08 Dec 4 Ways Movement Will Help You With Stress Management
You’d be hard-pressed to find an adult who doesn’t experience some sort of stress in their lives. Whether it’s pressures at work or responsibilities at home, we all deal with forms of stress. Stress management, or finding healthy ways to deal with stress, is something everyone should work on for themselves.
Today, we’re going to talk about four ways that movement will help you with stress management.
How Stress Works
It might be hard to believe, but stress hasn’t always been a bad thing. Our bodies developed stress hormones as a means of reacting to protect ourselves. They’re part of our fight-or-flight response: You know, the one that tells us to escape danger.
When we sense something threatening, our bodies quickly release hormones that put us on guard. Our pulses quicken, we sweat, and our muscles tense as they prepare to respond. Our bodies focus on the essential functions keeping us alive, like breathing and blood flow. Non-essential functions like digestion slow down. This is okay in fleeting moments of self-defense but isn’t healthy over long periods.
While we can’t necessarily remove all sources of stress from our lives, we can help our bodies handle its effects. Moving your body relieves or reduces many of the physical and mental symptoms of stress. In particular, the meditative and controlled body movements we perform with yoga are great for counteracting and relieving stress.
Reduce Stress Hormones
As we mentioned, when faced with a stressful scenario, our bodies release chemicals that prepare us to respond. Adrenaline and cortisol are hormones that our adrenal glands produce to hype up our bodies in defense. They increase our heart rates, raise our blood pressure, and slow our non-essential systems.
Movement and exercise help with stress management by reducing the production of stress hormones and allowing our bodies to resume functioning normally. Yoga relaxes your body with a combination of physical poses, focused breathing, and meditation. Your internal systems can go about business as usual without the perceived threat of danger, and you can enjoy relief from the worrisome and unnerving sensations stress generates.
Physical movement reduces stress hormones and elevates your mood, helping you manage the effects of stress on your body.
Boost Your Endorphins
Who doesn’t love endorphins? They’re the calming, mood-improving hormones your body releases that ease pain and are responsible for the “runner’s high” you’ve probably heard of. Regardless of what stress you’re carrying, the immediate and natural relief endorphins provide will improve your mood and brighten your day.
Runners aren’t the only ones who can enjoy the surge of happiness brought on by physical activity. Any aerobic exercise encourages the release of endorphins, and in turn, creates a better disposition for you. The lower intensity exercise and meditative experience you can enjoy with yoga at VIBE will relax and energize you. And with our fitness classes like VIBE HIIT, VIBE-X8, VIBE Power, and VIBE Shred, your endorphins will flow and you’ll feel happier and lighter.
Get a Mental Break
When you’re busy focusing on an activity, you’re much less likely to let your stressors consume your thoughts. Movement and exercise are effective stress management tools because they help you break stressful thought patterns. Focusing on your single task of carrying out your workout, and the often repetitive movements in physical activity, give your mind and body a chance to lower stress levels and relax.
Yoga is one of the most popular forms of movement for stress relief, and for good reason. Practicing yoga includes stress-reducing techniques like relaxing your body and clearing your mind. And with conscious and concentrated breathing, you can achieve a state of meditation that truly lets you leave your stresses behind.
If you’re interested in seeing how yoga can help you with stress management, sign up for one of our in-studio or virtual classes at VIBE!
Improve Your Self-Image
Self-esteem can be a source of stress. In a world where we’re continually seeing images and information that encourage us to look or be a certain way, it’s difficult to avoid creating expectations of what we think our appearance should be. Feeling as if our bodies aren’t what we want them to be can create stress and discomfort.
Physical movement like yoga is a great tool for managing this especially challenging form of stress because it empowers us. When you’re regularly strengthening your body and focusing on your thoughts with meditation, you feel more confident and experience higher self-esteem. Making fitness part of your lifestyle helps you to take pride in your body and its capabilities, and reduces self-image related stressors.
Stress is an unavoidable aspect of our lives, but with movement and physical activity, you can manage it and not let it dominate your days. The next time you’re having a stressful day, try taking a brisk walk or set aside some time for yoga, and see how quickly you feel better.
Want to reduce your stress and move your body from the comfort of your home? Sign up for one of our VIBE On-Demand classes! From yoga and barre to fitness and kickboxing, there’s a class for everyone at every level.
