Calm your stress with this quick exercise
😌 Today’s tip: Muscle-relaxing exercises can relax your mind, too.
There’s, uh, not exactly a shortage of things to stress about right now. If the usual calming activities — a walk, a bath, an after-work drink — aren’t cutting it, you might want to try a research-backed technique called progressive muscle relaxation. In Elemental, the writer Markham Heid explains how to do it:
Step 1: Take slow, calm breaths.
Step 2: Tense one part of your body, like your lower legs or your jaw, for several seconds.
Step 3: Now release those muscles, and focus on how they feel when they’re relaxed versus engaged.
Step 4: Repeat, working your way around your body.
That’s it. “The relationship between physical and mental states tends to run in both directions,” Heid writes. Where your muscles go, your mind will follow.
📚 More from Forge on staying calm:
For Anxiety Relief, Try a 5-Minute Scream Every Morning
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Why Trying to Relax Is So Damn Stressful
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3 Ways Philosophy Can Ease Your Feelings of Anxiety
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