Every day our shoulders are burdened with all kinds of tasks, problems, a huge number of cases and concerns – which often leads to mental overload and subsequent stress. Especially if it’s difficult to find time for proper rest: when you manage to get to bed past midnight and get up at dawn. Daytime sleep or playing at playamo.app even for 20 minutes is a luxury for many people.
In the whirlwind of the day, we somehow forget that it’s possible to have a good rest for literally 10-15 minutes, and simple relaxation techniques are to help us. Breathing techniques and calming visualizations are the simplest, most effective and, most importantly, accessible to everyone under any conditions.
Relaxation for 10-15 minutes is a reboot of the biological system and consciousness: an opportunity to relieve psychomental and physical tension, as well as to harmonize unstable manifestations of the psyche.
Visualization Techniques
For visualization, choose calming images – pleasant and peaceful pictures. Universal are considered images: the sea with light waves and warm sunshine, the sky with slowly floating clouds and hovering birds, a flower meadow filled with relaxing aromas of flowers. You can imagine yourself relaxing in a boat on a quiet lake or meditating on a mountain top far away from noisy cities.
It’s believed that the brain doesn’t distinguish between real events and imaginary ones. You don’t have to grieve because you didn’t get to bask in the sand by the black sea or fly to an island paradise this year… You can get the right dose of dopamine just by imagining that your dreams have come true.
The images listed above may not work for everyone, as different people have different associative images of the place where they feel peace. And often they can be associated with experiencing special positive feelings associated with specific events, for example: a summer vacation as a child, or a wedding trip – there are many options.
So you can determine what works for you by asking leading questions:
- In what place was I happy?
- What surrounds me in that place?
- What is the weather like in the place you imagined?
- What pleasant sounds are heard?
- What are the predominant colors?
As a result, you will compose an image that is perfect for you, and in imagining it, you will feel a deep relaxation, lightness, and a sense of tenderness.
You can visualize on your own or with an audio meditation accompanied by a facilitator. In both cases, you need to find a quiet corner for the duration of the meditation, turn off the phone and find a place where you can comfortably sit or lie down. Under recording with a facilitator, visualizing may be easier because you will be fully guided. On the other hand, individually, you will choose an image that harmonizes your consciousness more accurately.
It’s important during visualization to detail the image and dive deeper into it, concentrate on pleasant sensations, so that you manage to detach yourself from worries and thoughts that can easily divert your attention to yourself and prevent you from relaxing.
Breathing Technique
A simple technique that involves simply observing your slow breathing. When a person consciously controls the breath or concerted attention to it, they are distracted from the thoughts and emotions that are stressing them out in their state of inclusion in the rhythm of life.
If you need to calm down quickly in a stressful situation to pull yourself together, just close your eyes for literally two minutes, start breathing deeply and slowly, and concentrate your attention on your breathing. If your attention is distracted, gently bring it back to the point of observing the inhalation and exhalation.
Once you return, your emotional background will be more balanced, and from that state, decisions come more intelligently. Of course, if, while breathing, you continue to unwind the provoking negative situation, you will simply explode emotionally when you open your eyes.