Relaxation techniques

One technique that I've found really helpful for me is, it's going to sound cliche, but it's breathing. But there's a certain type of breathing, it's called belly breathing. So apparently, most adults, or children even, don't breathe correctly. They kind of breathe up here in their chest. But you want to kind of breathe from your rib cage down and expand that part. And go as deep as you can. That's really helpful for me. And then I also just try and like draw conscious attention to my muscles. And because I'm a really tense person, like my chiropractor can't even pop me sometimes. And I just have to like, address that this part of me is stiff, this part of me is stiff, like it's tense, I just need to relax my muscles. And that helps a lot.

Video 2 Transcript

Some of the relaxation technique that really helped me was just breathing, like just like focus on breathing, just deep, take a deep breath and like just like let it out slowly, taking everything slow, like just like breathing slowly. And I think like what really helped me for like relaxing when I was dealing with anxieties, like just go for a walk outside, like just get a breath of cold air, like just going out for running where I could focus on just like one thing, like exercise.

Video 3 Transcript

So this relaxation tip that I was taught, I was probably like 15 when I learned this. So basically what you do is you start from the bottom of your body like at your feet and you flex your feet and your toes and you like curl your toes for like 10 seconds and then you release it and then you go up to your legs and you flex every muscle in your legs for 10 seconds and you release it and you just go all the way up your body until your head and your neck and then it's supposed to make you just feel super super relaxed and that's what helps me when I can't sleep or when I'm super super anxious it kind of keeps me grounded. It just helps me my all my muscles to just relax.

Video 4 Transcript

First, breathe air. Second, stretch. Third, get down, drop it down and get 20 push-ups quickly. Next, squats. Next, wash your face. Stop thinking about it.

Video 5 Transcript

I think the most consistent thing that helps me like to relax is just when I'm experiencing it just like breathe slow down how you breathe how you know the speed and if you can do that hopefully that will help. I also when I'm experiencing like anxiety it's hard because sometimes like life is so busy especially like as a college student but if you can just like step away from whatever is causing it and do another activity that like you enjoy. It might not be like the most relaxing but it can hopefully help your heart rate your mind just relax and so those would be probably the two that I would suggest but I'm sure there's a lot out there.

Video 6 Transcript

I think there's like in the moment relaxation that you can do breathing. Um, maybe taking like a quick rest or nap or something like that. Not in this, like trying to avoid, but just maybe like giving your body what it needs. But I would say it's like the best relaxation techniques that I've seen is like just the way that I live my life. Are you sleeping? Are you getting sunshine? Are you moving your body? Are you putting whole foods like good nutrient dense foods at least intermingled through your diet? Like are you getting some stuff that helps support good body function? And when you do that, I think like lifestyle changes significantly help. And then for like breathing techniques, like there's free apps, like calm, there's meditation apps and stuff like that. That stuff can be helpful too.

Video 7 Transcript

Starting with the very tips of your toes, tighten everything in your body. Starting with your toes, your feet, your ankles, working up to your legs, your body, your chest, all of your arms, down to your fingers and your neck. Tighten it all up and then in the same way go back starting from your head and your neck and your shoulders and your fingers. Loosen everything up and just let it go.

Video 8 Transcript

Another relaxation technique that I like is tapping mechanisms. So you can look any tapping mechanism up on the internet. What I do is I'll just like take either two of my fingers, one of my fingers, and I'll just tap my leg kind of like this. That kind of just brings me back to reality, kind of just grounds me. Because you like actually feel that physical sense and you're counting how many taps you're doing. So it kind of just distracts you from the anxiety. Another thing that I like to do is the five senses. So you think of something that you can smell, taste, touch, see, and feel. So

Video 9 Transcript

Some of my favorite relaxation techniques when it comes to dealing with anxiety are breathing deeply and forcing myself to do things slowly. So a lot of times my hands or like body parts will be shaking and I like start to rush as I'm doing things and so just forcing myself to take a few deep breaths and slow down whatever I'm doing. It can it seems a little weird but it helps a lot of time so that's one of my favorite tips.

Video 10 Transcript

One is base breathing, so you breathe in for four, hold for four, breathe out for four, hold for four. Another relaxation technique is another grounding exercise where you do your five senses. You pick a number between one and five and you start at that number and you, let's say three, find three things you can see, three things you can hear, three things you can touch, three things you can smell, three things you can taste, then you go down to two and then down to one.

Video 11 Transcript

I try to go out for like nature walks even on the nearby trails like we have quite a few trails here in town. I definitely say always make sure you're giving time to yourself as well for your self-care whether that be you know go take some time to your room, do drawing, coloring. For some people, it requires them to have a hot bath to relax and help but a lot of times self-care is always going to be your number one thing. If you're around people like a lot during the day, always make sure you're taking that time to yourself to kind of recharge that social battery that we all have especially when you do have anxiety.

Video 12 Transcript

I think one of the best things when I have anxiety that helps me relax is to do some deep breathing and to get moving. I feel sometimes that all my feelings and frustrations are kind of taking over my body and can get so big inside that I need to move. So just by going outside and walking and staying a little bit active, it helps my mind to calm down that I'm able to think about things a little bit more clearly and calmly. So just taking a walk and doing some big deep breaths are two things that have helped me.

Video 13 Transcript

My favorite relaxation technique is doing the 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8. You breathe in through your nose, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8. You hold your breath, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8, release. And then just doing that several times until your heart rate slows down and your body feels calm. That really helps me feel grounded and kind of focus my thoughts elsewhere. Another one is just like closing your eyes and lying down in a comfortable position and going through head to toe, letting each part of the body just completely relax. I've found that to be super helpful and has calmed me down during anxiety attacks.

Video 14 Transcript

Depending on how intense the feeling is or what type of anxiety I'm feeling, it might help me to like go exercise or something like take a walk or run or something or even just do like 10 push-ups or like a few jumping jacks or something just to get my heart moving faster which sounds dumb but actually once you do that then you'll then hopefully the heart rate will like come down back to normal because your body will say oh you're exercising now we need to bring the heart rate back down um sometimes it helps to just use like grounding techniques which for me involves like noticing like a few things about the environment I mean like oh how does my hand feel like on my knee or how does the room feel or how does like this is stuff like that you know those are the main ones that work for me