admin “Palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy” are more than just lyrics to Eminem’s Lose Yourself for people experiencing anxiety and distress. For some people, it’s a daily reality.
The Yerkes-Dodson law, which maps the relationship between performance, arousal, and attention, shows that a certain level of stress can be good for your body, increasing interest and attention. It also shows that too much arousal or stress can affect performance due to increased levels of anxiety.
In the modern world, we are not hard-pressed to accumulate toxic levels of stress. It is a dilemma to find ways to adjust daily levels of stress or arousal for optimal performance.
Here are five simple 5-minute techniques to calm your mind and help you reach your maximum performance potential within a reasonable amount of time!
Hill Sprints
Stress is a bodily reaction that prepares your body to face any danger. The problem is that today’s threats are often mental and emotional and less physical, so our bodies never let go of the tension and hormones caused by stress.
Walking or dancing can help relieve some of the tension we accumulate in our bodies. High-intensity workouts, such as hill sprints, will help you get the most bang for your dollar. Find a small but steep hill. Sprint up the hill (training to eventually reach the top), then gently walk down the mountain. Repeat.
You can walk barefoot in a green space.
You can walk barefoot in green spaces such as grassy meadows and lawns to absorb the energy of the earth. Research shows that being in green spaces can improve your mood and boost self-esteem in just five minutes.
Listen to Adele or “Weightless” by Marconi Union
Marconi Union, in 2011, released “Weightless,” an eight-minute track that was created in collaboration with The British Academy of Sound Therapy. Mindlab Institution, an audio marketing company, tested the song. It has been shown to reduce anxiety levels and heart rate in listeners.
Adele is also known for her music’s ability to make people cry because she uses appoggiaturas – grace notes that create tension within the melody. The tension is relieved by returning from appoggiaturas.
Chandra Namaskar or Moon Flow is a great way to start your day.
Chandra Namaskar, or Moon Flow, is the sister sequence of the infamous Surya Namaskar, or Sun Salutation. Moon Flow is a yoga practice that focuses on the quality of the movement rather than the specific breathing points to ignite internal fire.
There are many variations to this practice. However, in general, the practitioner moves around the mat and bows down to the lunar energy of the moon. Lunar energy has been known to be calming, refreshing, rejuvenating, and all-around calming. This flow can help people who are stressed to quiet their minds and find balance in their bodies.
Practice Improv Techniques
Improvisation, or live theater, is a type of performance where the majority or all of the material is made up in real-time. Regular improv practice can lead to increased confidence, improved public speaking, creativity, decision-making abilities, listening and observational skills, as well as enhanced creative thinking.
Many improv techniques and principles can calm the mind and help reduce anxiety. The two simple techniques “yes, but …” and “no, …” can help you reframe your world and prevent you from blocking potential success.
You can also use “Make Active Choices,” which aligns with the idea of getting up and moving to calm your mind.
These simple 5-minute relaxation techniques may help you to reduce your anxiety the next time things start to get overwhelming. Please let us know which of these techniques helped you, and please feel free to share any additional suggestions in the comment section below.
