An Anti-Stress Grab Bag
Although there are countless activities known to relieve stress, we will select
a handful that require essentially no preparation and can be done right away.
The first activity is a breathing practice known as fourfold breathing. What
you do is inhale for a mental count of four seconds, hold your breath in for a
mental count of four seconds, exhale for a mental count of four seconds, and
complete the cycle by holding your breath out (not breathing in again) for a
mental count of four seconds. You continue with this cycle for 5-10 minutes at
a time. The effects on body and mind can be startling. You may have noticed
that each of your emotional states seems to have a corresponding breathing
pattern or rhythm. Well, one of the secrets of Oriental spiritual practices is
that you can produce a desired mental or emotional state by using the
corresponding breathing pattern or rhythm. If you are interested in exploring
many other breathing techniques that you can use in times of great stress,
check out what the yoga discipline of pranayama has to offer.
The second activity is a form of cardiovascular exercise known as
high-intensity interval training, or HIIT. This consists of short bursts of
sprinting followed by short periods of rest. As an example, you could sprint
your hardest for 15-30 seconds and then walk for 30-45 seconds. You repeat this
cycle for 15 minutes or so. It is important that you build up gradually so that
you are not placing an undue amount of strain on your possibly unfit body.
Start with 5-10 minutes of cycles, working your way up to 15 minutes or so.
Research has indicated that there is really no need to go beyond 15-20 minutes.
HIIT training, unlike continuous low-intensity aerobic training (such as
jogging lightly without stopping), is much easier on your time, is far more
challenging, and best of all, burns fat for many hours after you stop working
out! In fact, research has shown that HIIT training is far more effective than
regular low-intensity aerobic training for shedding pounds of fat. Note that
you do not have to alternate sprinting and walking; any combination of a
high-intensity burst and a recovery period will do the trick. You can swim,
skip, row, ride a bike, whatever.
The third activity is dancing. This is an activity you can do alone or in the
presence of other people. Taking dance classes is an excellent way to improve
your self-image, raise your confidence, and as a result, increase your
coping abilities when it comes to stress. With the vast array of dance styles
out there, being able to find a style that suits you is almost a foregone
conclusion -- you will find something. Popular options for those who do not see
themselves doing ballet pirouettes include salsa, which is a popular Latin
dance style; hip hop, which is great to learn if you intend to show your stuff
in the nightclubs; and capoeira, which is a highly dynamic style of dance that
doubles as a style of martial art. You can search for videos on YouTube if you
want a taste of these dance styles and many others.
The fourth activity is parkour and/or free running. There are bound to be
technical inaccuracies in attempting to define these activities for those who
have never heard of them before, but suffice it to say, both activities involve
turning urban areas into your own personal playground. Free running, for
instance, involves a dazzling display of acrobatics as the free runner moves
from A to B. Clubs have opened up all around the globe for people interested in
pursuing these activities. A quick Internet search will put you in contact with
like-minded individuals.
Well, that is the end of it. We hope that at least one of the activities in our
random assortment has caught your attention.
PPPPP
Word Count 651
|
An Anti-Stress Grab Bag Although there are countless activities known to relieve stress, we will select a handful that require ...
read more
Are Eustressed Out Lately? What would you pay to receive that one piece of information that promises to transform your ...
read more
Be Your Own Stress Therapist Psychotherapists have many tools at their disposal for helping clients overcome stress and related issues. ...
read more
Creating a Stress-Free Workplace Stress in the workplace is one of the top reasons for employee dissatisfaction and subsequent drop ...
read more
Dealing with Stress at the Computer I Asthenopia, better known as eyestrain, is a huge problem for the computer user. ...
read more
Dealing with Stress at the Computer II An increasing number of people are quitting the office job and discovering the ...
read more
Dealing with Stress at the Computer III Sitting in front of the computer for extended hours can easily lead to ...
read more
Dealing with Stress at the Computer IV Organizing your computer system for the work you do can help you reach ...
read more
Dealing with Stress at the Computer V One prominent item on the A-list of computer-related stressors is finding yourself in ...
read more
Express Your Stress Sometimes when the pressure becomes too much, it helps to transfer your internal stress to an external ...
read more
Improving Your Sleep to Fight Stress Getting enough quality sleep is one of the best weapons in the stress-relief arsenal. ...
read more
Kick Stress in the Butt There is an inextricable link between feelings of stress and feelings of being unable to ...
read more
Managing Your Stress Psychotherapists have many tools at their disposal for helping clients overcome stress and related issues. One of ...
read more
Meditation Is Not Just for Hippies When most people hear talk of meditation, they envision pot-smoking hippies with long dreadlocks, ...
read more
Overcoming Procrastination and Its Stress Quite a number of books have been written about overcoming the habit of procrastination and ...
read more
Preparing for Stressors Miguel De Cervantes said that to be prepared is half the victory. No matter what the twists ...
read more
Simplify Your Life If your life is the perfect example of a Rube Goldberg machine, then maybe it is time ...
read more
Speed Reading to Combat Stress For many people, dealing with a stack of unread books, newspapers, magazines, journals, and correspondence ...
read more
The Basics of a Stress-Free Diet The first connection between natural remedies and mental health was established when it was ...
read more
The Biology of the Stress Response It is often the case that you have to understand something before you can ...
read more
The Easy Way to Ace Exams When it comes to exams, are you in the habit of leaving everything until ...
read more
The Stress Triangle As an individual functioning in the world, you can have only three kinds of problems: problems with ...
read more
Treat Yourself to a Massage There are few things in life that are almost guaranteed to relieve a person of ...
read more
What Philosophers Tell Us About Stress Epictetus, the Greek Stoic philosopher, is reported to have said, "Men are disturbed not ...
read more
What the Net Offers for Stress Relief "Hi, my name is Bob, and I am an alcoholic." "Hi, my name ...
read more
|
|
|
Disclaimer:
The Publisher has strived to be as accurate and complete as possible in
the creation of this website, notwithstanding the fact that he does not
warrant or represent at any time that the contents within are accurate
due to the rapidly changing nature of the Internet.
This site
is a common sense guide to An Anti-Stress Grab Bag. In practical advice websites,
like anything else in life, there are no guarantees of income made.
Readers are cautioned to reply on their own judgment about their
individual circumstances to act accordingly.
This site
is not intended for use as a source of legal, business, accounting or
financial advice. All readers are advised to seek services of competent
professionals in legal, business, accounting, and finance field.
Any
perceived slights of specific people or organizations are unintentional.
|