mind off of your bad stress for a few moments, it will go a long way. First, give yourself like 20-30 minutes away from everything (including your kids) and do whatever it is that you love. For example, working-out is my best release. However, yours might be listening to quite music, reading a good fiction, eating a fat piece of chocolate cake, or watching a chick-flick. Whatever it may be, find it and do it, no interruptions.


2. If 20 minutes just isn't working into the schedule try a 5-10 minute meditation. Go to a quite room, keep it quite or turn on a relaxing instrumental, and set a timer. For the full 5-10 minutes just sit comfortably, breathing deeply, eyes shut and meditate. One easy meditation method is to just pick a word, such as love or music, and just repeat the word over and over in your mind. Release all other thoughts and just focus on that word. When other thoughts do start creeping in, just recognize them and push them back out, focusing only on that one word. You may find this to just release the tension and random thoughts and get you back to a clear and focused thought process.


3. If 5-10 minutes is still difficult to find, the quickest way to relax is some good ol' belly-breathing. This is accomplished best when lying down but can be done sitting up. While laying down, put your hand over your tummy and breathe in deeply. As you breathe in push your belly out like you are inflating a balloon. This forces your diaphragm to pull down, maximizing the amount of air you can fill into your lungs. Really over exaggerate too, make that balloon as big as you can and breath in every bit of air you can, slowly of course. Then when you are full to the brim, let the air out of your balloon very slowly. Deflate, pushing the air out by sucking your belly-button all the way to your spine, force every bit of air out of your lungs. All of the air! This takes practice but 5 or so breathes like this and you'll feel relaxed in no time. More oxygen is a beautiful thing!

The most important thing about relaxation techniques is you have to find what works for you, everyone is different, but then you have to actually do it. Bad stress can really pull us out of touch with our spirits and the Holy Ghost, keeping us occupied with thoughts and anxious feelings that zap our inner strength and vitality. It is important to find ways to keep those stresses under control.