How does meditation relieve stress


Meditation for Stress - Headspace

What causes stress?

Stress often kicks in due to a situation we can see and comprehend — we tend to know what we’re dealing with and what’s stressing us out. Anxiety, on the other hand, is a visceral feeling that can linger, and it is not always clear why it’s happening. While the terms are often used interchangeably, they are very different states.

To understand why we feel stressed, it’s helpful to understand the role of the amygdala, essentially 2 almond-sized processing chips in the brain that govern our senses, decisions, and moods.

The amygdala works like our emotional thermostat and regulates our reaction to certain forces like stress and fear. Based on the level of threat it senses, it either remains on a cool and calm setting, cranks up like it’s supposed to in reaction to normal stressors, or it may overheat when we feel overstimulated, making us irrational and reactive.

In evolutionary terms, the amygdala has always been a great asset for alerting us to life-and-death situations — like an approaching wild animal — and triggering our fight or flight response. But in modern times, it has been conditioned to react in a similar way to day-to-day causes of stress, so an approaching deadline can start to feel just as threatening as a hungry wolf.

What’s more, the drip, drip, drip effect of stress actually reshapes the structure and neural pathways of our brain — a process called neuroplasticity. In other words, the brain gets reprogrammed by the experiences it is continually subjected to.

The good news is that our minds can be trained to manage stress better. Studies using MRI scans have shown a regular meditation practice can shrink the amygdala, which helps us respond rather than react to stressful situations. So, think of meditation as a tool for self-regulation of the amygdala, helping it return to its baseline state — a more rational reaction to stress and fear. And so the more we meditate, the more we build this mental resilience that can increase our capacity to manage stress and be more aware.


Managing stress with meditation

Meditation isn’t about eliminating stress; it’s about managing it. A lot of that boils down to how we perceive stress. By altering our mindset, we can lessen the implications on our mental and physical health.

Stress often gets a bad rap, which is perhaps undeserved. Think where we would be, for example, if we didn’t have the distress signal that makes us flee from danger. Or if we didn’t feel pressed to finish a project or homework on time. Some people even thrive in high-pressure careers, feeling completely in control in the fast lane and totally stressed out when things slow down. So the degrees of stress can vary widely person to person. Nevertheless, good experiences in our best interest will still bring stress. There’s no avoiding it.

Our appraisal of pressured situations can actually affect the level of distress we associate with a certain event. But, looking at this through the lens of mindfulness, it is possible to soften the way we perceive stress and relate to it in a more accepting way.

The next time we experience a stress response in a “good” situation, try to avoid applying negative labels. Instead, try to think about it as something powerful and energizing, preparing us to meet life’s challenges.

Now, during stressful times, it can feel counterintuitive to sit still and do nothing — meditating can feel like the last thing we want to do. But when we feel like the pressure’s on and we can’t think straight or we have too much going on, pressing pause is the best way to unwind the mind.

The point of meditation in these circumstances is to provide more spaciousness of mind. And in that space, we become aware of our stress. We don't resist it or try to push it away. We simply sit and let all thoughts and feelings rise to the surface and, when they do, we let them go by returning our attention to the breath. With practice, this becomes easier over time, and we learn to rely on the breath as a release valve for stress.

When it comes to managing stress through meditation, the Headspace app has a dedicated 30-day course for subscribers that comes with exercises designed to address all manner of stressors.

The Stress course specifically uses a visualization technique. The helpful thing about such an exercise is that it engages the mind, occupies the mind, and — at the same time — sets up a framework for the mind to unwind and move toward a place of calm. Instead of getting bogged down in stress or trying to run away from it, we’ll learn to maintain a solid position of awareness, allowing things to come and go with a newfound sense of ease.

After completing the 30-day course, we should emerge with a better understanding of the dynamics of stress and a different perspective of how we relate to the thoughts and feelings that arise. In the 2018 study that relied on the Headspace app, meditation was shown to reduce stress by 14% over just a 10-day period.

There are, of course, other options available when it comes to stress-management, and many of these other tools — such as physical exercise and breathing techniques — can help us in the moment. But when it comes to seeing a long-term reduction in stress, and when we meditate consistently on a daily basis for at least 8 weeks, the science demonstrates that meditation is an effective intervention capable of altering the physical anatomy of the brain, with as little input as 10 minutes a day.


Let go of stress with this free mini-meditation

Mindfulness meditation may ease anxiety, mental stress

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My mom began meditating decades ago, long before the mind-calming practice had entered the wider public consciousness. She liked to quote sayings from Thich Nhat Hanh, a Zen Buddhist monk known for his practice of mindful meditation, or “present-focused awareness.”

Although meditation still isn’t exactly mainstream, many people practice it, hoping to stave off stress and stress-related health problems. Mindfulness meditation, in particular, has become more popular in recent years. The practice of mindful meditation involves sitting comfortably, focusing on your breathing, and then bringing your mind’s attention to the present without drifting into concerns about the past or future. (Or, as my mom would say, “Don’t rehearse tragedies. Don’t borrow trouble.”)

But, as is true for a number of other alternative therapies, much of the evidence to support meditation’s effectiveness in promoting mental or physical health isn’t quite up to snuff. Why? First, many studies don’t include a good control treatment to compare with mindful meditation. Second, the people most likely to volunteer for a meditation study are often already sold on meditation’s benefits and so are more likely to report positive effects.

But when researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD sifted through nearly 19,000 meditation studies, they found 47 trials that addressed those issues and met their criteria for well-designed studies. Their findings, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, suggest that mindful meditation can help ease psychological stresses like anxiety, depression, and pain.

Dr. Elizabeth Hoge, a psychiatrist at the Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Disorders at Massachusetts General Hospital and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, says that mindfulness meditation makes perfect sense for treating anxiety. “People with anxiety have a problem dealing with distracting thoughts that have too much power,” she explains. “They can’t distinguish between a problem-solving thought and a nagging worry that has no benefit.”

“If you have unproductive worries,” says Dr. Hoge, you can train yourself to experience those thoughts completely differently. “You might think ‘I’m late, I might lose my job if I don’t get there on time, and it will be a disaster!’ Mindfulness teaches you to recognize, ‘Oh, there’s that thought again. I’ve been here before. But it’s just that—a thought, and not a part of my core self,’” says Dr. Hoge.

One of her studies (which was included in the JAMA Internal Medicine review) found that a mindfulness-based stress reduction program helped quell anxiety symptoms in people with generalized anxiety disorder, a condition marked by hard-to-control worries, poor sleep, and irritability. People in the control group—who also improved, but not as much as those in the meditation group—were taught general stress management techniques. All the participants received similar amounts of time, attention, and group interaction.

To get a sense of mindfulness meditation, you can try one of the guided recordings by Dr. Ronald Siegel, an assistant clinical professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School. They are available for free at www.mindfulness-solution.com.

Some people find that learning mindfulness meditation techniques and practicing them with a group is especially helpful, says Dr. Hoge. Mindfulness-based stress reduction training, developed by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, MA, is now widely available in cities throughout the United States.

Thich Nhat Hahn offers this short mindful meditation in his book Being Peace: “Breathing in, I calm my body. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment, I know this is a wonderful moment.

Six three-minute meditations to calm down and focus - SKB Kontur

We plan the day based on our usual productivity. But often, excessive fatigue or anxiety prevent us from working at a normal pace. The advice to go on vacation or reduce the workload is wonderful, but often unrealistic: the vacation will come later, and the report needs to be completed right now. We tell you how three-minute meditations can help in this situation.

How stress affects our body

In a situation where our lives are threatened, stress helps us survive. But this is a very energy-consuming mechanism. If stress lasts for a long time (and stress due to problems at work and at home can last for months), it exhausts the body.

In this case, not only the heart, blood vessels, stomach and endocrine system suffer. Due to stress, we sleep worse and it is more difficult for us to concentrate on work.

But that's not all. In a state of stress, people analyze the situation worse and make suboptimal decisions. Recall yourself in a situation where problems piled up one after another and there was no opportunity to take a breath for several weeks. At such moments, it’s no longer up to creativity: you want to quickly close the task. And, alas, no one is immune from mistakes in this state.

How meditation helps fight stress

About as much has been known about the benefits of meditation as people meditate - centuries. But only now scientific studies have begun to appear that prove this - for example, with the help of fMRI - functional magnetic resonance imaging. Here are the conclusions of scientists cited by the authors of articles in Reminder and Tsekh magazines.

Meditation helps you focus. Researchers have found that meditation interferes with habituation—the tendency to not pay attention to new information in a familiar environment. In addition, meditation helps you stop wandering in your thoughts and focus on solving problems.

Meditation increases resistance to stress. Meditation does more than relieve stress in the moment. If you practice for a long time, the zones in the prefrontal cortex, which are responsible for making logical decisions, increase. This is the opposite of making decisions under stress, when another zone is activated - the amygdala. Meditation also improves heart rate variability - it shows how quickly we can return from a stressful state to a calm one.

Meditation increases creativity. To solve creative problems, we need the resources of both the right and left hemispheres. The better they are connected, the more extraordinary ideas a person has. And meditation, as scientists have established, just increases the connectivity of the hemispheres.

Meditations that you can try right at work

There are many short meditations. We have chosen the ones that are easy to do, even if you have never tried meditation. You can start with 30 seconds, gradually increasing the duration of the practice to 3 minutes.

The lotus position is optional. Just sit comfortably and keep your back as straight as possible. Ideally, your feet should be in full contact with the floor. Pull your chin to your neck - do not lower or tilt your head back, try to reach up with the top of your head.

Less stress. Exercise helps to cope with physical and emotional stress when strength is at its limit and emotions are running high. Do it also if something makes you angry or you want to let go of the tension that has accumulated during the day.

Raise your arms up and position them so that there is a 60 degree angle between them. Turn your palms forward and spread your fingers.

Close your eyes. All the time, strain your arms and palms as much as you can. Breathe calmly and deeply: in through your nose, out through your mouth.

Finally, inhale and hold your breath, tensing all the muscles of the body. Then exhale and relax.

Fresh mind When you are struggling with a task for a long time, you are tired, and the desired solution does not come, this meditation will help. Exercise activates both hemispheres, helping them work together.

Sit comfortably. Clench your right hand into a fist, extend your index finger and pinch your right nostril with it. Breathe only through the left nostril for a minute and a half or longer.

Now close the left nostril with your left hand, continue as long as the first time.
Exhale and relax.

In this meditation it is important to breathe slowly and deeply. Try to inhale with your stomach, and then fill your lungs with air. On exhalation, on the contrary, first release the air from the lungs, and at the end - from the stomach.

Good mood. This meditation is useful if you are overcome by gloomy thoughts, everything seems dull and bleak.

Sit comfortably. Fold your palms in front of you in the form of a bowl - right to left. Eyes slightly open, look at the palms.

Inhale through your nose, formulate the negative thoughts and feelings that you have. Hold your breath for a while, and then forcefully exhale all the negativity through your mouth into your palms.

Finally, inhale and hold your breath, tensing all the muscles of the body. Then exhale and relax.

Emotional balance. Sometimes we are so disturbed, angry or offended that we cannot control ourselves - and there is no time for work at all. A simple meditation will help you calm down.

Drink a full glass of water first - that is also part of the meditation. When you restore the water balance in the body, stress immediately decreases.

Cross your arms over your chest, place your hands under your armpits. Make sure that the head is not tilted, the chin is slightly pulled up to the neck. Raise your shoulders and pull them towards your ears all the time.

Close your eyes, breathe calmly. In this position, breathing automatically slows down and emotional balance returns to you. At the end, just relax.

Anti-meditation or lotus meditation. It happens that attention slips away and dissipates, and obsessive thoughts are spinning in the head. In this case, try joining your palms in the form of a lotus and do your best not to meditate. This hand position will help you slow down and clear things that seem confusing and difficult.

Sit comfortably. Fold your hands into a lotus: connect the bases of the palms, the tips of the little fingers and thumbs.

Hold the lotus at the level of the face, about 15 centimeters from it, and relax the elbows.

Close your eyes and do your best not to meditate. Think about colleagues, urgent tasks, household chores, shopping, repairs… The more you think, the stronger the effect. If nothing comes to mind, remember the multiplication table or verses. Breathe calmly through your nose.

Finally, inhale and hold your breath, tensing all the muscles in your body. Then exhale and relax.

Concentration. This meditation helps to focus and calm the wandering mind when there is hard work to be done and time is short.

Sit comfortably and close your eyes. Open your mouth wide and press the tip of your tongue against the center of the upper palate. Breathe through your nose as usual. Finally, inhale, close your mouth. Exhale and relax.

The effect of this meditation will be enhanced if you open your eyes and look at the tip of your nose.

These exercises can be done anytime, anywhere. You can always breathe through one nostril at the workplace unnoticed by colleagues if you put your elbow on the table and cover the other nostril with a straight or bent finger.

Try any of the techniques right now. But first, close your eyes for a minute, start breathing deeper. Observe your state: what do you feel, what thoughts are spinning, how do you assess your stress level? Do one of the exercises. And then give yourself another minute to feel the effect. How has your stress level changed?

Choose one or 2-3 exercises that work for you and do at least once a day at a certain time - for example, in the morning, before going to work, or after lunch. In addition to this, you can monitor your state and meditate every time you get into a stressful situation and get out of balance. In this regard, three-minute meditations are no worse than longer practices: they also reduce stress levels, help to calm down and concentrate, add joy and inspiration to working days.

What to do if there is no time to meditate at all

When emotions are overwhelmed, and it is not possible to allocate even three minutes or the situation does not allow, you can calm down in just five cycles of breathing. Here are three ways.

Five breaths. Inhale deeply through the nose. Hold your breath while inhaling. Exhale slowly through your nose. Try to make the inhalation, retention and exhalation equal in time.

Good mood - accelerated version. Above, we suggested meditation with exhalation into the palms. If you do it often, then in a stressful situation you can get the effect by concentrating only on breathing. Inhale through your nose, hold your breath. On a delay, remember any negativity that worries you at this moment, and just “blow it out” as you exhale.

Squeeze out the lemon. While inhaling, lift your shoulders up. Hold your breath, pull your shoulders to your ears and tighten - squeeze all the muscles of the body. Imagine that you are squeezing all the stress out of yourself like juice from a lemon. Exhale, relax. Repeat five times.

Expert — Lyudmila Elentseva, certified trainer in the Three Min Start program, teacher of kundalini yoga

Prepared by editor Maria Skobeleva

Doctor of Medicine — about various ways to relieve stress — Realnoe Vremya

Society

00:00, 04.10.2020

Doctor of Medical Sciences Larisa Smekalkina - about modern and traditional methods of stress relief

“Everything related to ancient rituals really works. However, no systematic research has been done on this subject. There are separate publications in different countries, but this is usually at the level of small observations. Meditation is very much loved in the East. And since the process of integration of East and West is now quite active, and meditation in its various manifestations is becoming more and more popular in Europe, the USA and Russia,” said Larisa Smekalkina, Doctor of Medical Sciences, in an interview with Realnoe Vremya. She also talked about how singing, dancing and walking relieve stress.

“You can put an equal sign between stress and passivity”

— Larisa, what methods can relieve stress without antidepressants?

— To know how to deal with stress, you first need to understand what stress is. At the biochemical, hormonal level, it is the body's reaction to increased external and internal stimuli. And also it is a psycho-energetic phenomenon, which is completely natural for our body. Our homeostasis system is designed in such a way as to survive in any case. Therefore, when there is a threat to health or life in general, a cascade of physiological and psycho-energetic reactions occurs, aimed at overcoming stressful factors and the consequences of their influence.

Stress in translation from English means pressure, pressure, pressure, load, tension. At first, the concept of stress was used by English engineers to describe the ability of a bridge to withstand a load. Later, Hans Selye extrapolated the concept of stress response as adaptive to animals and humans.

So, stress is tension, physical and mental. And the goal of combating stress is to control its level and manage stress.

Have you noticed how intense people's reactions to external events are now? Stressogenicity (the degree of influence of an event on a person's experiences) goes off scale. Stress can be acute and chronic, and if acute stress is quite easy to stop with appropriate psychotropic and neuroprotective drugs, then chronic stress, when chronic stress accumulates, is much more difficult to cope with, and pharmacotherapy alone is not enough.

Photo Maxim Platonov
Physical activity, walking, running, yoga are natural methods that allow you to relieve stress

There was a social survey conducted by the Institute of Public Opinion on the site Anketolog.ru, on 864 respondents who were asked how they deal with stress - 78% of them said that it was playing sports. For 71%, it is regular walks in nature, 66% said that stress relieves good sleep, and half of the people answered that medication and travel help them. All that people have listed are eco-friendly natural stress relief methods that primarily remove only excess tension, while maintaining a certain level of basic healthy muscle tone.

There are stressors that we call "green" or "beneficial", they are used to create a training effect in order to increase stress resistance. For example, it can be hardening, creative impulses (drawing, singing), the beginning of some new activity.

— What methods of relieving stress have been known to people since ancient times?

— From the beginning of civilization, in order to survive, a person had to learn how to quickly mobilize in a period of danger (for example, when meeting a wild animal). This is a well-known "fight or flight" response. The central nervous system receives an alarm signal and then transmits it to the autonomic system, which controls the internal organs and tissues. The release of hormones causes muscles to tense up, blood pressure to rise, heart rate to increase, breathing to speed up - all in order to hit, fight back, or run away if that is not possible.

Our brain is organized object-figuratively and does not distinguish between a real threat and a virtual one, so we are capable of conjecturing a lot... This means that it is not so much the extreme event itself that matters, but how we perceive it. And how in our time to channel the tension, if you do not need to "fight or run." That is why physical activity, walking, running, yoga are natural methods that allow you to relieve tension.

By the way, yoga requires a lot of strength and concentration. And one of the markers of stress is absent-mindedness. Yoga allows you to concentrate, focus, direct mental and motor processes in parallel. Various physical exercises are great for relieving stress. As a rule, passivity is always accompanied by rigidity, stiffness, provokes and exacerbates stress. Between stress and passivity, you can put an equal sign. Often a person in stress goes into his "shell", closes, avoids communication.

Recently, the biggest stressor, according to a sociological survey conducted on the Internet portal self-knowledge.ru, is communication with people. Many believe that interpersonal relationships are harmful for them, therefore, naturally, they become isolated. So any methods with an antidepressant orientation are necessary in such cases.

A person's well-being improves when he engages in any kind of sport. But here, too, an individual approach is needed. This is not to say that everyone needs to swim and it will definitely relieve stress. For some, swimming will only add stress. If a person once drowned, choked, was very frightened at that moment, then the fear of water was preserved in his memory. Swimming should be above all fun! It is also not necessary to run to relieve stress. You can do something else that requires effort, such as doing something at home with physical or mental effort: cleaning the house or learning a foreign language.

Photo Maxim Platonov
A person's well-being improves when he goes in for any kind of sport. But here, too, an individual approach is needed

“Folk, folklore, ritual, new-age songs, activate the resources of self-healing”

— And what methods of stress relief are scientifically proven?

— We studied the effectiveness of bioacoustic psychocorrection based on the principle of biofeedback (BFB) in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder. A person was placed in an isolated room, connected to a device, an electroencephalogram was recorded, the electrical activity of the brain was transformed into sound vibrations, and his own “brain music” was returned to him in headphones. And a person who at first heard a set of disharmonious sounds, like in an untuned orchestra, involuntarily organizes himself and after some time, due to self-regulation, “tunes the instrument” and gradually, from session to session, begins to hear an increasingly pleasant melody.

Patients with neurotic reactions were also given through headphones the spectrum of oscillations of a healthy person, transferred to sound, with the dominance of the alpha rhythm (long waves characteristic of a state of rest, sleep or harmony). In this case, the melody was reminiscent of Bach's preludes performed on the organ. After a few sessions, the symptoms of stress noticeably subsided, the subjects noted an improvement in their general condition. In this way, seemingly uncontrollable brain rhythms can be controlled, and you begin to understand how powerful our internal resources are!

By the way, regular listening to classical works can really harmonize a person, cheer up or calm down. There have been many scientific studies on this subject that have proven this hypothesis.

— To immerse yourself in meditation, you also need to make mental efforts, you need to concentrate. Can she relieve stress?

Yes, definitely. To learn meditation techniques, you really need to first make some effort, strain, gather yourself. Any new business requires concentration of attention and strength. As you train, you get more pleasure than you waste energy and learn to relax in minutes. Meditation is the easiest and most accessible way to relieve stress. It is effective and safe, besides it does not require large time and material costs. Now it is convenient to practice using Internet resources with the ability to choose certain techniques to your liking.

Everything related to ancient rituals really works. However, no systematic research has been done on this subject. There are separate publications in different countries, but this is usually at the level of small observations.

Meditation is very much loved in the East. And since the process of integration of East and West is now quite active, and meditation in its various manifestations is becoming more and more popular in Europe, the USA and Russia. Although back in the second half of the 20th century, in the medical institutions of the Soviet Union, autogenic training was included in the complex of rehabilitation measures, the basis of which was the same self-immersion, achieving maximum muscle relaxation and a state of rest, as in meditative techniques. Relaxation in the modern interpretation combines two approaches - auto-training and meditation.

Regular listening to classical works can really harmonize a person, cheer up or calm down. There were many scientific studies on this subject that proved this hypothesis

- Can listening to songs relieve stress?

— The song has not only music, but also the words themselves, and this is still a certain meaning. As a rule, any song addresses us to universal values, because it is sung about love, acceptance, forgiveness. When listening to such songs, there is a transformation in the human psyche, a change in his attitude towards himself and the world. Folk, folklore, ritual, new-age songs, activate the resources of self-healing.

There is a metaphorical meaning in songs that allows you to bring to the surface and realize the inner experiences of a person. It is like a fairy tale therapy, when a person perceives himself as one or another hero, lives through some kind of story and, as a result, understands something new for himself. Or a person can watch a movie and associate himself with some hero. The song is about the same.

There is also vocal therapy as a kind of art therapy, which is used purposefully by psychotherapists. It helps to cultivate willpower, optimism. In Soviet times, there was such a slogan: "The song helps us to build and live." Realistically, it is.

— Can dancing relieve stress?

— As for dancing, since ancient times it has been considered a way of expressing one's feelings and thoughts. Dance is also used by psychotherapists to relieve mental and physical stress. This is the so-called dance-movement therapy or dance therapy.

In today's society there are limitations in terms of expressing strong feelings. The person must be socially acceptable. To be a convenient employee, a member of the family, he should not actively splash out emotions, but should restrain himself.

But emotions accumulate, tear us apart and then shoot at our target organs, which leads after some time to psychosomatic illnesses. Muscle clamps and blocks are well known to everyone, they are markers of clamped and unreacted feelings. Dancing just serves as an excellent method of expressing difficult to verbalize feelings and emotions. In America, since the 40s of the last century, military neuroses and post-traumatic stress syndrome have been treated with dancing. It was believed that this is the path to the squeezed consciousness through the experiences of the individual.

I recently watched a dance therapy workshop. Young people of working age took part. Young people now have many problems with the musculoskeletal system, back pain appears early, osteochondrosis has become “younger”. Accordingly, earlier there are problems with the internal organs, because the innervation is difficult. However, as it was noted at the seminar, young people now do not know how to dance and move like that, this is especially noticeable in pair dances, as a person of their age should move, and this, of course, is a reflection of their general “blockage”. The goal of a psychotherapist is to help a person who is secretive and cannot express his emotions just like that.

Photo Maxim Platonov
Dancing is an excellent method of expressing feelings and emotions that are difficult to verbalize. In America, since the 40s of the last century, military neuroses and post-traumatic stress syndrome have been treated with dancing. It was believed that this is the way to a constricted consciousness through personal experiences

“The mental state directly affects the physical well-being and health of a person in general”

— If a city dweller who rarely leaves his home or office starts at least three times a week start walking in the forest or park, how will this affect your health?

— If a person lives in a city, then walking is very important for him. But to say that he needs to go out exactly three times a week is like saying to everyone: “You need to take three pills.” It is so established in our country that we prescribe three tablets a day for a girl of 18 years old, weighing 50 kg, and for a man over 60 years old, under 100 kg, we also prescribe three tablets a day. This is nonsense.

And it's also not entirely correct to prescribe three walks a week for everyone. Maybe every day or three times a day you need to walk? This is especially true for men who are used to holding back feelings and accumulating stress; and they have no time to walk without a good reason, they need to walk down the street only for some purpose, for example, to a store or to work. Just like that, going out for a walk, as a rule, men consider it a waste of time and are unlikely to go out into the street in order to relieve tension. Although in fact it is necessary first of all. As our great sage and philosopher Plato said: “Health is not all that is needed, but nothing is needed without it.

There are scientific observations about dog owners having to walk several times a day for half an hour every day with their pets. It turned out that they live longer and feel better than their peers who do not have dogs.

Regular walks are good, no matter how much. The main thing here is that a person does not just go to wander, but first sets a goal for himself: "I go for a walk in order to relieve stress, reboot, improve my well-being, relax." Before you do anything, create positive attitudes. First thought, then action.

Photo Maxim Platonov
If a person lives in a city, then walks are very important for him. But to say that he needs to go out exactly three times a week is the same as saying to everyone: “You need to take three pills.”

— What diseases does stress lead to?

- You can imagine a pyramid where a healthy, viable person with a good quality of life and an optimistic attitude stands at the top. This pyramid will be based on a triangle, where the three corners that determine our viability will be: the immune, nervous and endocrine systems.


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