Summary: Your current lifestyle may not be beneficial in maintaining your emotional and mental health. Our society is overworked, overstressed, and too focused on things that don’t support good psychological well-being. Instead find something to do that gets you out the house and around people.
How much do we know about relaxation techniques?
A substantial amount of research has been done on relaxation techniques. However, for many health conditions, the number or size of the studies has been small, and some studies have been of poor quality.
What do we know about their effectiveness?
Family counseling Fairfax techniques may be helpful in managing a variety of health conditions, including anxiety associated with illnesses or medical procedures, insomnia, labor pain, chemotherapy-induced nausea, and temporomandibular joint dysfunction. Psychological therapies, which may include relaxation techniques, can help manage chronic headaches and other types of chronic pain in children and adolescents. These techniques have also been studied for other conditions, but either they haven’t been shown to be useful, research results have been inconsistent, or the evidence is limited.
What do we know about their safety?
These techniques are generally considered safe for healthy people, although there have been a few reports of negative experiences such as increased anxiety. People with serious physical or mental health problems should discuss these techniques with their health care providers.
What Are Relaxation Techniques?
Mental health counselor Fairfax County techniques include a number of practices such as progressive relaxation, guided imagery, biofeedback, self-hypnosis, and deep breathing exercises. The goal is similar in all: to produce the body’s natural relaxation response, characterized by slower breathing, lower blood pressure, and a feeling of increased well-being.
Meditation and practices that include meditation with movement, such as yoga and tai chi, can also promote relaxation. You can find information about these practices elsewhere on the NCCIH Web site.
Stress management programs commonly include relaxation techniques. Relaxation techniques have also been studied to see whether they might be of value in managing various health problems.
The Importance of Practice
These techniques include the following:
- Autogenic Training
- Biofeedback-Assisted Relaxation
- Deep Breathing or Breathing Exercises
- Guided Imagery
- Progressive Relaxation
- Self-Hypnosis
What the Science Says About the Effectiveness of Relaxation Methods?
Researchers have evaluated these techniques to see whether they could play a role in managing a variety of health conditions, including the following:
- Anxiety
- Asthma
- Depression
- Epilepsy
- Fibromyalgia
- Headache
- Heart Disease
- High Blood Pressure
- Insomnia
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome
- Menopause Symptoms
- Menstrual Cramps
- Nausea
- Nightmares
- Pain
- Pain in Children and Adolescents
- Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Ringing in the Ears (Tinnitus)
- Smoking Cessation
- Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction
What the Science Says About the Safety and Side Effects of Relaxation Techniques?
These techniques are generally considered safe for healthy people. However, occasionally, people report negative experiences such as increased anxiety, intrusive thoughts, or fear of losing control.
There have been rare reports that certain relaxation techniques might cause or worsen symptoms in people with epilepsy or certain psychiatric conditions, or with a history of abuse or trauma. People with heart disease should talk to their health care provider before doing progressive muscle relaxation.
Keep your body healthy
Poor physical health can result in difficulties with mental health. The better you feel physically, the better you’ll feel psychologically, too. Make it a habit of regularly exercising and it does not necessarily have to be in a gym, you can go for a run or walk your dog. Swimming is also a good exercise method. Whatever it is that gets your body moving and gets your heart rate up. Exercising releases endorphins and endorphins make you feel great, relaxed and at ease.
Regularly challenge yourself
While having too much stress in your life is negative, having too little can be just as bad. We all need a certain amount of challenges, which is a healthy type of stress, to thrive and stay sharp. If your life lacks any challenge, create some. Once you have overcome certain challenges or you have reached a goal, it will give you that rush of excitement and a feel of accomplishment.
Develop a goal and strive to meet it. There will most definitely be some stress and challenges along the way but it will be well worth it once you accomplished those.
Learn how to deal with stress effectively
Most of us have self-soothing habits that might seem effective but in reality fail to address the cause of stress. Some of us deal with stress in ways that make the situation worse. If you’re financially stressed, eating a tub of ice cream will still leave you broke, but you’ll also end up gaining weight. Seek positive solutions instead. Activities such as exercising, spending time with a friend, or reading a book can be healthy options for lowering your stress.
Practice the art of forgiveness
Anger and grudges accomplish little. They put you in a vicious mental cycle that degrades your sense of well-being. Every second you’re angry or up-set is a second you’re unhappy. Take things as lesson learned and move on instead of dwelling on the things that happened in the past.
Learn how to quiet your mind
You mind rarely gets a rest, not even while you’re sleeping. All night long you’re likely tossing, turning, and dreaming. There are many ways to rest your mind: praying, meditating, and practicing mindfulness are just a few.
Our brains are restless. They’re constantly thinking, predicting, and remembering. Even if you don’t notice that you are thinking about something, your subconscious mind never stops thinking. Learn how to control yours. Meditation can help you learn how to quiet down your mind. It may take a few tries because our minds keep wandering off and don’t want to be quiet but with practice you’ll get there.
Choose the Facility with a Holistic Approach
Mental health problems come disguised in many different size, shapes and colors. People normally suffer from unhealthy mental conditions because of a combination of many diverse reasons. From chemical brain imbalances, to depression, to lack of family support, loss of job, or recent loss of a loved one; all of the noted reasons are potential contributing factors that can take a healthy mental image and turn it into a mental imbalance or mental problem. The best treatment facility must address the condition in a holistic manner. What some trained mental professionals try is to determine the triggering factors that led to the illness and find ways on how to use other aspects of life to avoid further occurrences.
Competency of the Staff
The staff of the mental health facility should have the right qualifications for the job. Because the patients will be spending most of their time with them, it is important that the staff is understanding, compassionate and have proper training in dealing with the individual cases of the patient. The best case scenario is that your counsellor has had first-hand experience; he/she have been there… done that! They will definitively know what you are feeling, why and how they can better serve you.
Overall Appearance of the Facility
In the worth case scenario is that your friend or family member will need inpatient care, there are a few areas of interest you will want to consider. Saying good bye is hard enough, topped that with what could be a horrible experience and that just make matters worse. To ensure a pleasant stay, be sure that the mental health center has a like home feel. The facility should be clean with recreational activities and plenty of group sessions. Each mental health treatment facility is different; find one that best suit your needs.