How to Do Hard Things in Life
Flicking through magazines, watching YouTube clips and browsing social media are welcome distractions when your body needs a time-out. Curling up on the couch with your latest Netflix addiction surely is entertaining, but there’s a big difference between chilling in front of the TV and real rest.
Real rest encompasses more than lying still and keeping activity to a minimum. It involves activating your body’s natural relaxation response, a state of deep rest that balances your nervous system and promotes healing.
When you feel under pressure, your body releases stress hormones, triggering your sympathetic nervous system to prepare for fight or flight. The adrenaline in your bloodstream makes your heart beat fast, quickens your breathing and tenses your muscles. That’s very helpful in dangerous situations, but unfortunately it’s also activated by everyday challenges like traffic jams and work deadlines.
Contrary to this all-too-common stress response, the relaxation response acts like a built-in tranquilizer. It stimulates your parasympathetic nervous system to slow down your heart rate and breathing, relax your muscles and boost your immunity. Research even shows that mind-body interventions that activate the relaxation response, such as yoga and meditation, can reverse harmful inflammation at DNA level.
And what’s best of all: you have the power to produce this relaxation response whenever and wherever you want.
So let’s have a look at how you can maximize your downtime with 7 powerful practices.
This article contains some affiliate links to resources you may find useful, at no extra costs to you. All opinions are my own.
Real Rest: 7 Ways to Truly Relax
1. Take a deep breath
Transition your body and mind from a stressed state to a restorative one with deep belly breathing or the 4-7-8 breathing technique. You could place one hand on your belly and the other on your chest to make sure you’re engaging your diaphragm.
Research shows that slow breathing can improve your heart rate variability, which is key marker of a balanced nervous system.
2. Practice slow movement with awareness
You don’t have to sit still to get some real rest! Mindful exercising has more health benefits than working out while being preoccupied with other things. Just 10 minutes of slow movement done with awareness can reduce your cortisol levels and enhance your mood.
So activate that healing relaxation response by regularly doing yoga, tai chi, Pilates or aikido. Pay attention to how your body feels as it moves, and try syncing your breath with your movements — for example, inhaling as you lift your arms and exhaling as you lower them — to deepen the calming effect.
3. Let go of build-up tensions with a relaxing body scan
Take your mind on a guided tour throughout your body and really pay attention to how it all feels, without judging. Bring your attention to your toes and mentally work your way up to the top of your head, noticing if each body part is warm or cold, tense or relaxed, tingly or calm.
By combining mindfulness with reducing tension from your body, doing a relaxing body scan helps you get real rest. What’s more, it can improve your sleep quality, especially when done before bed.
4. Get creative
Activities like painting, dancing, making music and writing can help you express your thoughts and feelings, which reduces emotional stress.
What’s more: working with your hands produces feel-good chemicals in your brain that protect against depression. Instead of lounging around the house, do something creative (and fun!) to truly unwind emotionally.
Not sure where to start? Try coloring mandalas, journaling for 10 minutes, baking healthy-ish cookies or learning a few chords on a ukulele — basically any low-key activity that you enjoy!
5. Visualize
Did you know that visualization – creating relaxing images in your mind – not only eases stress and anxiety, but even lowers blood pressure, improves your sleep and helps to reduce pain?
Make the most of lying on the couch (or the beach!) by using the power of your imagination to unwind and recharge. Engage all of your senses to create a vivid picture of a relaxing scene, like the forest or a starry sky. Can you picture the lush greenery, the wind rustling through the trees, the breeze on your skin and that earthy smell of the woods?
If you struggle to visualize calming scenarios, let the Headspace app take you through guided meditations designed for relaxation.
6. Try progressive muscle relaxation
By systematically tensing and relaxing different muscle groups in your body, you’ll become familiar with how that feels. With practice, you’ll notice where tension builds up in your body – and what you can do to relax.
What’s more, progressive muscle relaxation lowers the arousal of the sympathetic nervous system, which in turn reduces stress and anxiety and improves sleep quality, even in people living with chronic illness.
Want to give progressive muscle relaxation a try? Begin with your feet and slowly work up to your face, holding each muscle contraction for a few seconds before releasing.
7. Build mindfulness into your daily routine
You don’t have to sit in lotus with your eyes closed to calm your mind. Do a walking meditation strolling across the parking lot, silently repeat a calming mantra while you’re brushing your teeth or wash your dishes while paying full attention to the motions and sensations.
Incorporating mindfulness into your daily routine can lower your reactivity to stressful situations and help you feel more emotionally balanced throughout the day. Research also shows that even brief moments of mindful awareness can improve your ability to think clearly and reduce rumination and depression.
So set reminders on your phone like “take a breath” or “bring your attention to your body” as cues to return to the present moment during everyday tasks.
Make time each day to really relax with activities that slow down your breathing, release tension from your body and quiet your mind for a while.
For more in-depth advice on how real rest supports the healing process, check out How to Create Your Own Action Plan for Recovery, the step-by-step guide on rebuilding your health after illness or injury.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you might also like Mindful Micro-Breaks: How to Recharge Yourself Within Minutes and 12 Simple Practices that Activate Your Relaxation Response.
