In this article, I’ll show you how to get rid of stress and tension quickly and easily …
It doesn’t matter how stressed you are at the moment.
Here I will show you 13 highly effective relaxation techniques with which you can get rid of stress in seconds.
In this article, I’ll tell you exactly how this works.
Have fun while reading!
It’s easy to live stress-free.
You feel relaxed, suddenly have a lot more energy again and can enjoy the day. At the same time, you also function more efficiently. You can do everyday tasks quickly, effectively and effortlessly.
An additional nice side effect:
Some people secretly look up to you and seek your closeness because you exude a stress-free, total calm and serenity and therefore appear much more pleasant and positive in everyday life. This automatically reduces stress on others.
Therefore we come straight to the exercises:
1. The facial tornado
Most people have their stress written right on their faces. This is particularly common in desk jobs.
The long stare at the screen strains the eyes and tires the facial muscles. This leads to a lot of tension. The face clearly reflects this tension.
In this exercise we use the positive body feedback from your face.
Body feedback means: If you consciously relax your face, this relaxation quickly spreads to your entire body.
The facial tornado is therefore the ideal gymnastics for relaxation.
That’s how it’s done:
1) Make sure you are sitting or standing straight. Take 3 deep breaths.
2) Make a few faces! Move your eyebrows back and forth quickly. In all possible directions. Pinch your lips together and let them go again. Frown Move them in all directions. And then move your nose. Back and forth. Take as much time as you want to do it.
3) Did you grimac at everything on your face? Then now everything at the same time! Make up your own grimaces. Do this for about 30-60 seconds.
4) Let your face deliberately relax. Feel how your face feels different from before.
What many people notice:
The tense expression disappears and the face immediately appears much looser, more relaxed and more pleasant. This also significantly loosens the remaining stress in the body.
2. The energy power pose
If you have a strong posture, you feel relaxed and confident.
If you have a weak posture, you feel anxious and tense (i.e. stressed).
What posture do you usually use to go through your everyday life?
Hunched and heavy or straight and strong?
With the help of your body, you can reduce stress quickly and in a targeted manner.
Power poses in particular are perfect for this.
Here I am going to show you one of the strongest power poses that I have ever known.
That’s how it’s done:
1) Stand up and straighten your back.
2) Extend your arms with your palms open. The palms face up
3) Raise your head slightly and look at the sky
4) Hold this pose for 30-60 seconds
5) Stand up on your tiptoe for a moment to stretch yourself even higher
6) Release the power pose again. Feel how your body feels completely different than it did a minute ago. Take this newly gained strength and relaxation with you into your day
3. Stress-relieving foods
Often times a few nutrients are simply missing when we are stressed.
We often resort to sweets or fast food in stressful moments. Although this is good for a short time, it puts more strain on the body in the long term. That triggers stress.
To specifically get rid of stress, you can eat these foods instead …
4 foods to reduce stress:
- Nuts
Nuts are the best food for the nerves. There are a lot of B vitamins and magnesium in it. These effectively eliminate stress. Every nut a kiss. - Bananas
They contain the amino acid tryptophan, which the body uses to produce the happiness hormone serotonin. Banana in, stress out! - Paprika
They contain a lot of vitamin C, which is very effective against stress-related fatigue. - Chocolate / Cocoa
Chocolate is known to be food for the nerves. However, not the whole milk variant, but the dark chocolate with a high cocoa content. Bitter chocolate is therefore better suited as food for the nerves than the highly sugary variant.
Important tip: Avoid sugar and alcohol as much as possible. They give you a short energy high, but then a long energy low.
4. The mental thought trick
Doctors and psychologists found:
The more negative you feel about your stress, the more harmful it is to you.
Example:
If you invite a date over to your home, you can get stressed. You still have to quickly clean the apartment, take a shower, change clothes, etc. But that is not a negative stress. You are looking forward to the evening. So you feel the stress positively.
But if, for example, you think your job is stupid, have a lot of extra tasks to do every day and maybe even work overtime every day, then you feel this stress very negatively in the long run. And then it has a harmful effect.
Thought Trick:
Change your attitude towards stress. As soon as you see stress as positive, you automatically change the reaction of your body and brain in a positive way and feel better.
By the way, long-term psychological stress is a sign that you should either change something about your situation or your thoughts about the situation.
On the other hand, see short-term stress as your ally that you can use for yourself!
It brings you to peak performance: It activates healing mechanisms, releases happiness hormones and natural anti-pain substances.
5. Ancient technology from China: Drink pure energy
This method comes from Qi Gong (an ancient Chinese martial art & healing method). Qi Gong users achieve deep relaxation by consciously directing their life energy.
In the east, water is the symbol of life energy. Nothing works without water.
The monks believe that Western civilizations are so stressed because they don’t pay attention to the life energy (water).
The more attentive you are to the life energy, the more energy you have.
In this exercise you learn to feel the pure life energy (the water) and to feel in yourself how your body pulsates full of life and energy.
Drink energy like a qigong master:
1) Fill a glass with water. Take it in both hands.
2) Look at the glass of water. Realize: You are looking at pure life energy.
3) Be grateful that you hold the source of life in your hands. Not everyone has access to it.
4) Drink the pure life energy.
5) Do a little visualization exercise by the monks: Close your eyes while drinking and imagine how you are drinking pure light. Feel the light spreading through your body.
The great thing about this exercise:
This exercise sounds easy & simple, but it has a huge effect. It takes you less than 1 minute and is just as relaxing as 20 minutes of meditation.
6. Reduce stress in the head: Learn to deal with negative thoughts
Many people struggle with negative, self-destructive thoughts on a daily basis. These thoughts are the main source of psychological stress, anxiety, worry, pressure, etc.
That costs a lot of strength and energy, which is then missing in the crucial places in everyday life.
Hardly anyone knows how to get rid of stressful thoughts effectively.
Most people make the following mistakes when doing this:
They try to use force to control negative thoughts and only make them worse. How to do it better, I’ll tell you now.
Once you know how to get rid of negative thoughts, you will be rid of one of your greatest sources of stress.
7. The happiness switch: think positively
When you get rid of your negative thoughts, you will feel a lot better.
If you then additionally strengthen positive things in your life, then you live every day in deep satisfaction and joy of life.
With positive thinking applied correctly, you can easily cope with difficult situations.
Many people believe that positive thinking is naive and that it only suppresses reality. The opposite is the case. Through positive thinking, you accept what is now and put yourself in an optimal state. From this state you can lead any situation to your desired result with ease.
How to solve difficult situations with positive thinking:
1) Accept negative situation
2) Allow negative feelings instead of pushing them away (which would make them worse)
3) Redirect focus to the positive of the situation
8. The stress-in-the-bud choke
You are currently reading this article and arming yourself with powerful tips on how to reduce stress. That’s great!
But what do you do if you keep bringing new stress into your life afterwards? Then all these relaxation techniques are of little use to you.
That is why it is at least as important to avoid new stress in the first place.
9. Angle of mouth up, stress down
Smile!
How so?
Because that relaxes your facial muscles. In addition, your face triggers positive body feedback ( see also tip # 2: facial tornado ). Smiling not only relaxes your face, but your whole body.
That’s how it’s done:
Smile ?
Relaxed face = relaxed body = stress-free state
If you don’t feel like smiling, stick a pencil across your teeth, bite on it and force a smile. You will notice how your inner state changes after a few moments.
10. Movement = care for body and mind
Your body is arguably the best tool for shaking off stress and chaotic thoughts.
If you move more physically in everyday life, you automatically reduce stress.
If you haven’t done any sport before, start doing it today! Think about what you like best and then go for it.
You don’t have to be a marathon runner or a fitness junkie. Climbing, swimming, hiking, dancing, whatever attracts you … start with it and experience for yourself how extremely quickly you can shake off everything negative.
Action tip:
Take 5 minutes of your time now and think about what kind of exercise or sport you might like.
See where you can incorporate more movement into everyday life (e.g. bike instead of car, stairs instead of elevator, etc.)
By the way: some people do more exercise (4-5 times a week), others need less (1-3 times a week). Find your suitable measure.
11. Go offline & hide the time
By far one of the greatest stress factors in today’s society is time!
Most people rush from one appointment to the next. From one to-do to the next. The schedule is packed. The time pressure is extremely high.
Everything has to go faster and faster. Always more efficient. Better and better. More work, fewer breaks. This pressure to perform leads many people directly to burnout.
Even on vacation, it doesn’t stop with many. There, too, every day is fully planned and rushed.
Another big problem:
Most have got used to being available at all times. That can be extremely stressful. The smartphone beeps and vibrates constantly. Even during the breaks, many are only writing and watching YouTube videos. Instead of leaning back. That can quickly drain your strength.
Therefore go offline once a day and “stop” the time!
That’s how it’s done
1) Set a time on the day when you go offline & and forget about the time.
2) It is advisable to spend the morning offline. Switch off cell phone & laptop. So you start the day relaxed and focused.
3) Even in the evening is a good time to go offline and also switch off the clock. That means take off your watch and don’t watch the time. The evening is all yours. Do what you feel like doing. But don’t plan anything!
What a lot of people notice:
These little offline timeouts ensure great relaxation and inner peace. Whenever possible, take an offline break and forget the time.
12. Breath Meditation: Relax deeply in 3 minutes
Meditation is the best relaxation exercise ever!
It makes you physically and mentally healthy, dissolves negative thoughts and also increases your body awareness.
A wise man once said:
“If you breathe properly, you will miss out on everything else. Then you have no more problems. “
Meditating and learning how to breathe is easy. You can learn it within 3 minutes without previous knowledge or effort.
That’s how it’s done:
1) Sit or stand with your back straight. You can either close your eyes or leave them open.
2) Consciously let go of the tension in your neck, shoulders and back
3) Breathe like this: Breathe deeply through your nose into your stomach (until the stomach bulges outwards). Then slowly exhale through your nose again.
4) Meditating for 3 minutes is enough to get you started. You can also increase the time as needed.
13. Let go of old ballast and stress from the past
Unprocessed situations from your past create constant stress that constantly operates in the background and steals you energy.
Most people carry old pain from their past with them for life and do not even notice that it takes a lot of energy at work and in private life.
Your partner ran away from you, your boss yelled at you unjustifiably 2 months ago, etc. That can make you feel negative.
Most people cannot forget such negative experiences and get annoyed again and again about them.
Although the negative situation is long gone, most people play through the negative feeling every single day. Big mistake & big stress potential!
However, once you’ve managed to get rid of a bit of baggage from your past, you will feel much more relaxed in the long term.
Bad Stress & Good Stress: What’s the Difference?
In order to be able to reduce stress effectively, you first have to understand what stress is, where stress comes from and how stress works.
Many see stress as something purely negative. Stress can even be good for you.
First of all, stress only means that you are physically or mentally more tense than normal.
And now comes the crux of the matter:
A healthy level of stress is good and even beneficial. However, as soon as it exceeds a certain limit, it becomes harmful to you.
Where exactly this limit lies, how exactly the stress mechanism works and how you can get the stress under control, I’ll explain that to you now.
There are 2 forms of stress:
- Good stress
- Bad stress
1) Good stress
Good stress is your body’s natural protective mechanism. This stress sets in when:
- You get attacked on the street at night
- You lean too far out of the window on the 10th floor
- You stand in front of a large lion
Good stress only lasts for a short time . It protects you from physical threats by briefly increasing your performance and concentration . This allows you to react appropriately to the danger. It increases your fighting power, your focus or your reflex to flee.
If the danger is over, the body gives the “danger over signal” and you relax again immediately.
This type of stress is only harmful to you if you are permanently exposed to it.
2) Bad stress
Persistent psychological stress is bad stress!
This includes constant time pressure, pressure to perform and social pressure.
Because short-term time pressure and pressure to perform can motivate you to achieve a goal and do a task properly.
However, if you permanently expose yourself to this mental stress, then you can get into big problems.
Dealing with mental stress poorly can lead to the fact that your nerves soon drain and you simply collapse. This is called burnout.
First warning signs for dealing with stress poorly:
- Tension or pain in the neck, shoulders, back, etc.
- Mental stress in the form of fears, worries and negative thoughts
- You suffer from time and performance pressure
- You can no longer consciously switch off negative thoughts and stress
The solution to stress is:
Relax and let go consciously!
I showed you how to do this in the exercises above.
Conclusion
Now it’s your turn! Pick the exercises you like the most and get started today!
Now you know how to do it. You now have 13 highly effective relaxation techniques at hand. You now have everything you need to get started.
But important:
You have to do things naturally in everyday life if you want to reduce your stress effectively. Many people read through tips, but then do not implement them in everyday life and then wonder why they are still so stressed.
Don’t be one of them. Pick a tip that you want to implement and get started.
These methods have already helped many people to easily and effectively reduce their stress. And with that you made it to the end of the article. I congratulate you!