Quick Stress Relief Techniques

In this age of changing lifestyles and fierce competition, more and more people are suffering from stress problems. Missing an urgent meeting due to traffic snarls on the road, or watching your half-finished report vanish without a trace on your computer as you forgot to save in spite of frequent power problems, or losing to an office colleague in meeting a sales target - any such thing can lead to stress. The amount of stress one feels is dependent on both internal and external factors.

Internal factors include a person's personality and mental condition, while the extent of stress in a person's daily home or work environment belongs to external factors. If the stress is severe, it may cause serious health problems. There are several ways to solve one's stress problems, like enjoying a relaxing vacation, or cutting down working hours, or just taking some time off. In extreme cases, however, it may require a visit to your doctor.

You can, however, fight stress on your own as you possess a built-in ability to relax the body. What you are required to do is find the most effective technique for you. We all use our own relaxation methods, like counting to ten slowly or taking deep breaths, when we face problems such as screaming kids on a rampage at home or our partners forgetting an important chore for the third successive day. The important thing is to identify what causes you stress and discover the best solution for it. Even if you can't eliminate all of your stress, you can at least face it with a smile.

Given below are three quick, easy-to-follow relaxation techniques that can relieve you of stress in less than five minutes:

The Six-Second Quieting Response is a breathing method that can be followed any time during the day, and as many times as you need it. You can perform it alone or with people around you and it does not matter whether you keep your eyes open or closed during the exercise. This technique not only ensures fast relaxation, but also rectifies shallow breathing and relieves tension in the neck and shoulders. The steps to be followed are: Push your stomach out then draw in a long, deep breath. Then, hold for two to three seconds. Exhale completely with a long breath. While you exhale, let your jaw and shoulders drop. Finally, feel the relaxation flow from your neck and shoulders down your arms to your fingertips.

Mental Rehearsal is a technique that falls under the realm of visualization or mental imagery, which is a type of meditation that is akin to getting caught up in a daydream. It calms down your mind. There are two stages: mental rehearsal and application. In the first stage, first develop a clear mental picture of a demanding problem or situation that you are about to face. Create as much detail as possible and form a clear mental picture of how you want to handle this situation. Imagine yourself behaving in a calm, confident and effective manner. While imagining such a response to the situation, use a cue which you can link with the image of your rehearsal. For cue, you can form your thumb and forefinger into a circle. After several weeks of rehearsal and practice before the actual event, the second stage, application begins. First, enter the situation while using the cue. This will recall your rehearsed response and the positive feelings associated with it. Finally, your cued response should result in the desired response.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) involves tensing and relaxing specific muscle groups throughout the body, and takes only a matter of minutes since each muscle group is tensed for only 10 seconds. In this technique of relaxation, you can start with the six-second quieting response to put the body in a relaxed state. Then, squeeze each body part's musculature and hold for 10 seconds. Beginning with the muscles of your toes and feet, you now work upward towards your face. Then, release the contraction and draw in a deep breath. Finally, while proceeding, focus on the difference between tension and relaxation.