- Continue to stand upright and imagine yourself being pulled upwards from the vertex.
- Now walk with your attention from head to toe through your body and perceive the areas of tension.
- As soon as you are completely relaxed, you return to your everyday life with your attention.
Of course, the art of Qi Gong has many more practical exercises to help you restore your inner balance. In order to learn the movement sequences correctly, it is a good idea to attend a Qi Gong course.
Walks
Everybody should be able to integrate walks into everyday life, but they are still an effective means against stress. During a walk, all muscle groups, limbs and organs are evenly loaded. Walking is one of the most natural forms of human locomotion and therefore has no possibility of overloading individual areas of the body. Walking increases the oxygen supply to the body and improves blood circulation. This has a positive effect not only on our immune system, various inflammatory processes and the cardiovascular system, but also on our concentration, our performance and our mood. In addition, our muscles secrete the Interleukin-6 molecule during walks, which not only prevents premature ageing of the skin, but also stimulates fat burning and the supply of nutrients to the muscles.
But that's not all, because while walking the appetite-inhibiting hormone ghrelin is produced and the hormones serotonin and endorphin are released. This explains the positive effects on the body and mind. It is therefore advisable to spend about 30 minutes a day walking, ideally not along a busy road, but in a quiet, natural environment. When walking, stress hormones are broken down in the body and happiness hormones are increasingly released. The monotonous movement allows us to devote ourselves entirely to our thoughts and in doing so we actually encounter one or the other intuition in dealing with stressful situations!
Tai-Chi Chuan
Tai-Chi Chuan, Tai-Chi for short, is often practiced to reduce stress. You probably already have a picture of the meditative Tai Chi movements in your head. Even if the relaxation with Tai-Chi is actually only the way to spiritual awakening, courses of this sport are even taken over by health insurance companies, because the method is extremely effective against long-lasting stress states.
In Germany Tai-Chi is also often called "shadow boxing" and yes, shadow boxing belongs to the martial arts and is even the most frequently practiced martial art worldwide. The origin of Tai-Chi lies in China, where the martial art is practiced as a folk sport. And you too can experience inner balance with this martial art that has been tried and tested for centuries.
And so you can relax with Tai Chi at home:
- Put your feet about hip width apart.
- Let your arms hang down to the side of your body with your palms facing outwards.
- Raise and lower your arms a few times with palms facing upwards as you inhale and exhale.
- Now bring both palms together in front of your chest and draw a lying figure in front of you into the air with your hands lying next to each other.
This is a possible exercise as an introduction to the teachings of Tai Chi. You can move through the room in this way by stringing together certain sequences of movements. The slow and precise execution does not allow any stress and no hectic, here it is about precision and highest concentration. Practicing this physical and mental calm regularly helps you to take this balance with you into everyday life. On the Internet you will find many more suggestions and in every larger city you will find professional Tai Chi teachers who will introduce you to the art of Tai Chi.
Creativity
Creative living is a wonderful way to give room to accumulated emotions and to allow yourself a well-deserved break. Even if you are convinced at this point that you do not have any creative talent, you can still be creative. Because in each of us there is a more or less well hidden ability to be creative and to create something. In addition, this exercise is not about becoming the Rembrandt of the 21st century and presenting an impressive work to outside critics, but rather about giving free rein to hidden emotions through creative expression, i.e. communicating with oneself in an artistic way. It is up to you to decide how you want to be creative.
Perhaps you have always wanted to paint, are a good dancer or a writer. Especially if you've been under stress for a long time, it's hard to get creative. Creativity is something we can live out above all when we are in a relaxed state. The more often you sit in front of your screen or at the piano, the easier it will be for you to withdraw from everyday life and live out your artistic expression.
Creativity can be compared to a muscle that you have trained less or not at all over the last weeks, months and years. So the first training sessions will be exhausting, but the effort will be worth it because you will be rewarded with a wonderful opportunity to reduce and process stress. Reserve regular times in your diary, in which you can devote yourself entirely to the expression of your creativity. Be courageous and try out new possibilities of artistic design and expression!
Binaural Beats
Have you ever heard of Binaural Beats? Binaural betas are pieces of music with frequencies tuned to our brain waves. The brain waves that have been scientifically researched so far are the following:
- Delta waves with 1-3 Hz: These brain waves occur in deep sleep and in trance.
- Theta waves with 4-7 Hz: These brain waves arise during sleep and occur during deep meditative states.
- Alpha waves with 8-12 Hz: These brain waves occur in a relaxed state.
- Beta waves with 13- over 100 Hz: These brain waves indicate the awake state. Frequencies above 30Hz are associated with a wakeful state characterized by stress (positive and negative stress).
You can now imagine what kind of binaural beats are particularly helpful for relaxation: Binaural beats with alpha waves and 8-12 Hz. These tracks can be heard for free on YouTube, for example. While listening to these tracks, your brain is adjusted to the frequency of the track, making it easier for you to relax. So your brain starts to produce the same frequencies, which puts you in a relaxed state.
The Binaural Betas can be used at any time: Whether on the train, in a hot bath or meditating.
Mindfulness Meditation
Emotional outbursts occur in the brain region called the amygdala. Through increased attentiveness, we are able to strengthen another region of the brain, the prefrontal cortex. So we are moving away from a direct over-excited outburst of emotion towards a more attentive handling of our emotions. This does not mean that we suppress our emotions at this moment, but that we learn to deal with them differently. The prefrontal cortex is shut down by long-term stress because the prefrontal cortex is a fairly new brain area and in emergency situations the body reverts to the oldest brain areas. By strengthening the prefrontal cortex, you make it possible to perceive yourself more consciously and attentively.
Practice mindfulness meditation daily for at least 10 minutes and increase this time - some people meditate for two hours a day and you will soon understand why. Choose a quiet and undisturbed place for your meditation, wear comfortable clothes, sit cross-legged on the floor, put your hands loosely on your knees, close your eyes, and then begin the following meditation:
- The next time you exhale, gradually relax your body: head, face, jaw, shoulders, trunk, arms, hands, legs and feet.
- Then concentrate on your breathing for ten minutes without affecting it.
- Pay attention to the changes that occur in your body when you breathe: The chest, for example, lifts and lowers.
- Feel how each breath provides you with energy.
- Surely one or two thoughts will flow through your head. If you perceive them, do not evaluate them and always return to your breathing.
- At the end of this meditation