RELAXATION TECHNIQUES

● An active skill that reduces symptoms of stress and decreases the incidence of illnesses such as high
blood pressure and heart disease.
● Usually relaxation starts from the lower part of the body and progresses up to the facial muscles in such
a way that the whole body is relaxed.
● Deep breathing is used along with muscle relaxation to calm the mind and relate the body.

1. Meditation Procedures

➢ The yogic method of meditation consists of a sequence of learned techniques for refocusing attention
that brings about an altered state of consciousness.
➢ Involves such a thorough concentration that the meditator becomes unaware of any outside stimulation
and reaches a different state of consciousness.

2. Biofeedback

➢ A procedure to monitor and reduce the physiological aspects of stress by providing feedback about
current physiological activity and is often accompanied by relaxation training.
➢ Biofeedback training involves 3 stages:
(a) Developing an awareness of the particular physiological response.
(b) Learning ways of controlling that physiological response in quiet conditions.
(c) Transferring that control into the conditions of everyday life.

3. Creative Visualization

➢ An effective technique for dealing with stress

➢ A subjective experience that uses imagery and imagination.
➢ Before visualizing one must set oneself a realistic goal; helps build confidence.
➢ Easier to visualize if one’s mind is quiet, body relaxed, and eyes are closed.
➢ Reduces the risk of interference from unhidden thoughts.
➢ Provides the creative energy for turning an imagined scene into reality.

4. Cognitive Behavioral Techniques

➢ Aim to inoculate people against stress.

➢ Stress inoculation training is one effective method developed by Meichenbaum.
➢ The essence of this approach is to replace negative and irrational thoughts with positive and rational
ones.
➢ There are 3 main phases in this:
 (a) Assessment involves discussing the nature of the problem and seeing it from the viewpoint of the
person/client.
(b) Stress reduction involves learning the techniques of reducing stress such as relaxation and
self-instruction.
(c) Application and follow-through involves applying or following the stress reduction techniques.

5. Exercise

● Can provide an active outlet for the physiological arousal experienced in response to stress.
● Improves the efficiency of the heart.
● Enhances the function of the lungs
● Maintains good circulation
● Lowers blood pressure
● Reduces fat in the blood
● Improves the body’s immune system
● Swimming, walking, running, cycling, skipping etc. help to reduce stress.
● Must practice these exercises at least four times a week for 30 mins at a time.
● Each session must have a warm-up, exercise and cool down phases.

PROMOTING POSITIVE HEALTH AND WELL BEING

Life Skills

● Life skills are abilities for adaptive and positive behavior that enable individuals to deal effectively with
the demands and challenges of everyday life.
● Our ability to cope depends on how well we are prepared to deal with and counterbalance everyday
demands, and keep equilibrium in our lives.
● Can be learned as well as improved upon.
● Some of the like skills are:

a) Assertiveness

● A behavior or skill that helps to communicate, clearly and confidently, our feelings, needs, wants, and
thoughts.
● Ability:
● to say ‘no’ to a request.
● to state an opinion without being self-conscious.
● to express emotions (love, anger, etc.) openly.
● An assertive person:
● feels confident
● has high self-esteem
● has a solid sense of own identity

b)Time Management

● The way we spend our time determines the quality of our life.
● Learning how to plan time and delegate can help to relieve the pressure.
● Major way to reduce time stress is to change one’s perception of time.
● Central principle of time management is to spend your time doing the things that you value or that help
you to achieve your goals.
● It depends on being realistic about what you know and that you must do it within a certain time period,
knowing what you want to do, and organizing your life to achieve a balance between the two.

c) Rational Thinking

● Many stress-related problems occur as a result of distorted thinking.

● The way we think and the way we feel are closely connected.
● When we are stressed, we have an inbuilt selective bias to attend to negative thoughts and images from
the past, which affects our perception of the present and the future.
● Principles of rational thinking are:
● Challenging your distorted thinking and irrational beliefs.
● Driving out potentially intrusive negative anxiety-provoking thoughts.
● Making positive statements.

d) Improving Relationships

● Key to a sound lasting relationship is communication.

● This consists of 3 essential skills:
● Listening to what the other person is saying.
● Expressing how you feel and what you think.
● Accepting the other person’s opinions and feelings, even if they are different from your own.
● Also requires us to avoid misplaced jealousy and sulking behavior.

e) Self-care

● If we keep ourselves healthy, fit and relaxed, we are better prepared physically and emotionally to tackle
the stresses of everyday life.
● Our breathing patterns reflect our state of mind and emotions.
● When we are stressed or anxious, we tend towards rapid and shallow breathing from high in the chest,
with frequent sighs.
● When we are relaxed, breathing is slow, stomach-centered breathing from the diaphragm i.e. a dome like
muscle between the chest and the abdominal cavity.
● Environmental stresses can all exert an influence on our mood.
● These have a noticeable effect on our ability to cope with stress and well-being.

f) Overcoming Unhelpful Habits

● Such as perfectionism, avoidance, procrastination, etc. are strategies that help to cope in the short-term
but make one more vulnerable to stress.
●
● Perfectionists are people who have to get everything just right.
● They have difficulty varying standards according to factors such as time available, consequences of not
being able to stop work, and the effort needed.
● More likely to feel tense
● Find it difficult to relax
● Critical of self and others
● May become inclined to avoid challenges
● Avoidance is to put the issue under the carpet and refuse to accept or face it.
● Procrastination means putting off what we know we need to do.
● People who procrastinate are deliberately avoiding confronting their fears of failure or rejection.

Positive Health

Health is a state of complete physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being, and not merely the
absence of disease or infirmity.

Positive health comprises the following:

● A healthy body
● High quality of personal relationships
● A sense of purpose in life
● Self-regard
● Mastery of life’s tasks
● Resilience to stress, trauma and change

Following act as stress buffers and facilitate positive health:

a) Diet

A balanced diet can:

● Lift one’s mood
● Give more energy
● Feed muscles
● Improve circulation
● Prevent illness
● Strengthen the immune system
● Make one feel better to cope with stresses of life
● The key to healthy living is to eat three main meals a day and eat a varied well-balanced diet.
● One’s activity level, genetic makeup, climate and health history determines the amount of nutrition one
needs.
● What people eat, and how much they weigh involve behavioral processes.
● Some people are able to maintain a healthy diet and weight while others become obese.
● When we are stressed, we seek ‘comfort foods’ (high in fats, salts and sugars).

b) Exercise

● Positive relationship between physical fitness and health.

● Lifestyle change with the widest popular approval.
● Regular exercise plays an important role in managing weight and stress
● Has a positive effect on reducing tension, anxiety and depression.
● Physical exercises that are essential for good health are stretching exercises such as yogic asanas and
aerobic exercises such as jogging, cycling, swimming etc.
● Stretching exercises have a calming effect.
● Aerobic exercises increase the arousal level of the body.
● Health benefits of exercise work as a stress buffer.
● Fitness permits individuals to maintain general mental and physical well-being even in the face of
negative life events.

c) Positive Attitude

● Positive health and well-being can be realized by having a positive attitude.

● Factors leading to a positive attitude are:
● Having a fairly accurate perception of reality.
● A sense of purpose in life and responsibility.
● Acceptance and tolerance for different viewpoint of others
● Taking credit for success and accepting blame for failure.
● Being open to new ideas
● Having a sense of humor with the ability to laugh at oneself.
● These factors help us to remain centered, and see things in a proper perspective.
 d) Positive Thinking

● Helps significantly in reducing and coping with stress.

● Optimism i.e. the inclination to expect favorable life outcomes, has been linked to psychological and
physical well-being.
● Optimists tend to:
● assume that adversity can be handled successfully.
● use more problem-focused coping strategies whereas,
● Pessimists tend to:
● anticipate disasters
● ignore the problem or the source of stress
● use strategies such as giving up the goal with which stress is interfering or denying that stress exists.

e) Social Support

● The existence and availability of people on whom we can rely upon, people who let us know that they
care about, value, and love us.
● Someone who believes that she/he belongs to a social network of communication and mutual obligation
experiences social support.
● Perceived support i.e., the quality of social support, is positively related to health and wellbeing.
● Social network i.e., the quantity of social support, is unrelated to well-being, as it is very time-consuming
and demanding to maintain a large social network.
● Social support can help to provide protection against stress.
● During times of stress, one may experience sadness, anxiety and loss of self-esteem.
● People with high levels of social support from family and friends may experience less stress when they
confront a stressful experience, and they may cope with it more successfully.
● Social support may be in the form of:
● Tangible support or assistance involving material aid such as money, goods, services etc.
● Family and friends also provide informational support about stressful events.
● Supportive friends and family provide emotional support by reassuring the individual that she/he is loved,
valued and cared for.
● Social support effectively reduces psychological distress such as depression, anxiety during times of
stress.
● Social support is positively related to psychological well-being.
● Social support leads to mental health benefits for both the giver and the receiver.