vagus nerve<\/a>.<\/p>\n“You can do this before big meetings, after a stressful conversation, when you get home from work or when you notice you’re snapping at people,” she says.<\/p>\n
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Anna Ferguson is a qualified counsellor and somatic therapist specialising in nervous system regulation. (Supplied: Anna Ferguson)<\/p>\n
Step one is to move, shake your arms and legs, roll your shoulders, twist your spine gently<\/strong>, or march in one place<\/strong>.<\/p>\n“This completes the stress cycle and tells your nervous system the threat is over,” she says.<\/p>\n
Step two: breathe with a hum<\/strong> (2 minutes), breathe in slowly through your nose (4 counts), exhale slowly through your mouth with a gentle hum or sigh (6 counts). Repeat eight to ten times.<\/strong><\/p>\n“The hum creates vibrations that directly stimulate your vagus nerve, the long exhale activates your parasympathetic nervous system.”<\/p>\n
Step three is a grounding practice<\/strong>.<\/p>\n“Bring yourself fully into your body, place one hand on your heart, one on your belly, feel your feet on the floor.”<\/p>\n
“Notice your breath moving, sense the weight of your body.<\/p>\n
“This anchors you in the present moment and signals, ‘I’m here, I’m safe, I can rest now’.”<\/p>\n
Other small things to try<\/p>\n
Dr Ada says research shows multiple brief interventions outperform occasional long sessions<\/strong> for managing daily stress.<\/p>\n“Micro-interventions are brief, targeted techniques, typically 30 seconds to five minutes, that interrupt the stress response in real time,” he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Rather than waiting for a yoga class or therapy session, you\u2019re regulating throughout the day.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Breathing and relaxation:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Box breathing:<\/strong> “Simply breathe in four counts, hold for four, out for four, hold for four, and you repeat that for about 60 to 90 seconds,” Dr Ada says. “[This] activates your parasympathetic nervous system, which is your body’s calming mechanism.”<\/li>\n
- The physiological sigh:<\/strong> “Just two quick inhales through the nose [and] exhale through the mouth,” says Dr Ada. “There’s a lot of research on this, and it’s a really quick way of being a circuit breaker.”<\/li>\n
- Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR):<\/strong> “Find a quiet, comfortable place to lie down or sit. Starting with your toes, tense the muscles as tightly as you can for 5-10 seconds and notice the feeling of tension. Then, completely release the tension, focusing on the feeling of relaxation for 15-20 seconds,” Dr Ada says. “Move up your body, repeating the process with your calves, thighs, buttocks, abdomen, chest, arms, hands, shoulders, neck, and face.”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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Short stress-relief techniques can interrupt the stress response.\u00a0 (Pexels: Karolina Grabowska)<\/p>\n
Movement ideas from Dr Chatterjee:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- A 10-minute walk<\/strong> (if it’s in nature, even better as being in nature reduces stress, adds Dr Ada).<\/li>\n
- One minute of jumping jacks or any type of body movement<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Mindfulness ideas from Dr Ada:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Splash cold water on your face<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Smell something pleasant like coffee or essential oils<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Step away from screens<\/strong><\/li>\n
- For spiralling thoughts, try the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique:<\/strong> “Name five things you can see, four things you can physically feel, three things you can hear, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste. The practice interrupts the worry loop<\/strong> by forcing your brain into the present moment.”<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
When to seek help<\/p>\n
If you’re not getting relief from stress-reducing practices, it could be a signal that you’re experiencing chronic stress <\/strong>(a consistent sense of feeling pressured and overwhelmed over a long period of time).<\/p>\nSigns you might be experiencing overwhelm<\/a><\/p>\nExperts say symptoms of overwhelm are important to address early on.<\/p>\n
“That’s when you start to maybe speak to your doctor, especially if you’re worrying excessively,” Dr Ada says.<\/p>\n
“Particularly if you’re not managing multiple areas of your life, you’re not sleeping well, you’re just overwhelmed all the time, tense, agitated, easily upset.”<\/p>\n
This is general information only. For detailed personal advice, you should see a qualified medical practitioner who knows your medical history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You probably don’t have to look too far to find daily stress triggers: a full inbox, parenting demands,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[276],"tags":[164899,3083,15864,164902,164900,164901,18,135,164897,19,17,167,502,164898,173,66687,164903],"class_list":["post-351105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-anna-ferguson","tag-anxiety","tag-chronic-stress","tag-daily-stress","tag-dr-bulent-ada","tag-dr-rangan-chatterjee","tag-eire","tag-health","tag-how-to-quickly-lower-stress","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-relieve-stress-in-5-minutes","tag-stress","tag-stress-relief","tag-stress-relief-techniques"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116116484519653355","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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