LEARNING TO RELAX: WHY ARE BREAKS IMPORTANT?
Relaxing is something everybody should be able to do, but those of us who are depressed, workaholics, or have any health problems don’t have a simple "off" button.
Relaxation is something we really need to learn and practice, much like happiness. And, like happiness, learning to relax is extremely important to your health and well-being because “Good health and good sense are two of life’s greatest luxuries”.
How to relax: Relaxation for mental health
It is normal for mental health issues to trigger stress in the body. Furthermore, stressors that arise over the course of a person's life, such as taking a test or exam, interviewing for a job, or raising children, can also generate stress. .When tension arises as a result of a mental health problem or a stressor, it may help to choose some of the relaxation techniques that work for you and to practice them regularly.
Relaxation techniques:
Breathing exercises: Breathing exercises are one of the easiest relaxation techniques and can easily relieve the stressed body and mind at any time. So what are you waiting for? Take a deep breath in and out!
Release your physical tension: If we feel emotionally tired, we also feel physically exhausted. Releasing any physical discomfort or muscle tension will help to reduce stress in your body and mind.
Write down your thoughts: Getting things out of your mind by writing them down can help you relax. Creating a list of what you're grateful for might make certain people feel better.
Link with nature: “In nature you don’t get lost, you find yourself”. Just spending a few minutes in nature when you feel stressed can help you relax.
Exercise: Physical activity in the form of yoga, jogging, and a number of other fitness methods have been shown to relieve stress and anxiety. Also short, regular walks can help people relax. “Fall in love with taking care of body”.
Massage: Massage practice often focuses on helping people to reduce many types of muscle tension, including stress or anxiety.
Music: “Where words leave off, music begins”. Listening to music has been shown to reduce stress through the autonomic nervous system, which means that it can be most effective in reducing stress when it affects a person's heart rate, blood pressure, and other physical reactions that are often associated with stress or anxiety, such as sweating and shaking.
Advantages of Relaxing
There are many advantages of keeping the brain and body healthy. Relaxation balances the negative, emotional and physical consequences of stress that we all face on a daily basis.
Ability to think more clearly and to make better choices
The Ability to Combat Potential Stressors and health problems.
A more positive viewpoint on life and your experiences
A more beneficial body, with a slower breathing rate, released muscle tension, and decreased blood pressure
A diminished chance of heart assault, immune system illness, mental health problems, and other stress-related sicknesses
Kids who are motivated to take calming actions tend to be more focused and have creative mind than kids who are more depressed. They may also be more cooperative and have less social and behavioral problems at school.
Why are breaks important?
The importance of taking short movement breaks has been well-researched. Constant sitting — whether at your desk, TV, or in the lecture hall — makes you at higher risk for health problems such as heart disease, diabetes, depression, and obesity. Getting up from your chair to walk, stretch, do yoga, release muscle tension or whatever activity you prefer can reduce the negative health effects of sitting too much. A 5-minute walk each hour can progress your wellbeing and health.
Benefits of taking breaks:
When you're trying to hit the deadline, or if you have a difficult challenge, you can feel the strain, it can be tempting to push yourself to concentrate long past the point of exhaustion. Yet taking a much-needed break from your busy schedule is necessary if you're going to perform at your best.
Here are some benefits of taking regular breaks that can be added to your daily schedule.
Taking regular breaks helps to make you more productive:
The formation of a schedule of daily breaks would also give you a set of mini-time limit to work towards, which will inspire you to complete the task more quickly.
“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you”.
Breaks will help you develop healthier lifestyle:
When you have an exceptionally busy schedule and are stressed, your healthy habits, like eating a nutritious meal, exercising, and getting enough sleep, will fall short. With the right lunch breaks, you can include these healthy habits into your normal work day, whether it's time to prepare or eat a meal full of fruits or vegetables, or run or walk outside.
You can also try squeezing out a 20-minute nap, which frees up space in your working memory for new information and helps instill new insights into your long-term memory.
‘A healthy lifestyle not only changes your body. It changes your mind, attitude and your mood’.
Breaks will help you develop creative mind:
Never taking a break from very careful thinking work really reduces your ability to be creative. This depletes your type of cognitive ability and you cannot develop a creative mind.
Giving your brain time to relax and recharge, just like an athlete relaxes his body after a race or training session, will motivate you for the next task.
‘Some of your best ideas come when you’re on vacation’.
Breaks will help you to get a clearer understanding of your goals:
When you focus on the details of a complex task, it is very easy to lose sight of a bigger picture. Take a break, take a step back and review your goals and priorities so that you can focus on the right tasks and projects.
Breaks will help you process and retain information:
Our brain has two modes of operation: focused and "diffused". When we work in diffused mode, our brain is more relaxed and in a state of "dreams". We solve our most difficult problems when we are in this diffused state. The next time you have to solve a difficult problem, try to let your brain wander and find your own solution, instead of forcing yourself to seek an answer.
The key to avoiding burnout is taking breaks, but some of us don't really "break" even when we say we're going to. In the back of our minds, we may still be thinking about work or doing things that are working, but doesn’t look like that.
To take a real break, you need to be happy doing "nothing"—whether only drinking a cup of tea and staring out the window or sitting on a park bench without feeling whether you should be anywhere else.
~ By Ritik Kapoor for Young Engine