Regardless of where or what you work, if you want to calm your mind you must stop doing what you do for a second and invest the time in learning these relaxation techniques.
The mind’s sole purpose is to be busy and effective – thinking efficiently, but mostly the busy mind leads to exhaustion and fatigue and not to efficiency and stamina.
Efficient thinking is to be considered as fundamental for leading a quality life. Since the busy mind is a never-ending rattling machine for producing thoughts of literally any kind, we want to know how to calm that mind to think efficiently and not just think randomly.
The essential thing for that is the proper application of a relaxation technique – the right natural medicine that’ll calm down the rattling mind and give it space for clarity. Without clarity the mind cannot be efficient, it stays uncoordinated, frustrated and powerless.
From Busy to Efficient Mind Through Different Relaxation Techniques
The goal and objective of this project is to deliver a value through series of relaxation techniques that can be implemented right at the spot and provide an immediate effect on the user to relax mentally as well as physically. As a result of that relaxation, the mental efficiency increases.
The idea of this project apart of gaining productivity is gaining the ability to balance emotions and increase self-esteem/self-worth.
If you wonder why you’re missing strength, endurance and why you cannot relax and feel joy in your busy daily life, is because you haven’ t given your mind the possibility to calm, gain clarity and preserve all the qualities that you already possess or try to create.
Here we go with the very simple, very natural and highly effective relaxation techniques to calm your mind. Calming the mind is nothing easy to do, as the mind is constantly busy with thinking, even during the phase of sleeping. The techniques below are of meditative nature and aren’t any less serious than a technique for efficient thinking.[1]
1. Closed Eyes and Exhalation Relaxation Technique
Your time is valuable and so is mine, therefore I’ll try to be as concise as possible in describing these techniques. There can’t be any easier, simpler relaxation technique with an instant effect than the one where you:
- Take a gentle, slow, deep breath;
- Close your eyes and exhale;
- Open your eyes and inhale;
- Close your eyes and exhale.
Practice this for ten breaths, check the calming effect and carry on with the exercise accordingly.
Simple and easy to perform, these relaxation techniques are the fastest way to calm your busy, rattling mind. Follow your inhalation with open eyes symbolizes facing the reality you’re in, whereas closing your eyes and exhaling, you enter within your own world in which no one else can disturb your peace and calmness. Here are some tips on how to make your mind calm: 11 Ways to Make Your Mind Calm and Peaceful.
For the advanced who is familiar with breath work and mediation, this relaxation technique has an immediate effect and is highly efficient. If you say that this relaxation technique doesn’t work for you that means that your busy mind is just too busy and not that easy to be calmed. Hence, the calming would require going a step further into a deeper relaxation technique.
2. Closed Eyes, Covered Ears with Breathing Relaxation Technique
This relaxation techniques requires more involvement than the first one. You use you’re palms to cover your ears, preventing the disturbance of external sounds. So, regardless of wherever you are and how busy your mind is, just stop doing anything, sit if possible and:
- Take a gentle, slow, deep breath;
- Close your eyes and cover your ears with your palms;
- Listen to the sound within your head when your ears are covered;
- Focus on gentle, slow and deep breathing.
Practice this for ten breaths, check the calming effect and carry on with the exercise accordingly.
Having your ears covered, this relaxation technique takes you to your own inner world where no outside sounds or images can disturb you. Its Immediate isolation from the outside world has instant effect of silence, calmness and relaxation.[2]
If you think that this exercise still cannot calm your busy mind, then, once again you go a step deeper, adding a new element in the next relaxation techniques.
3. Closed Eyes and Ears with Breathing and Humming (Exhalation) Relaxation Technique
In this relaxation techniques you now use your own voice and eliminate any external sound that might disturb you – creating your own inner sound, an inner vibration which adds to your calmness and inner harmony:
- Take a gentle, slow, deep breath;
- Close your eyes and cover your ears with your palms;
- On exhalation, start humming in a way that the sound comes from beneath your throat;
- Focus on loving, slow and deep exhalation;
- Inhale in your own way that makes you comfortable;
- Exhale, humming with an intensity that makes you feel calm and relaxed.
Practice this for ten breaths, check the calming effect and carry on with the exercise accordingly.
These relaxation techniques has not only a calming effect on the brain, but also sends vibrations that sooth your whole body, reaching the deep tissue and the cells. It has a healing effect on all bodily systems (especially the nervous system) when done continuously and permanently.
4. Closed Eyes and Ears, Breathing and Humming (Exhalation) & Deep Inhalation Relaxation Technique
With these relaxation techniques, you can not only relax and calm your busy brain but also start recover your wasted energy. It is also an energy booster technique at the same time. After calming yourself through the humming of exhalation, you now gather new energy through a deep inhalation.
- Take a gentle, slow, deep breath;
- Close your eyes and cover your ears with your palms;
- On exhalation, start humming in a way that the sound comes from beneath your throat;
- Focus on loving, slow and deep exhalation
- Inhale sharply so the air streams through your teeth (this creates a cooling effect);
- Exhale, humming with an intensity that makes you feel calm and comfortable.
Practice this for ten breaths, check the calming effect and carry on with the exercise accordingly.
You can use the value of these relaxation techniques to soothe, vitalize and stimulate your nervous system. The exhalation with the humming will calm your busy mind and relax your body, whereas the sharp, deep inhalation will vitalize your brain and add an extra portion of oxygen that will elevate you. This way you can stimulate your mood and your emotions. Find more ways on how to boost your mental energy levels in this article: 15 Ways to Boost Mental Energy Levels.
5. Calm Mind and Calm Body Relaxation Technique
Consequently, in this relaxation technique you apply physical movement and make the exercise more effective. Apply the breathing rhythm you’ve already adopted from the above techniques and:
- Sit or stand with your spine upright;
- Close your eyes and put your fists on the back of your pelvis (like pushing your pelvis forward);
- Gently and lovingly, inhale deeply (put a smile on your face – this action should make fun), open your chest as much as you can;
- While you exhale, keep pressing your fists against your back as it fits you, feeling a light muscle contraction;
- Inhale sharply, so the air streams through your teeth (this creates a refreshing and reviving effect);
- Exhale, through your mouth or nose – whichever way you feel more comfortable, feeling the relief and the relaxation throughout your whole body. Realize the calmness within you.
Practice this for ten breaths, check the calming effect and carry on with the exercise accordingly.
Applying physical energy in this relaxation techniques, you’ll not only calm your mind but also work on your body’s physiology, creating physical fitness. This technique is very effective as it engages both, your mind and your body to focus on mental and physical activity. You can combine this technique with any other body movement that fits your body anatomy the best.
The most important thing is creating a rhythm between breath and body movement, mentioned in one of my previous posts about yoga postures.[3]
If all the above techniques still cannot calm your mind, there is another great relaxation technique that involves active physical movement and has a great value to mental and physical health.
6. Walk, Talk and Breathing Relaxation Technique
In the case where your mind is super busy and heated up, you do the following sequence of mental and physical movements that’ll cool you down and calm your mind:
- Stop any disturbing and unfavorable activity that brought you to this point;
- Start walking and concentrate on walking only, focusing on each of your step;
- Balance your walking rhythm with you breathing – this will initiate the calming process and give you the time and space for a constructive thinking;
- As you walk and breathe, start to delegate your mind with thoughts that’ll empower you;
- Inhale deeply by saying these three short statements “I can do this, I can face this challenge, I can deal with this situation”;
- Exhale extensively and feel the calming effect of your walking activity. Feel the fine energy of calmness beginning to arise after a short distance of walking.
Practice this for at least 5-10 minutes. Just walk and don’t stop. Even if its in a room, open a window to get a fresh air and just walk around the room. Perform these six steps continuously and you will get the effect of relaxation and calmness within yourself. Your eagerness in doing this seriously, will calm your mind and give you the capacity to start anew, improve your stamina, peacefulness and relaxation.
Be perceptive of how quickly these relaxation techniques calms your mind. During this short period of time you can re-structure your mindset and improve your behavior and the approach to all your future challenges and conflicts.
The Approach to Relaxation Techniques
Regardless of our mental content, we all need the knowledge to manage our emotions, feelings and thoughts efficiently, especially in a professional environment where emotional labor is required.[4] We want to be creative, productive and successful. Our mind’s purpose is to be efficient and able to find a solution for any kind of problem.
Yet there is this one thing that makes the calming of our minds to be a problem:
Processing dynamic flow of superficial (unessential) information.
This mental process creates useless feelings and emotional dissonance, like the information circulating on social media, countless emails of subjective content, etc.
Processing large amount of information in a very short time span, we cannot identify what feelings and emotions arise as a result, not mentioning working with those in order to feel the message sent to reach our hearts. Hence, we ignore the vital signs that our body is communicating and fail to recognize the need for relaxation techniques.
Read this article about 25 Signs You are Already Successful and You’re Simply Unaware to learn more about whether or not you need to do more of these relaxation techniques.
Final Thoughts
Begin to apply these relaxation techniques in any situation in your daily life. You breathe, talk and walk during your waking state anyway, so approach these techniques in a subtle and organic way and embrace them not like something new to you, but as something that is a intrinsic part of yourself, only you have forgotten about it.
Integrate them to your lifestyle, make them your routine, your habit. The components of these relaxation techniques are the fundamentals of life, use their value and enjoy their benefits constantly. Then your mind will be busy in a creative and constructive way, producing freshness and efficiency. I salute the spirit in you!
Reference
[1] | ^ | Science Direct: The Psychology of Efficient Thinking |
[2] | ^ | Lifehack: How to Calm Down When You’re Stressed and Anxious. |
[3] | ^ | Lifehack: 7 Beginner Yoga Exercises for Men to Increase Mobility |
[4] | ^ | JSTOR: Managing Emotions in a Workplace |