7 daily practices to de-stress and stay balanced
What are 7 different daily practices you can do from home to lower stress levels and have more balance in your mind, body and soul?
The world is an ever-changing environment and guess what? That is the beauty of living! With all the daily changes that naturally occur, we sometimes forget to change along with them. Sometimes we just wake up on the wrong side of the bed or unfavorable things just happen out of nowhere.
Here are a 7 practices that would be great for you to incorporate into your life to master yourself and stay balanced…
1. Wind down before bed / Sleep routine – most of us, including myself are looking at a screen of some sort until our eyes close or soon before the time we choose to lay down for the night. Our mind’s and body’s biologically want to wind down when the sun goes down and it starts to get dark, so by exposing ourselves to all the light from screens just before we go to sleep, our minds/bodies are duped into thinking they should be active. Wind down with a book and some stretching within 1-2 hours of going to sleep and do your best to not eat within 3-4 hours of going to sleep.
2. Nutrition – The healthier the food choices you make, the more nutrition your body will have. The more nutrition your body has the happier it will be! When your body is happy it will naturally release the hormones it needs to fall asleep at night as well as perform during the day. Magnesium has been researched to be one of the most deficient nutrients in our diets due to harshly treated soil. If you can take an Epsom salt bath / foot soak or take Magnesium-Glycinate, you may notice a remarkable improvement in many different aspects of your daily life.
3. Exercise body and mind – If you can swing it, give yourself enough time in the morning to do some mind and body training (30-60 minutes is enough) which can early in the day if possible, don’t forget to stretch before your workout and before you go to bed if possible. Gyms are great for lifting weights however they are not needed. There are so many different calisthenic exercises you can perform with your own body-weight for a total body workout within 15-20 minutes.
Exercising the mind is just as important as exercising the body. Each day we are faced with countless advertisements, social media, emails, conversations that may be fear-based and negative for somebody else’s agenda or goal. This is important to recognize. If you do not take control of your own thought’s there are a long line of people that would love to tell you how to think and what to think about. This is NOT what you want unless it is beneficial to your well being. Write down some positive things you would like for your day as well as what you are grateful for each morning. Now, say them out loud. Before going to sleep, think to yourself what you are grateful for and also affirm all the positive aspects about yourself…”I am so creative”, “I am grateful for being healthy” etc.
4. Writing – This ties in with #3 in mental exercise. Write down positive affirmations for yourself, short-term and long-term vision for yourself. The goal here is to release everything that has been on your mind onto the paper. Just free-write without judgment AKA. “brain-dump”. Anything that you want to get off your chest. Writing can be your best friend. You will never regret the act of writing and it will prove to be highly therapeutic if you keep it up. 90% of people do not write / type at all.
5. Breathing – Stop what you are doing and take 10 seconds to take a deep inhale and slow exhale. Our hearts and mind activity follows our breathing. The lungs will work for us automatically however, imagine how much better your body could function by consciously taking control of your breathing pattern. Take notice of your breath as a compass to what causes you anxiety and then take control and possibly limit what those anxiety triggers are. You can always go back to a 5 second deep inhale, breath hold for 5 seconds, 5 second exhale, followed by another 5 second breath hold. This is known as “box breathing”. You can also just stop what you are doing momentarily and slow down your breathing to a comfortable pace. A bonus would be to add some simple “Tai-Chi” movements.
6. Stretch – Never underestimate the power of stretching. There are so many great stretches for all ages and body types. This will improve your circulation and flexibility. Better blood flow will impact every part of your body and mind. It will link the 2 together so you feel whole. If you are trying a new stretch or have not stretched for a while, be sure to not overdo it. Little by little your body will become more limber with each time you stretch. Combine breathing with each stretch and really let all the tension out of your body with the combination of the 2. Sometimes a verbal sigh or type of moan can also help stored tension release. Combining stretching with breathing has never been regretful.
7. Try a new hobby / be part of a team – These 2 things can help us to break out of any mental or physical stagnation, have fun, learn new skills and make new friends. All beneficial things come out of learning something new and involving yourself with a goal-oriented group of individuals. It can be anything from carpentry to sewing to joining a bowling league.The more we can take ourselves out of our comfort zones the better. Your brain will force itself to create new neural pathways and actually generate new brain cells.
If you have made it this far, great job and we hope that you and your loved ones can benefit from some of these simple practices we can do on a daily basis to de-stress and stay balanced in this ever-changing world we live in! More to come from PotluckExpo.com! Stay Blessed 🙂
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