How to release Stress from your body
Have you ever really thought about what stress is and how does it affect our system?
Although there are uncountable articles, videos and conversations about how harmful stress is - I have always sort of brushed that away with a casual “that’s not affecting me - I am strong enough to deal with the outside stressors”. Until I felt I wasn’t.
Maybe you can relate?
For years, maybe decades, everything is ok - not fine, yes, much work, not enough time to relax or really come to stillness, but nothing that is causing a level of frustration or enough discomfort to act on. All fine, basically - if someone is asking…
But at one point, sooner or later in our journey, there comes a moment where we are realizing: it is NOT fine anymore.
This can be anxiety coming up, a general feeling of vulnerability, mood swings, poor sleep, physical pain, a monkey’s mind, and so on. Most likely, it is unnoticeable at first, just one thing that is out of alignment more than before, but looking back a few months later, we might notice some of these symptoms have added up to an amount of discomfort that is harder and harder to handle.
Stress very often starts in the mind ( I am referring to stress due to work overload or emotional stress, not so much physical stress like an accident ) but is manifesting into our physical body if not dealt with.
Our body is reacting in fight/flight/freeze mode, releasing adrenaline in our system to stay alert, as it is under the impression of a threat, a life-and-death situation if you will.
Generally, this is a wonderful thing our bodies can do - they protect us by reorganising how energy is distributed and used to ensure our safety as best as possible. Unfortunately, the constant stress we are living in is not the kind of stress our body is acting out on…in ancient times, there would have been a short period of stress ( being chased by a predator, a fire, a fight ) but afterwards, we have had the time to relax, come back into rest-and-digest-mode and calm our system.
Nowadays, for our bodies it feels like we are on a marathon, being in life-threatening situations all the time, whiteout or with hardly any time to rest and relax. This imbalance is not a short-term condition, but, as mentioned, potentially going on for many years.
So if we are late for a meeting, if we are waiting in line although the should have already been on our way to the next client or if our phone is running low on battery - from the perspective of our bodies it’s all the same - it is stress.
And this stress, if not released, needs to go somewhere and therefore, most times gets stored in our energetic field, our bodies.
From tight hips to headaches, digestive problems to pain in the shoulder area - most of our common health issues can be related back to constant stress in our lives.
So, how to deal with all these side effects of our fast and demanding lifestyle? How to let go of emotional outbursts, overwork, panic attacks, depression, disease, illness?
Below, I share 5 of my most favourite exercises to release stress from our system.
This will not only make you feel lighter and happier, but also can help you heal your physical pains.
5 Methods to de-stress:
Energy medicine: Calming triple warmer meridian ( which is governing the fight/flight/freeze response ) is like telling your body in a language that it can understand easily: “I am safe. Everything is going to be fine soon.”
Breathwork: Simple methods like box breathing are working wonders. Basically, you are
inhaling deeply and counting to 4
then holding your breath at the top counting to 4
exhaling for the count of 4 and again
holding your breath at the bottom for 4.
Repeat 5 times.
With this, you are breathing deeply, therefore getting more oxygen into your system, at the same time you are focused on counting your breath which makes it impossible to think of something else ( so, no worrying is possible at the same time ). Also, breathing deeply is activation our third chakra, the solar plexus, which is helping us to get more confident, more in our own frames and self-actualized.
Movement of any kind: yoga, running, dancing…whatever impulse you feel, whatever feels best for you. Set the intention to release stress, pain and discomfort from your body during movement-this can help you to stay present and use this session for what it is: a release, not a workout to tone your body, You are in the process of taking care of yourself, listening to your own needs.
TRE / Trauma Release exercises. This is a potent form of letting go of traumatic stress from your body by shaking. Learn more here
Journaling: first it is very cleansing to just write out everything that is on your mind, without judgement or the intention of creating a to-do list from it. The only important thing is to get it out. In the next step, you can journal about your stress, picking a situation that is coming to mind and asking yourself these powerful questions:
what can I learn from it? What does the universe want to tell me?
How can I avoid it next time? What can I change?
