Stress is a major concern in our world, and it is becoming more so nearly every day. Stress not only affects your overall mood, but it can reduce energy levels; cause a reduced ability to focus; cause shallow breathing; increase the hear rate; and overall ware the body down. Even if your not into serious, daily exercise like aerobics or body building, you can benefit greatly with these simple exercises to reduce stress.

Keep in mind that there’s no one-size-fits-all technique for everyone. You’ll need to try different exercises and techniques to find one, or a combination, that suits you best. You should also set aside a specific time of day for this, preferably first thing in the morning, and when you can be free from any distractions. Stress relief is not only physical, but it requires a proper mental state. These techniques are most effective at activating the relaxation response, which is quite literally the opposite of the stress response.

Warming up and cooling down.
Warming up and cooling down is not only necessary for any workout routine, but the techniques used are a great way to relieve stress even without the additional exercise that normally accompanies them. A good warm up should last anywhere from 15 minutes to 1 hour, depending on your stress levels. Again, you’ll have to experiment to know what it takes to make you feel more relaxed throughout the day.

Start your warm up with a light cardio exercise like a brisk run, some time on the tread-mill, or hit that stair climber that’s been sitting there collecting dust. Of course, you can always try some more serious workouts for busy people if you’re up for it. These types of exercises slow down the muscles and organs, reduce stress hormones, and increase blood flow to the brain. Which ever exercise you choose, be sure to start out slow. You should warm up with a light exercise like a walk around the block or even several trips around the living room. Follow the light warm up exercise with light stretching. It’s important to take the time and stretch all the muscles, not just the ones you’re going to use while exercising.

Once you have stretched the muscles and your body is warm you should notice light persperation. You are now ready for a bit more strenuous exercise like one of the above. Be sure to cool down the same way you started up. Do not end any strenuous activity abruptly. You should gradually bring your body into a relaxed state. Warm up gradually and cool down gradually. Follow up theses exercises with another round of stretching as outlined above. You have now completed possibly one of the most effective methods for reducing stress with, what you will find is, little time and effort. You should also find that the benefits far outweigh the effort.

Deep breathing to reduce stress.
Did you know most of us are guilty of shallow breathing which actually encourages stress? Most of us use our upper lungs to breath, which can make the difference of about a cup of oxygen per breath as opposed to a quart of oxygen when we breath correctly. This lack of oxygen makes us feel more stressed, short of breath, anxious, and can even increase the risk of a condition like Pluracy.

Breath from the abdomen to gain maximum oxygen saturation to the blood, muscles, and of course the brain. The way you breathe also affects the nervous system. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center performed a study on breathing and cited this about how breathing affects the nervous system:

How you breathe also affects your nervous system. Chest breathing makes your brain create shorter, more restless brain waves. Abdominal breathing makes your brain create longer, slower brain waves. These longer and slower brain waves are similar to the ones your brain makes when you are relaxed and calm. So, breathing from the abdomen helps you relax quickly.

These techniques and stress exercises may no seem too complicated or time consuming, and they are not. The main obsticle here is discipline. If you can muster the discipline to incorporate the exercises into a daily routinge, and concentrate on proper breating throughout the day, you should quickly notice a drastic reduction in stress levels, anger, and fatigue, not to mention and much better nights sleep.

I’ve included this 8 minute video on stress relief through meditaiton because it’s such a great complement to this article. Be sure to watch it.