Relaxation Haven

Posts Tagged ‘Relaxation tips’

One of the biggest causes of premature aging is stress. Because we live in a fast paced world it can be easy to live life at 100mph without every taking a break. When you feel stressed your mind activates its survival instincts, a throwback to our more primitive days. This survival mode directs blood to the more essential organs needed to live. The skin isn’t one of these “essential” organs and neither is the digestive system. This means that not only does your skin suffer directly but you are also failing to intake the proper nutrients required to maintain youthful looking skin.

Retain your youthful looks.

So it’s clear that to stay looking young you need to relax and reduce your stress levels. If you follow the advice below your skin will noticeably improve and stay looking young.

1.  Sleep

Sleep helps to rejuvenate the body and mind, meaning everything functions better. This includes the health of your skin. Typically people require from six to eight hours sleep a night. If you struggle with your sleeping patterns you may want to look at another article – Ways To Sleep Better.

2.  Diet

Your skin needs the certain nutrients to keep its youthful appearance. To make sure you are getting these nutrients you should up your intake of fruit and vegetables while reducing the consumptions of salty or sugary foods. Omega fatty acids such as those found in fish are also incredibly beneficial to your skin so you should aim to try and eat at least two or three portions of oily fish a week.

3.  Exercise

Exercise is one of the cornerstones of any health regime. It even has a positive effect on your skin. Exercise has been shown to lower stress levels and is well known to give people a “healthy glow”. Just thirty minutes of walking a day will visibly improve your skin. One point of note though is that sweat contains salt, so after working up a sweat you should make sure to wash it off with warm water.

4.  Facial Massage

Treat yourself to a few bottles of massage oil. Every night you can gently massage the oil around your face (be careful around the eyes). This relaxes the facial muscles and stimulates blood flow.

5.  Relaxation Techniques

There are a number of relaxation techniques you can use to improve your skin and stay looking young. Perhaps the best of all the options is hypnotherapy. Not only does hypnotherapy relax you but you can get sessions specifically catered towards skincare. For example HypnoBusters have Sensation Skin Hypnosis and Hypnotic Botox MP3s that can work wonders. This can be listened at bedtime, they will also help you drift off to a deep, restful sleep.

I’ve mentioned aromatherapy a few times here on Relaxation Haven but I’ve yet to discuss it in depth…until now. Aromatherapy is considered to be a form of alternative medicine. The theory is that certain aromas can

Enjoy the relaxing aroma of lavender.

be used to aid someone’s health or mood. Now I don’t know from personal experience how well aromatherapy works directly in improving a person’s health. However I do know that it is a useful therapy in aiding relaxation, which indirectly does aid both physical and mental health.

Not only does lavender produce a relaxing aroma but it is also both antiseptic and anti-inflammatory. However before you use it in the manners I am about to suggest you should take care as lavender is an allergen, so start by using a small amount.

3 Ways of Relaxing With Aromatherapy

1. After a stressful day (and what day doesn’t contain stress?) take a nice, warm bath – complete with a few drops of essential oil. Not only will the warm water loosen any tension but the aromatherapy oils will also help to recharge you physically and mentally. Even after your bath you will be able to smell the oils on your body – relaxing you and relieving you of any stress.

2. If you have to drive often you are probably familiar with the stresses that driving brings. Gridlocked roads, inconsiderate drivers and a host of other problems can ruin any car journey. To combat this what you can do is dip a cotton wool ball in essential oil and place it near to an air condition vent. This will circulate the relaxing aroma all over the car and relieve any road rage you may be feeling. You will probably need to replace the cotton ball every two or three days.

3. Pour several drops of essential oil onto a tissue (or handkerchief). Carry it around with you, and whenever you begin to feel stress or tension build hold the tissue to your nose and take several deep breaths. Now you have your very own portable relaxation system!

As I mentioned earlier lavender is the most common aroma used for relaxation but if you aren’t keen on the smell or are allergic there are many other aromas you can use. Eucalyptus, lemon oil and peppermint are all commonly used to aid relaxation and are well worth trying.

Aromatherapy is a very affordable form of relaxation; a bottle of essential oil should only cost a few dollars and it will last you a good month or two is used sparingly. A number of websites sell essential oils, candles, vaporisers etc or if you have an alternative healing store in your local area drop in and you’ll be able to find everything you need.

With a new year around the corner it is time to think about the year behind us as well as to plan for the future. Most people typically do this in the form of New Year’s Resolutions. There are a bunch of common resolutions of course, such as “lose weight”, “quit smoking”, “get fit” and so on. Unfortunately these resolutions are often forgotten about by February. What I plan on teaching you in this article is not only how to make New Year’s Resolutions but how to successfully achieve them as well.

Before we go any further though I would be remiss not to mention what I consider to be the most important resolution of all, and that is to relax more often. If that’s not on your list already it should be, so go on and add it now!

Start the new year with a bang!

I’m going to use the goal of relaxation to show you how to achieve any New Year’s Resolution. It’s not good enough to simply write down “relax more” on a piece of paper, or mentally and then just expect it to happen. Not only do you need a goal, you also need a plan.

So take a minute to think about it. How exactly can you relax more? Well first of all you need to find time. If you are a busy person then you need to think about how to make more time for yourself. Are there activities you do that you don’t need or have to do? Maybe you could drop a night class that you aren’t finding as enthralling as you first expecting or perhaps you could turn the TV and internet off for one night a week.

Now that you’ve found the time, all you have to do this relax. Even that though raises further questions. How do you relax? Well that is really a subjective question. What relaxes you personally. Some people like to curl up with a good book while others relieve stress by hitting the gym. Maybe you could spend your newfound time meditating or improving yourself with self hypnosis. Whatever the answer, as long as the result is relaxation then you are achieving your goal.

This is the sort of mental process you have to go through if you really intend to be successful with your New Year’s Resolutions. This thought process can be put to any resolution whether it’s spending more time with your family, lowering your golfing handicap or becoming more well read.

From Relaxation Haven we wish you a happy and prosperous 2010!