Relaxation Therapy: The Ultimate Relief for a Hectic Life

Relaxation therapy, which is the act of using relaxation therapeutically, will help you to relieve stress, control anxiety symptoms, improve sleep, and have a better quality of life in general.

Do you schedule down time for relaxation in your life? No? Then something seriously needs to change. If you view relaxation as a waste of productivity hours, you have no idea what you're missing.

Not only should relaxation be mandatory, but regularly scheduling breaks for yourself will only improve productivity over the long haul, as you are fully able to dedicate to your work when you resume.

Need to be sold to why you need relaxation in your life? Then let's check this out!

Relaxation Therapy:
Restores the Motivation Centers in the Brain

Do you ever notice how your motivation to work decreases significantly after doing it repetitively for a period of time? In fact, under the prolonged influence of stress, the motivation center of the brain becomes desensitized to dopamine, limiting your ability to feel motivated, or experience pleasure.

This also explains why you have no desire to eat, and may resign yourself to hopelessness. Luckily, a well-timed break for relaxation will recharge your batteries. Just keep in mind that there is just so much you can handle under pressure, everyone has a breaking point- don't wait to find out what yours is.

Relaxation Therapy:
Keeps Your Heart Healthy

People don't appreciate the danger that running a hectic life can pose to your heart, sadly until it is too late. Not taking time off to relax increases your risk of high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke to name a few. Plus, cortisol results in greater retention of sodium and water, putting the heart and blood vessels under stress to pump and move blood.

Relaxation is well established to reduce blood pressure, decrease your risk of stroke by promoting vasodilation, and decreasing inflammatory processes in blood vessels.

Relaxation Therapy:
Keeps You Young

Running a hectic life day after day is the surefire recipe to run your down fast. The greater the impact of the hormones cortisol and adrenalin, the harder and faster your body works to regenerate cells. This faster turnover of cells causing hastened aging, and cuts down your youth. This is why it is important to live while you're young- go on vacations, and throw your feet back and just relax. Work will still be there tomorrow waiting for you, so take your time.

Relaxation Therapy:
Improves Working Memory

The longer you work at a high intensity, the poorer your working memory becomes. You will find yourself making silly mistakes, or getting a little too forgetful for comfort. Even short periods of high stress affect the memory centers of the brain, which is noticeable how forgetful you become when under pressure.

Relaxation allows cortisol levels to return to baseline, as there are no pressing matters for you to deal with. Chronically high levels of stress that result in constant streams of cortisol coursing through the body may also contribute to the development of Alzheimer's disease over many years, as it is known to have a strong inflammatory component.

Relaxation Therapy:
Boosts Your Immune System

When you lead a busy life, chances are you don't take good care of your health. The result may end up being the exact opposite of what you wanted- sick days that leave you unable to do anything. Luckily, some regularly scheduled time for R&R can offset this. We all have hectic periods of our life, but the important thing is to deprogram.

Crazy hectic lives that cause sleep deprivation, and high stress is manageable up to 3 months, but after that things can go horribly bad. Take the weekends off, or if you can't sleep in at least one day per week. Your immune system will thank you.

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Relaxation Therapy:
Sample Stress Relief Script

Let’s take a few minutes to relax your body and mind.

We’ll begin with a few slow, deep breaths. Each time you breathe in; breathe all the way down into your stomach. Breathe in slowly through your nose, and feel your abdomen and lungs expand with air. After drawing in a long deep breath, allow your breath to flow back out through your mouth. Just let go of each breath, and with it, release any tension or stress you might have been holding on to. You might like to mentally repeat the word “relax” as you breathe out.

Try this now, slowly draw in a deep breath. Don’t rush to breath in. Just gradually fill your lungs and abdomen with air, and when they are full, release that breath completely. You are beginning to feel yourself relaxing. Your breath will dissolve tension just as easily as warm water melts ice.

Breathe in once again. Feel your body fill with air...and when you are ready, release the breath, let it flood out naturally. Breathe all the way out until your lungs are empty. Let’s draw in a third and final breath. Nice and deep. Feel yourself relaxing as you gradually release the breath.

Now let your breathing return to a normal rhythm as we begin to scan over your entire body, looking for areas of tension to release. As I mention each body part, I invite you to bring your awareness to it and relax it as deeply as you can. You don’t need to concentrate intensely on this task, just feel or imagine a sensation of relaxation and relief moving through each part of your body.

It’s quite common for people to store a lot of tension in their jaw muscles, so let’s begin there. Pay attention to your jaw for a moment. There are a number of very strong muscles in that area. Just mentally connect with this part of your body, and relax it. Allow your jaw muscles to loosen and let go.

Now let your attention wander to the muscles in your face. Allow your eye muscles to release, and let your cheeks and forehead relax. Let this peaceful feeling flow slowly down your neck. Feel it sooth your throat and dissolve any tension as it slowly glides down to your shoulders.

Let your shoulders go. Give them a moment of your attention, and just mentally repeat the word “relax” as you let them soften, let go, and release all tension.

Now bring your awareness to your arms. Feel and imagine them becoming loose and limp. They are relaxed and at peace, all the way from your shoulders, through your wrists, to the tips of your fingers.

Now focus on the muscles in your back...all those muscles surrounding your spine. Just let those muscles relax and let go.Now bring your awareness to your chest and all the muscles that surround your rib cage. As you breathe in and out, send a mental note to this area of your body...relax.

As you breathe in and out feel your stomach gently rise and fall. Let your stomach soften and relax with each breath. Feel it releasing tension as each moment passes. You can feel yourself slowly slipping into a state of deep relaxation.

Now bring your attention to your thighs. Imagine all those strong supporting muscles beginning to relax and unwind.

Your knees, your calves, your feet. Let them all relax.~parts adapted via The-Guided-Meditation-Site.com

Relaxation Therapy & More Feel-Good Stuff