5 minutes to relieve stress in the midst of a lot of work! (Quick Stress Relief)

The phone in your hand, the constant calls, emails, WhatsApp messages... Office deadlines, the work of someone who was fired, the fear of losing your job... With all this, before you even realize it, your body is hunched over and hours pass without getting up from your chair, right?

You need time to relax. But who remembers that? Who has time for that? You have time! It only takes a short time, like five minutes.

A little technique that brings instant relief to the mind

If you are someone who is constantly stressed, it is very important to address both the causes and the effects of stress.

According to renowned physician Herbert Benson, the exact opposite of our body's stress response is the relaxation response. That's called the ``Relaxation Response.'' When you feel your breathing quicken and your muscles tighten, he suggests doing something like a little mantra meditation .

"There are two things to remember here," he says. "The first is that repetition is the key. The second is that when other things come to your mind (and they will), you should not focus on those thoughts, but just let them float away."

Here's what you need to do:

Sit in a chair near your desk and close your eyes. Intentionally relax the muscles in your body. Take a deep breath in. As you breathe out, mentally say a word that is meaningful to you. For some, this word might be "love." For a Catholic, it might be "Holy Mary, full of grace..." For a Buddhist, it might be "May the Buddha bless you" or "May the Three Graces bless you." That's up to you.

Breathe in and say the word in your mind as you breathe out. When other thoughts come to mind, just let them go. Do this for three to four minutes. Then open your eyes and return to your work. To stay refreshed throughout the day, Dr. Benson recommends doing this for about 10 minutes before breakfast. Then, if you suddenly feel stressed during the day, you can use this method to get instant relief.

Quick fixes from exercise

There is another way to get rid of this stiffness in the body. That is, to give your body a little more effort! Think, run up a flight of stairs in the office. Or get down on the floor and do about 10 push-ups. When you deliberately give your body a little effort in this way, the same pathways that are activated during stress in the brain and nervous system are stimulated. Then the body thinks that now is the time to rest (recovery). This will relieve the stiffness in the body.

Another very useful method is to tense and then relax groups of muscles in the body.

• First, tense your facial muscles for about 5 seconds, then relax them.
• Next is the neck and shoulders.
• Do this all the way down to your legs.
• Shaking your arms and legs vigorously, like a dog being watered, also brings quick relief.

Deep breathing techniques

If you're angry about a deadline or something someone said, your breathing will likely be rapid and shallow. The important thing here is to get all the old air out of the bottom of your lungs.

This is done like this:

When you breathe in, push your belly forward , not your chest. Then, until you feel so tight that you can't breathe, squeeze all the air out. Push your belly forward again and breathe in. Try it once!

Deep breathing along with eye exercises also provides great relief. (Take a deep breath while rolling your eyes up, down, right, and left).

"Even things that we think we can't control, things that happen automatically, we can actually control. For example, slowing down our heart rate." I know of a case where a woman in the hospital's emergency room (ETU) was connected to a monitor due to an irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia). When her young daughter, who was looking at her in fear, saw it, she commanded her heart to "Him... Sir...". Surprisingly, the monitor immediately showed that her heart rate was slowing down. People have more control over their bodies than they think.

Shall we change the cause of the pressure?

It's not enough to just physically release stress. It's best to address the root cause. What we usually do when we feel fear or anger is to think that that feeling is the problem and fight it.

Instead, challenge that feeling and ask it three questions:

1. Is my response fair?

2. Is what I'm doing now (getting angry, throwing things on the floor, banging my hand on the wall) useful?

3. Does this make me feel better?

With this approach, that feeling is deactivated and it changes.

Another way is to stop when you feel stressed and complete this sentence: "I'm glad I'm not a ___________."

Imagine you are stuck in traffic. You might think, "I'm glad I wasn't the one in the accident." When you are assigned extra work, you might be happy, "I'm not out of a job."

There are other ways to change the situation. Things like talking to your boss and sharing the work, taking the vacation you're entitled to, setting reasonable limits on the number of hours you work. Turn down the volume on your phone. Stop getting distracted by other things around you.

Or, just smile - whether you want to or not. "We can fool our bodies quite well," experts say. "The brain interprets the movement of facial muscles during a smile as a feeling of happiness."

Stress, Relief, Relaxation, Breathing Exercises, Mental Health, Workplace