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Yoga, mediation and mindfulness are three great tools that you can utilise to improve mental health, and relieve stress. Whilst there are similarities between all of them, they all provide slightly different benefits. Combining all three will ensure you are relaxed, focused and ready for the work day!
Yoga
Yoga allows you to relax both mentally and physically, in turn, reducing stress and anxiety. Yoga poses can help you undo physical blockages like muscle knots, which will release tension and even emotion! Practicing yoga also releases mood-boosting endorphins, which again is great for combating stressors.
You can join a gym that teaches yoga classes in groups, or join an online class where you can follow the poses via livestream. There are also lots of free videos on YouTube.
Meditation
It is common knowledge that meditation is a great stress-management tool, as it will reprogram your brain and supplies you with more capacity to deal with stress. Recently, a Harvard neuroscientist has proven that with just 8 weeks of meditation practice, you can alleviate your stress! This works because you are training your mind to be more open and less reactive, so when you face stressors, you are able to cope better by being less affected by the issues.
There are many great meditation tools to find online, such as Headspace!
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a great tool for reducing stress and anxiety, it works by making you more aware of your thoughts, which allows you to step back from them and not immediately react to a situation, (which would usually involve stressing and panicking). Practicing mindfulness also reduces activity in the part of your brain called the amygdala, which is the part that switches on your stress response.
There are lots of different ways to practice mindfulness, from focusing on your breathing, to writing down and analysing thoughts, there are many examples online, but Headspace offers many guides to mindfulness.
