Thanks to everyone who participated in last month's challenge of learning more about our brains and anxiety. I learned so much and it brought me a sense of empowerment and understanding that is !
For this month's challenge, I want to focus on learning more about how to relax. While taking a hot bath or watching TV can be relaxing, in order to really have a noticeable effect on our anxiety we need a regular daily practice of some form of relaxation that will decrease all of the things that get raised when we are in the fight or flight mode (heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, muscle tension, etc.)
"If you have an especially stressful life, your sympathetic nervous system may always be poised to react to a crisis, putting you in a state of constant tension. In this mode, you tend to react to small stresses the same way you would react to real emergencies. The energy that accumulates in the body to meet this "emergency" must be discharged in order to bring your body back into balance. Repeated episodes of the fight or flight reaction deplete your energy reserves and, if they continue, cause a downward spiral that can lead to emotional burnout and eventually complete exhaustion." -www.healthy.net
This month I want to learn and share with you any relaxation techniques that help me with my anxiety. I'll be posting about things like abdominal breathing, visualization, calming music and sounds, etc. Anything that will help someone achieve deep relaxation. The challenge is for you to make the time to try them out and/or have your own journey to find relaxation techniques that work for you- and incorporate these techniques in some form or another into your daily life. Then post what you have learned on the discussion forum so we can all try it out!
"Regular practice of deep relaxation for 20 to 30 minutes on a daily basis can produce, over time, a generalization of relaxation to the rest of your life. That is, after several weeks of practicing deep relaxation once per day, you will tend to feel more relaxed all the time." -Edmund J. Bourne
Some other benefits of deep relaxation include:
- reduction of general anxiety
- preventing stress from accumulating
- increased energy level and productivity
- improved concentration and memory
- reduction of insomnia and fatigue
- increased self confidence
and more. So who is with me? Who is ready to take this on and make it a priority in your life? Couldn't we all use a little more down time?
2 comments:
Your blog is truly amazing how you have made it so professional. I was just wondering if you have managed to start earning an income from blogging somehow? I would love to research and blog about what I find in the future and of course everone needs an income so I was wondering if you have been able to achieve a goal that I would love to reach?
You can definately see your scrapbooking creativity blossoming through the pages of your blog, very nicely presented :o)
The idea of your monthly challenge is absolutely amazing and I am so excited to be able to read this page next. I really am so excitted to be getting so into your blog. I can see resemblenes in your work that I would also like to achieve with some projects that I have been thinking of, I would love to interview you one day and use you for a mentor if at all possible? I find it so difficult to accomplish goals as I find I get anxious not just with failure but also with achievement and sucess. I have had a habbit of ever since I can remember to set goals that seem so high up to achieve that I never get there and then am always left feeling like a failure. I don't know how to structure in the little steps in between. It's like my brain tries to jump from A to Z trying to miss all the other letters (as steps) in between. I am to affraid to start so small as to aim for B as it seems insignificance the achievement and I wouldn't now what to do once I start achieving things. I would feel I am climbing a tower that is high to fall if that makes any sense and so I go back down to the bottom where although I am miserable, I feel safe!
The quotes that you have added Aimee are so very powerful. You really have helped alot of people and done a really great thing. If you weren't to achieve anything else in your life be extremely proud of this contribution!
I haven't come across the discussion forum in your website yet but am really excited to do so.
I have found that calming background music just playing in the home helps to no end to calm me. Even when I am not conscious that it is playing it seems to really help.
At the moment I have moved home and have unorganised things absolutely everywhere, I can't imagine a cluttered unorganised environment filled with things you don't need or use but have an emotional connection not to throw away help at calming your anxieties.
A
Thank you Anonymous. If you want to make money from blogging, the only way to do so would be to have a blog that is famously big. Otherwise, I wouldn't count on anything but spare change here and there. Blogging is more for the passion than the money making.
I took the forum away because not enough people were using it and I had to pay for it. I am currently thinking about doing an online support group but working out the details.
The monthly challenges also got pushed on the backburner because life got too crazy with the addition of my little boy. I still love the idea and will hopefully have the time and energy to start that up again.
You can always email me by clicking on the contact button at the bottom of the page and I can answer more of your questions if you like.
Take Care,
Aimee
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