Not getting enough sleep is not only annoying it can have a massive impact on your health, relationships and overall well-being. From mood swings to depression, making mistakes to loss of productivity, sleep deprivation is definitely not fun.   

9 Stress Relaxation Techniques to Enjoy a Good Nights Sleep!

1. Go to bed and get up at the same times each day.

If you find that your sleep patterns are not consistent, then set a time each day that you can consistently get into the habit of going to bed and getting up. Of course there will be times that you don’t stick to this pattern but make sure that you only break it for exceptions, rather than as a rule.
 

2. Avoid caffeine, nicotine, beer, wine and alcohol 4-6 hours before bedtime.

In fact, avoid any chemicals that may act as a stimulant a few hour prior to bedtime.

3. Don’t exercise within two hours of bedtime.

Unless of course you are doing some activity like yoga or tai-chi that is going to slow down your mind and body. Ideally exercise in the morning after awakening or in the evening after work.

4. Don’t eat large meals within two hours of bedtime.

It’s hard to fall asleep when your body feels bloated or uncomfortable from eating too much. Stick to light snacks before bed such as fruit or salad.

5. Don’t take a nap later than 3pm.

Taking an afternoon nap is okay as long as it’s only for about an hour and that you take it before 3pm. The later you nap, the harder it will be to go to sleep at night.

6. Sleep in a dark, quiet room that isn’t too hot or cold for you.

Unless you have issues with sleeping in the dark, make your room as dark and quiet as you can handle. The less light or sounds you have to distract you or annoy you, the easier it will be to fall asleep.

7. If you can’t fall asleep within 20 minutes, get up and do something quiet or read a dull book.

There’s nothing worse than laying in bed at night listen to the sound of your own thoughts rambling on or watching the same spot on the roof you’ve been looking at for what feel like forever. Instead, get up and do something boring or read a book that you’ve been putting off reading because it bores you. You’ll be surprised just how quick you get tired.

8. Enjoy a relaxing bath.

There’s nothing better than laying in a warm bath to slow down your mind and relax your body in preparation for sleep. Add in several drops of lavender oil and you’ll have the perfect recipe for a good nights sleep. The best time to do this is about 30 minutes before bedtime.

 9. Try a simple open eye meditation like gazing at a candle flame with your eyes open for a few minutes.

This is guaranteed to slow your mind down. Here’s something interesting I learnt in meditation – blinking means thinking. So the moment you stop blinking, you’re setting yourself up to turn off your thoughts so your mind and body can start to slow down and relax.  

Open eye meditations are a simple way to gaze at something for a few minutes before going to bed. This allows your brainwaves to start to slow down and send messages to your body to prepare for sleep. 

Natural Stress Relief Begins With You  To give yourself the best shot at changing your sleep patterns, start with a firm resolve to make it a priority. Your body wants to sleep, that’s what it’s designed to do. It’s not natural to stay awake longer than is required to perform your daily functions.  

Sleep will come when your body returns to its naturally balanced state. Find out what’s causing the disturbance and then do whatever it takes to change or remove it. Then sleep will descend upon you like leaves falling out of a tree in autumn. 

To your great life and health…

We all experience different types of stress everyday.  There’s stress from deadlines, conflicts, personal fears, misunderstandings, new tasks and public speaking just to name a few.  With all the different types of stress it’s understandable people need different stress management tips to cope.

But very few people consider what your body interprets as stress.  Consider for a moment the symptoms of stress and how similar they are to anxiety attack symptoms – sweaty palms, rapid breathing, butterflies, nervousness, muscle tension, loss of sleep, etc.  These symptoms can be experienced under negative stress, but can also be experienced during good times; For example when you meet someone you like, or when you’ve been given a promotion at work, if you’ve won a prize or you’re entering a competition.  The key here is not actually about the stress it’s how you handle it and release it.  It could be a good Stress Relief CD, some sort of sport, relaxing with friends, reading a book or even sleeping.  There are even really positive links between yoga and stress relief.  These are all very good and there are many other stress management tips available on the internet for stress relief if you look.  There are even some really good Relaxation Techniques for Kids which are very important especially when kids are going through that age of development.

The key here (as I mentioned earlier) is how you handle it and release it.  Good stress and bad stress needs to be released eventually.  Better to release it before it impacts on your body.

The weekend is a time of recovery and relaxation. It is the time where you should rebuild your energy in waiting for what the next week will bring.  With that in mind here are 7 quick Stress Relief techniques to ensure you have a great weekend.  All of these techniques are forms of natural stress relief and can be used and time and any where.  So here they are:

1.      Use breathing exercises – When you’re feeling stressed it’s important to stop for a minute and take a breath.  Effective Relaxation Breathing Techniques have proven to promote relaxation and stress relief.

2.                  Physical Exercise – What better way to release built up tension than to sweat it out.  This Natural Stress Relief technique is a great way to use physical activity to express any frustration you may have experienced during the week. 

3.                  Yoga – A controlled meditative method, Yoga and Stress Relief have always been closely linked.  Yoga is also a really good way of improving your general health with other valuable benefits.

4.                  Stress Management Articles – You can always learn new valuable information from articles, e-zines and magazines specifically related to stress relief.  Always keep an open mind and understand you only need to learn one new tip for the whole article to be beneficial.

5.                  Socialize with Friends – It is very important to have friends and people you can relax with and just talk.  There is no better way to relief stress than to sit and chat about your week and listen to your friends talk about their week.

6.                  Learn new Relaxation Techniques – New stress relaxation techniques are an excellent way to discover new methods to experience Stress Relief.  There are always new methods bought to light and the discovery of old proven methods.  Always keep an eye out for a new technique that could make the world of difference.

7.                  Stress Relief CD / Relaxation CD – Experiencing a guided relaxation can help to release built up tension and repair any previous damage done by stressful situations in the past.

Whatever relaxation technique you use make sure you invest the time to relax over your weekend.  If you haven’t taken a break in a while, then do it this weekend.  I have always found I am more focussed after I take a break.

Always Happy and Jovial clowns must sometimes be doing it tough. Look at them, when do they get to release the pressure that builds up inside. Let’s face it, we all have crap moments that can sometimes affect our entire day. Of course some of us have more crap days than others. So what Stress Relief Techniques can a clown use to Relieve Stress? There’s the good ole boot a kid at a kiddy party. Sure that’s a form of Natural Stress Relief, but that would be plain wrong! Clowns just, like you and me, need some sort of Stress Relief Exercise that doesn’t do harm to themselves or those around them. I mean you don’t want them building some sort of Stress Relief Complex would you? All good clowns should choose some sort of Stress Relief CD to listen to. If a Clown can find something with Deep Breathing Exercises Stress Relief will follow. As a bonus if the clown would like to experience Stress Relief and put on a show at the same time, he could do a bit Yoga and Stress Relief. I’m sure you’d pay money to see that, I know I would.

Today, if you’re out in the world and you see a stressed clown, give them a hug, give encouragement and offer support. After all, clowns are people too you know!

Every different type of Stress Relief Technique is really important to have a happy, healthy body. I’ve always found a good Stress Relief Cd has a massive impact on my mind space. One of the main reasons I like Stress Relief Cds is that fact that they are a type of Natural Stress Relief. I’ve never really been a big one for taking drugs to give me any type of relief. I look at drugs like the final line of defence after every other option is exhausted.

I’ve also found a really good Stress Relief Exercise is to stretch your body. When you do this you increase the flow of blood through your body, and it’s not too strenuous to make you loose your breath. This is one of the reasons Yoga and Stress Relief have been so closely linked together, as yoga is a very slow and focus and at the same time is excellent for your flexibility. Understand, with any series of deep breathing exercises stress relief is almost a given. With so many different techniques out there always focus on the goal, which is of course, Stress Relief.