How to manage the stress: relaxation and meditation

Nowadays, it is really difficult to find someone without stress. However, as explained by our psychologist Noelia Aguirre, stress does not have to be bad: “If we understand the stress as our alarm at the dangers, we will accept that it is wise to experience some level of stress: if not, we would feel unprotected. “

“Stress is the mechanism through which our nervous system regulates the amount of energy that we need to invest to meet any situation, the level of attention that the situation merits according to its importance, its particular significance for us, if its new or not,, the resources we have to face it, etc.. If a situation is dangerous, important or new to us, then it requires more attention, more energy, and we mobilize our capacities to face with success,” says Noelia Aguirre.

Our psychologist is clear: “experience some level of stress is a condition often associated with efficiency: not necessarily bad, but can feel unpleasant. It becomes pathological or abnormal when rational proportion to the significance of the situation, when we exaggerate the importance of the situation, when we interpret it catastrophically and exagerate its danger. “

In fact, these catastrophic interpretations are the source of many of our daily concerns: “In my life I have gone through terrible things, some of which succeeded each other,” said the great Mark Twain. Many times we realize that what we were so worried about in the past has been diluted over time, without generating any dramatic consequence…

The more or less unpleasant way we experience the stress also depends on us: An adequate level of stress can be experienced as excitement, as creativity, as a challenge we face with pleasure and self-confidence, as a reasonable concern “protective”. An excessive level overwhelms us and paralyzes us, we feel overwhelmed and powerless.

Thus, our efforts should not be focused to eliminate stress but to learn how to manage the stress properly. Adopting a realistic, pragmatic, rational and constructive actitude seems most necessary and, for it, one of our strongest recommendations is to practise meditation exercises regularly to help us learn to breathe better, manage our stress and control our emotions.

Although we may have the idea that meditation is escape, Nieves González, our Yoga and meditation teacher at SHA Wellness Clinic, explains that “meditation is to become aware of how you conduct your daily routine, paying absolute attention to body and mind. It doesn’t have to do with time but with to be present“.

The body is the voice of an emotional system that can not express itself through the mind. As mind and body belong to the same person, the benefit of one impacts for the benefit of the other one and vice versa. Stress is self induced and anxiety and distress go together. As Noelia Aguirre explained, the brain is programmed with external threats that usually are not so threatening. That’s why we would like to teach people to “deprogram” and meditation is a good way to achieve this, thus learning proper stress management.

For us, one of the best remedies for stress is to dedicate just a few minutes a day to relaxation by the meditation and reunion with yourself so we get the rebalancing of mind, body and spirit.