[Procyona]

Reasently I find it really hard to relax in the stressful situations, was it in the training hall on somewhere else in my life.

I understand that mind and body are connected in this, and relaxing the mind relaxes the body and other way around. One can for instance think about someone important to them, and the body naturally relaxes, or force a smile on ones face and feel emotionally better after a while. In stressful situations, however, one usually forgets about this, or does not have time to do this, and is driven by the emotions, lost in them.

Let's share and discuss the methods for relaxation, and how and where to use them, and if you already use some methods and how do they work for you. If you have insight about stress management in general, feel free to enlighten.   

[Валентина Слободянюк]

Hello Procyona!
I know the way of relaxation that works for me for sure when I use it in time - when you are in stress you should trace your breath.Usually you hold breathing. This leads to palpitation, increased pressure - your brain doesn't receive the oxygen required and start to panic. So for one thing you need to see it and to breathe in. And when your brain comes back - than you need to relax your body.
when we train to fall correctly - it's a good and simple practice of relaxation in stressful situations in my opinion.   

[Haveunique]

Thank you, I agree with Valia, breathing has been so far the most effective tool to calm down agitated psyche. However, as it takes away the symptoms, the actual reasons behind agitation need to be cleared out - if you ask me, the sooner the better. Because any kind of stress means we have something inside that reacts to outside triggers, everyone has their own. Fix the inside thingie - the outside triggers won't have anything to trigger any more. That's how I am working on my self.   

[Fanda]

I have one thing on mi mind......and I am not sure if I understand this right?

-When are people in stress situation, when they feel in shock their reactions are usually close to zero.
-When we are not in stress situation, just common day and something surprise us and we need to immediatelly react, our reactions are normal. (sometimes glass of water just fall from the table sometimes we are able to catch it )
-When we are in stressfull situation, and body really can feel it, when we start to breath in corect way, our reactions are much higher, cause of circulation blood and fresh air.

Thank you for clarifications of this issue.

Fanda   

[Haveunique]

Exactly, Fanda! Stress (meaning high heart rate) influences our body coordination, the higher the stress the worse coordination, going all the way to complete freeze - when person cannot move because of stress (for example, when scared a lot). By learning to control our heart rate, we learn to control ourselves and thus act normally = adequately.   

[Procyona]

Thank you very much for your answers Валя, Tetyana, and Fanda!

For myself, I have gathegorized stress in two kinds: One is the stress of situations passed, and things to come, let's call it negative stress. It should be avoided all together, by stess management we have already talked about.

The other kind is the stress of the present, let's call it positive stress. I do thinks these work differently, and in the present, a little stress might just help you catch that glass of water before it hits the floor. For positive stress, the amount is the key, and too much of it is not a good thing. How to controll this amount, I yet have no idea. But certain amount is needed for us to acchieve our goals, and be considerate of the moment.

One friend of mine once told me that the world should not be taken too lightly, and that is why we should controll our stress the way it helps us to achieve our dreams, even in very stressful situations.   

[Fanda]

Thanks Tetyana and Milla,
I understand it now that stress can hurt us but it can also help us!
Milla described it quite well on the accident with glass on the table.
All in all, it is a long journey for us now.......   

[Procyona]

I noticed that when I relax my lower back and chin, the rest of the body also relaxes. It seems that there are spots that have more tension than others and are channels for relaxation. I do not know if the spots are universal, but at least these work for me.   

[Haveunique]

That is true, each person has their own tension spots. How did you discover yours, Milla?   

[Procyona]

I discovered them by change. I knew they are spots that are difficult for me to relax, and had paid extra attention to them. So, when I one time was relaxing my body, I decided to relax them first - and there it was.