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Reboot, Realign & Rewire Your Brain Into Zen Mode

Let’s be real, life can be stressful. Even something as small as being tempted to have another piece of cake or giving up reaching your ideal weight can cause us to stress out or to have a nervous breakdown. 

2020’s mental, physical and emotional exertion due to Covid-19 is not helping with our overall equilibrium, at all! But even though we aren’t living our normal lives, and haven’t been living it for quite sometime, it is important to solidify the foundation of our mental strength.

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What does mental strength mean to you? Mental strength may mean different things to different people, but to me, it means to filter emotions, manage reactions and thoughts in a positive way, despite situations go down the drain!

Here are 5 simple exercises, twists & tweaks recommended to achieve peace and tranquility:

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Breath Work:

Running around like a headless chicken isn’t helping you or your daily goals. Panicked about finishing assignments in time? Can’t sleep because you have too much on your mind? Don’t stress babe, we got your back with these simple breath work exercises:

  • Ladies, pump up your energy levels: Close your mouth, rapidly inhale and exhale through your nose (about three breath cycles per second) for up to 10-20 seconds (remember each body is different from the other, so work to your own body capacity).
  • Stress buster: Lie flat on your back, put on hand on your chest and the other on your stomach. Take a deep breath in through the nose and let the stomach project out (while doing this don’t let your chest puff out). Breath out the air through a slight gap in your mouth, like a little whistle. As you exhale let the air from the stomach go out and let the belly become concave. Repeat 5/10 times.
  • 5 breaths to bedtime: To fall asleep faster, do 5 cycles starting with 5-5-5 breaths. Inhale for 5, hold in for 5 and slowly let out for 5 With each cycle increase the number of breaths (e.g. next round will be 6-6-6, then 7-7-7 and so on!)
Breath work is known to, relieve stress, unclog the mind and you’ll feel an instant boost in your mood.

So ladies, next time don’t start popping pills, take a deep breath, relax and achieve your Zen!

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Music:

You must’ve surely heard about music therapy?

Music is known to be soothing, melodious and calming. But in therapy, music provides support to people & an outlet to help in self-expression of feeling. Music therapy includes all forms of singing, listening to music & playing an instrument.

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Music evokes a sense of positive emotions and feelings and doing any of the above activities involving music can help alleviate mental health symptoms such as:

  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Schizophrenia
  • Autism
  • Personality Issues
  • Insomnia
  • Dementia
  • Substance Dependency

Next time the neighbours come banging on your door, demanding you reduce the music volume, remember to tell them you’re working on your mental wellbeing (not throwing a wild party)!

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Yoga:

There are many forms and practices of yoga, each beneficial in their own way, but in particular, there are 2 yoga poses, which are just sublime for your mental strength.

The Savasana or the Corpse Pose is much more than a rest pose in yoga. This pose is essential to:

  • Calm your mind, body
  • Relieve stress
  • Alleviate headaches, fatigue & anxiety
  • Calms nervous system & aids digestion
  • Boost immunity through deep relaxation
(Source: rishikulyogshala.org)
(Source: rishikulyogshala.org)

The other pose is the Easy/Happy Pose or Sukhasana. This is a basic, sitting at rest pose.

The Easy Pose is very common in meditation & goes hand in hand with breath work. It helps relieve tension in the body and alleviate fatigue, stress as well as overall anxiety and boosts energy before starting a new task.

To do this pose simply sit down on the floor cross your legs, spine straight with your palms facing upwards.

You see, yoga isn’t just for getting a bubble butt!

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Go Green:

No, before you react, I am not preaching environmental concerns (though they are very important and getting more vital day by day).

Green is the colour of life. Green is known to have a soothing, restful and relaxing effect on the human eye. It is also helps in:

  • Enhancing vision, endurance and stability
  • Alleviate nervousness, anxiety and depression

Ophthalmologists (the eye doctors) suggest when you stress too much or are exposed to excessive blue light emitted from computer screens & develop a headache; it means your Optic Nerve is inflamed. The simplest, easiest and most natural way to relive this is to look out your window at trees, grass or anything naturally green, for a few moments. The pain or stress will magically disappear!

Tired at work? Or straining your eyes while searching for something? Go green and look on at Mother Nature!

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Warm Water Bath:

Taking a soak in a warm bath after a long day, while sipping on a glass of wine is an indulgence we all want. But, do you know why it feels so good? Because warm water has restorative properties for the body as well as the mind!

A warm water bath helps alleviate your mood by reducing feelings of depression & pessimism and replacing it with a combination of quiet comfort & relaxation. It gets rid of the icky dirty feeling caused due to pollution & sweat and replaces it with clean soothing that some even say subconsciously reminds us of being in the womb.

A hot soak can also help you declutter your brain & sleep better by raising body temperature while in the bath and increasing the production of Melatonin (the sleep hormone) to put you to bed faster!

Feeling adventurous, add a rubber ducky to your next soak!

Ladies it is also good to keep in mind other bad habits that rob you of your mental health. Feeling sorry for yourself, giving up on your goals, feeling helpless or not good enough can also wreak havoc on your mind. So, practice working on your mental health and say bye – bye to stress, depress & hello to peace!

Sources :

Tags: #breathe#peace#yoga#zen

Guanako

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