Listen to this articleWhen was the last time you felt stressed out? Perhaps before an important job interview. Maybe when taking care of your kids while doing house chores. Or, it could be that at this very moment your head is full of stressful and anxious thoughts. The good news is that you are not alone. Stress is an integral part of human nature. Over the past years, we have created plenty of techniques for stress relief to make a positive difference.
So, where does stress come from? Millions of years ago, life-threatening situations triggered a cascade of stress hormones that would result in a set of physiological changes. This would allow our ancestors to react quickly to life-threatening situations. Nowadays, this is known as the “fight-or-flight” response. A stressful incident can make your heart pound soundly, your breath quicken, and your skin to sweat. Unfortunately, this mechanism has evolved in such ways that we react to stressors that are not life-treating such as work pressure, family issues, and mundane events like traffic jams or never-ending queues.
What stress does to the body
The central nervous system is in charge of the fight-or-flight response. In the brain, the hypothalamus sends a signal to the adrenal glands, commanding it to release the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol. In an emergency, these hormones increase your heartbeat and send blood rushing to the areas that need it most including your heart, your muscles, and other important organs. When the perceived danger passes, your hypothalamus tells all your systems to relax and go back to normal.
However, if the central nervous system fails to go back to normal or if the stressor doesn’t disappear, the stress response will continue. It’s no wonder that, when you are under constant stress, you feel extremely tired and in a terrible mood. On a long-term basis, stress can lead to serious mental health problems – anxiety, depression, and personality disorders to name a few. It can also affect your physical health, putting you at risk of suffering from high blood pressure, heart disease, heart attacks, stroke, obesity, skin problems, and gastrointestinal problems.
The best program for stress relief
Now that you know more about stress and its effects on your mind and body, it’s time to discover the best ways to manage it. A good method for stress relief is mindfulness. Mindfulness is the ability to bring focus on the present moment without judgment — not concerning yourself about worries about the past or future. When you are mindful, you are able to distance yourself from distracting and stressful thoughts. Plenty of scientific research has proven that mindfulness meditation can also be helpful for people struggling with anxiety and depression.
Another excellent way to deal with stress is by engaging in visualization or guided imagery. Visualization is a technique that entails using your imagination to evoke soothing images. These can be scenes, places, or any experience in your mind to help you relax and concentrate. People who practice visualization report feeling a positive vision and greater self-worth.
Synctuition combines the best of mindfulness meditation and sound technology to help for deep relaxation and stress relief. Synctuition offers 25-minute audio journeys that contain 3D sounds from nature, binaural beats, music, and personalized voice frequencies. As you listen through stereo headphones, you will be able to visualize beautiful imagery to fuel your journey to complete relaxation.
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