The holistic approach to managing stress
6 unusual stress relieving practices that you probably have not tried…
You’ve been told that to reduce stress you need to cut toxic people from your life, change your environment and take deep breaths. While these methods do relieve stress, sometimes we need more to keep us calm and stress-free.
To treat something holistically is to look at everything as linked, from our diet to our thoughts, treating the mind, body and spirit as one. Holistic healing is so powerful, but often misunderstood or labelled as “wacky”. For instance, you might think that saying “thank you”, to your food is futile, but it’s a way to heal your bad eating habits, it’s a holistic approach to fix the relationship between the mind and food and not just the food itself.
If you are a chronic stresser and want to find more ways to keep you in your zen state - then here are 6 not so common remedies you can try!
1) EFT Tapping
Emotional Freedom Technique Tapping combines cognitive therapy and acupressure to create a stress-relieving effect. It involves tapping on the meridian points of the body, (places like the temples, between the eyebrows, the collarbones - similar to acupressure points), while focusing on the stress you feel in your body. You identify the problem, rate the intensity of that feeling, and find a statement that changes that . Example: “Even though I am anxious, I go through life trusting the universe will protect me”. When you come up with the statement, you start tapping and continue to focus on it. By the end, if you were to rate the intensity of your negative emotion, it should have gone down.
2) Somatic movement
Sometimes you just have to move through an emotion to release it, and that’s exactly what somatic movement is. When you move your body not for how it looks - but how it makes you FEEL. Somatic movement takes on many forms: dancing, jumping, yoga, stretching. Any movement where you can focus on the inner experience rather than how it might look on the outer. It is a great way to let go of stress as it connects your mind, body and spirit and allows you to regulate your nervous system.
3) Laughter yoga
There’s nothing a good laugh cant fix right? Although maybe it feels silly, laughter yoga is a great way to lower your cortisol and boost those happy endorphins. It’s all about playfulness, connection and breath work. Laughter releases physical tension and boosts oxygen flow. Whether you attend a class or practice in the comfort of your own home - do not dismiss this practice!
4) Cold water therapy
You might think that exposing the body to cold temperatures would do the opposite, but it can greatly reduce stress levels in the body. The cold water exposure triggers the flight or fight mentality, so when the therapy is done the body naturally goes into the relaxed state. It improves heart rate, blood flow and reduces inflammation, (the physical body’s way of showing stress). Although this practice seems daunting, the benefits massively outweigh the cold temperatures!
5) Sensory deprivation tanks
Also known as float or isolation tanks, this is when you intentionally remove stimuli from the senses. Often, you are floating in the dark in silence. Although it might sound creepy, this practice activates your rest and digest state of mind, lets go of muscle tension and balances your brainwaves by allowing your senses to detox from overstimulation. The most powerful part of this practice is that it encourages you to really sit with your thoughts, the absence of distractions allows you to truly understand and process your feelings.
6) Forest Bathing
This Japanese practice involves spending time in nature with no distractions, reconnecting with the environment around you. This does not involve hiking or exercising but rather slowing down to observe. Connecting with the elements is a great way to reduce stress as it grounds the body, reduces inflammation, enhances mindfulness, and it activates the parasympathetic nervous system. So next time you feel stressed - go hug that tree!
Give some of these holistic practices a try and feel the stress-relieving effects for yourself! Hope this helps 💖
