There’s no denying or escaping the ever-creeping sensation of stress. As many of us gear up to return to the office, to return to school, and hopefully, to return to a more normal, the experience of stress can be neither avoided nor ignored.
Stress is a very natural emotion to feel, especially in 2021. If life was a journey, stress could be thought of as the bumps along the road. And as we travel over each bump and dip, the body is bound to experience its own fair share of knocks and scrapes. Whether felt over the short or long term, the outcome of stress is never usually a positive one.
Instinctively, mental health is commonly the first domino to fall, and you’d not be alone in feeling the effects of stress with an accompanying rise in your anxiety and depression levels. However, this can also include some quite concerning physical manifestations like headaches, muscle tensions, digestive and respiratory issues.
Looking over the long term, we’ll see issues with fertility, immunity and cardiovascular health, and possibly the onset of psychosis issues. Stress has also been associated with the development of illnesses such as cancer and diabetes. The point to put across here is that stress and wellbeing are extremely interlinked, and interact together in a different way for everyone.
But what’s even more important to remember is that the body is its own greatest healer. So it’s clear to see how exercise and physical movement act as a fantastic remedy to the feeling of stress and its taxing, toxic symptoms; even long after the exercise has been finished. But how does exercise relieve the feeling of stress?
Virtually any form of exercise will act as a stress reliever. Runner’s high is really to believed, because when we move, we increase our blood flow, and ramp up the brain’s production of endorphins; the wonderfully happy hormone that makes us feel better whilst lifting the dark clouds around us.
Top tip: Whenever we start to feel the stress getting to us, we like to take a few peaceful minutes out in the Uttanasana pose, which is more commonly known as the Standing Forward Bend. It’s amazing at relieving stress, and is renowned for lifting depression off of the mind.
Here’s how to do it:
1. To start, begin in Tadasana, and move your feet so that they’re hip width apart.
2. Control your breathing whilst you keep your body straight, lengthening yourself through your inner ankles and thighs whilst pointing your tailbone to the floor.
3. Maintaining this composure, roll your shoulders and place your hands on your hips.
4. Extend your shoulders forward and down to the floor, keeping your back flat, and your thighs pushed back. If you’re finding it difficult to keep the back straight, move your hands higher towards your hips.
5. Slowly walk your hands down towards your ankles as you feel the body lengthening through the legs. Breathe gently, and take your time.
6. When you’re ready, bring the shoulders back into Tadasana, and relax.
1. Pilates
This gentle form of exercise is a great way to work out the entire body, and although it’s well known for promoting flexibility, spinal health, and core strength, Pilates also arrives as a key remedy to stress. The exercise incorporates a variety of flowing movements that calm the breathing, improve restfulness, and lower the blood pressure, and allows for an opportunity to focus on the breathing and movements, and nothing else.
There’s lots of different ways to enjoy Pilates, and to differentiate the movements. One way you can do this is by using a Pilates Resistance Band. We were very honoured to have recently been joined by the brilliant Chloe McGregor in our new workout video, where Chloe shared some of her best stress-relieving Pilates movements. Check out the video here.
2. Meditation
Although there’s immediate forms of stress, there’s also as many prolonged forms of stress that don’t make themselves too prominent. Meditation is a great way to manage both of these whilst deepening our understanding and triggers of them.
As a form of mental exercise, daily sessions of meditation will help to cultivate a level of self awareness and self-understanding. Practiced throughout history, meditating will reduce your experience of negative emotions and provide a better perspective on the causes of stress.
3. Walking
All too often, the simple act of going for a walk has been underestimated for its ability to calm the mind and ease anxiety. Stressful situations and the experience of them is closely related on a biological level to the amount of cortisol present in the blood stream. As a form of steroid hormone, cortisol is the body’s response to stress, whilst also being responsible for heightening the blood sugar level.
As a low-intensity aerobic exercise, walking helps to lower cortisol, and has proven to be highly effective in this regard. Even a short 30 minute wander around the local neighbourhood will take you to new benefits in health and mental wellbeing. A change of scene never felt so good!
4. Skipping
Did you know, skipping for just 10 minutes is the physical equivalent of running a mile in 8 minutes? Skipping works wonders for your cardiovascular framework, and is equally as good for lymphatic drainage, blood flow, and stress management. What makes skipping an effective form of stress relief is that because it’s so demanding on your attention, balance, motor skills and spatial awareness, it easily distracts the brain from negative energy. Anyone can pick up a skipping rope, and it’s a super fun way to tackle stress.
5. Pressure Points
Although this isn’t typically thought of as an obvious form of exercise, pressure point therapy comes as a really effective way to relieve the more physical elements of stress. Often many experience stress alongside the likes of muscle tension and tension headaches, and pressure point therapy comes as an ode to the interconnectivity of the body and mind.
Top tip: Feeling a tension headache coming on in the event of a stressful situation? Try this pressure point technique to balance things out:
1. With your eyes closed, focus for a second on slowing your breathing. You can be either standing or lying down for this, but we personally prefer to lay down.
2. Taking your index fingers, locate this small dip on your forehead. You’ll find it just between the space above your eyebrows, in the centre of your forehead.
3. With your two fingers, gentle apply pressure to this dip, before slowing and gently pulling them open in opposite directions.
4. This area is right between two chambers in the head called the frontal sinuses. As we open them out, you should start to feel the tension draining from your sinus complex and mind; reducing the tension in your face.
5. Continue and repeat this technique as often as you’d like!
6. Stretches
Stretching the muscles forms the baseline of any physical activity, but it can also be used to relieve the muscle tension associated with stress. Our muscles have a habit of storing the stress we feel, and the physical burden of it can prove to be quite taxing to our mobility of daily life.
Alleviating such tension will help your body to relax, whilst also remedying joint stiffness and posture, and allowing the muscle tissue to drain the built-up stores of lactic acid that make us feel so tied up and exhausted. Do the job right with our lavender-infused Body Wrap.
7. Breathing Exercises
Heavy breathing is a by-product of stress. It can tighten the neck and shoulder muscles, and may even exacerbate the situation as the breathing intensifies and anxiety increases. This is why practicing breathing exercises is so important, as they can help to calm the body and induce deep relaxation. Our go-to, stress-reducing breathing exercise is called the 4-7-8. The technique was developed by Dr Andrew Weil. To do it, simply breathe in through your nose to a mental count of 4, then hold your breath for 7, before exhaling through your mouth for 8. This simple yet powerfully calming technique really needs to be tried to be believed!
8. Swimming
Many of the different elements involved in swimming hold the potential to relieve stress. Not only will it serve as a whole body workout pumping huge amounts of fresh, oxygenated blood through the system, but the requirement for breathing control will also set-in the feeling of relaxation and calm. In addition to this, the rhythm of the breathing required to swim will wake up what’s known as the parasympathetic nervous system, which is the area of the nervous system that's responsible for promoting the feeling of relaxation; leaving you feeling calm and centred long after you’re dry.
9. Circuit Training
What’s really great about circuit training is that it alternates between cardio and weight training; two of the best forms of exercise for stress management. Equally, this high intensity workout will deliver the same amount of benefits, both mentally, physically, and often emotionally, than longer forms of exercise.
The short, sweet nature of circuit training will help stream endorphins into your system within a short space of time, and can be easily differentiated to suit your time frame and capability.
Chloe McGregor has produced some fantastic circuit-centred videos for our new workout series, and they’re super easy to follow. Take a look at the full series here. In general, any form of exercise is good for dealing with stress, so please don’t feel limited to the features we’ve mentioned here. The important thing to remember is that you should be doing an activity you love and enjoy; nothing should ever feel like a chore - especially managing stress!
10. Stretching
Stretching the muscles forms the baseline of any physical activity, but it can also be used to relieve the muscle tension associated with stress. Our muscles have a habit of storing the stress we feel, and the physical burden of it can prove to be quite taxing to our mobility of daily life.
Alleviating such tension will help your body to relax, whilst also remedying joint stiffness and posture, and allowing the muscle tissue to drain the built-up stores of lactic acid that make us feel so tied up and exhausted. Do the job right with our lavender-infused Body Wrap.
Check out our full collection of exercise equipment that’s bound to bring peace to your life by visiting: www.sleepsmug.com/collections/active
Chill & Unwind in true SMUG style by heading over to: www.sleepsmug.com/products/chill-andunwind-gift-set-animal-print
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