Create a hormone that boosts happiness
Stress can have negative impact on our mood and may even cause insomnia and different painful conditions, yet doing a few simple exercises every day may be a solution. While stress may lead to tiredness, taking moderate amount of exercise helps us refresh both mentally and physically. By learning the exercises below, you can get relaxed from head to foot.
Simple exercises for stress relief:
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‘Body Scanning’
First, close your eyes and relax for 1-2 minutes. Pay attention to your breathing rhythm, slow down your breathing and start to breathe deeply. Be conscious of each of your body parts and try to relax. As you inhale, imagine the air entering your nostrils move to a certain part of your body. As you exhale, imagine the air takes away some of the stress from the body part. Repeat this breathing cycle 2-3 times. Order of priority: from top of the head to hands, from waist to toes. Continue until your whole body is relaxed. -
Relax your eyes
Close your eyes and move the eyeballs clockwise for 3 times. Change eyeball movement to anti-clockwise mode for another 3 times. Open your eyes and look into the distance for 1 minute to relax your eyes. -
Relax your hands
Place both hands on your thighs with palms facing up. Hold your fists tight for 5 seconds. Relax half of the tightness for another 5 seconds. Repeat this ten times. Feel the tension in the muscles. Note the difference between your feelings when you contract and relax the muscles.
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Relax your neck and shoulders
Sit on a chair with backrest. Slowly bulge your chest forward so that your shoulders stretch and expand backwards. Hold for 5 seconds. Return to your initial position and repeat the exercise 10 times. -
Relax your legs
Sit on a chair. Raise the tip of your toes while contracting the calf and thigh muscles with force. Raise your heels and carry out the same muscle contraction, also with force. Keep the posture for 10 seconds before relaxing your legs completely. -
Stretching
Stretching, often considered merely as a warm-up exercise, in fact helps to reduce injuries, strains and stress. Stretch your muscles until they are a bit tense (avoid springing back and forth) and keep the posture for 10-15 seconds before relaxing completely. Repeat 10 times. While doing stretching exercises, breathe normally and try your best to keep other parts of your body relaxed.
Meanwhile, taking aerobic exercises like swimming, brisk walking, jogging and cycling also help reduce tiredness, strengthen cardiopulmonary function and maintain physical and mental health. The mechanism is that the exercise stimulates the secretion of endorphin, a hormone that boosts happiness. That is why we feel pleasant rather than tired after then and consequently we are able to relieve stress.
Ng Man Tung, Registered Physiotherapist
(Mental Health Photographic Society)
Please note that all the information provided here is for reference only. You are advised to consult physicians or other professionals for advice before making any decision on the subject matters covered herein.