Stress Management Strategies

Adolescence is a period of life where being knowledgeable about stress management is crucial for mental health. This article explores simple techniques that can be utilized to combat stress in our day-day lives.

To start off, let's examine strategies associated with movement.

1. Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Progressive muscle relaxation involves slowly loosening the tension in your body to feel the desired result of a sweeping relaxation through your body. To do this, focus on slowly and mindfully tightening and relaxing every muscle from your head to your toes.

2. Exercise

Almost any form, if not all, of exercise can help decrease stress levels. Some examples are walking, playing tennis, climbing stairs, running, or bicycling. Physical activities can boost your physical health and provide solutions to stress.

Next, breathing.

1. 4-7-8 Breathing

4-7-8 breathing is a method for deep relaxation. To perform this technique, slowly inhale for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 7 seconds, and exhaling for 8 seconds. This breathing method activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which can calm the mind and body, reduce anxiety, and promote faster sleep for people with insomnia.

2. Lion's Breath

Lion's breath can help clear emotions and increase energy. It involves first inhaling through your nose with your mouth closed, opening your mouth wide, sticking out your tongue as far as you can, and curling your tongue down towards your chin. Then, exhale forcefully with a "ha", sound, and continue to keep the tongue out. Take a couple normal breaths before repeating the lion's breath.

And last but not least, strategies using the mind.

1. Guided Imagery

Guided imagery is a method to distract your mind from thoughts of stress. You imagine yourself in a place where you feel relaxed, happy, and content. For example, a scene can be the mountains, where lush greenery surrounds you and all you hear is the natural wildlife: birds chirping, the creek rumbling gently downhill, and the leaves rustling and dancing with the soft wind. All there is to it is closing your eyes and thinking of the first happy place that comes up in your mind. And enjoying the moment.

2. Meditation

Meditation can help assuage short-term stress and provide stress management benefits that can last a lifetime. Meditation is being focused on the present moment and not thinking about the past or worrying about the future. To meditate, you can create a mantra, or a word, sound, or phrase repeated to aid concentration during meditation. An example of a mantra could be "I am calm." You repeat the mantra in your mind and take full, slow, and deep breaths. You can also practice being in the moment and listening in on your body.

There are a variety of ways you can manage stress to move through your daily life in a calm, relaxed manner. Let's make sure that we work towards combating stress with these simple, yet effective strategies together, starting today.