10 very simple tricks to relax your mind quickly

Stress is the number one enemy of our society. We run from one side to the other with the minutes counted and, even so, 24 hours a day are not enough for us. With this frenetic pace, it is not strange that anxiety and stress knock on our door. However, sometimes small changes to your daily routine are enough to relax and keep stress out of the home.

Effective tricks to relax quickly

1. Breath deeply. Find a quiet place, where you won’t be disturbed. Close the eyes and breathe in through the nose, hold it and then gently exhale it through the mouth. Focus on the sound your breathing makes and that feeling of inhalation and exhalation. While you do this there will be no room in your mind for anything else. Ideally, you should take 20 breaths, take a pause and repeat the exercise again, until you feel completely calm. If you prefer, with each exhalation you can mentally repeat to yourself: “I am relaxed, nothing disturbs me.”
2. Imagine a white wall. Find a place where you are comfortable and know that you will not be disturbed. Close your eyes and visualize a white wall in front of you, recreate that color and imagine the wall with all its details and imperfections. As long as you stay focused on this exercise, there will be no room in your mind for anything else so you can take a few minutes of rest and break the cycle of ruminative thoughts.
3. Listen to relaxing music. Each person is a world, what can relax some, can upset others. You will have to find the music that helps you release tension. Most people relax with ambient or new age music but others prefer classical music. You will have to find the sound that calms you down. The idea is that you close your eyes and completely abandon yourself to the music. You can imagine how the musical notes flood you and make you feel relaxed, as if it were the flow of a river that takes away all your stress.
4. Enjoy the nature. Contact with nature is one of the most relaxing activities that exist. However, you will have to do a little on your part, it is not about going to a park or the sea to continue thinking about your problems but learning to enjoy the environment. Focus on one aspect, which could be the movement of the waves or the leaves of the trees. Think that you form an indissoluble unity with nature and let that stillness wash over you.
5. Take a hot bath.  It’s not about taking a quick shower but about filling the bathtub, playing background music and enjoying a bath with hot water, without rushing. In fact, it has been shown that hot baths not only help us eliminate stress but also improve our mood and help us cope with the feeling of loneliness.
6. Practice your hobbies. Appointments, commitments, work and family take up a lot of our time and we often put our hobbies aside because we prioritize other activities. However, hobbies are an incredible source of satisfaction, so we should dedicate at least a few hours a week to them. Do you like to paint, read, watch a good movie, dance, do crafts…? Find a space in your schedule for these activities because they not only bring you joy but also help you relax and make you forget about your problems.
7. Do sports. You don’t necessarily have to go to a gym, you can go for a walk in nature or even practice yoga at home. The important thing is that you enjoy this activity and that you stay in shape. It has been shown that when we practice physical exercise we release dopamine and endorphins, hormones that generate a feeling of well-being and relaxation that make us feel better.
8. Turn to visualization.  It is one of the most powerful techniques in Psychology and is very simple to apply, you just need a little practice. Find a quiet place and close your eyes. Choose a scene that is comforting to you. It can be real or imaginary, recreate it in its smallest details so that it seems like you are there. While you live it, feel how tranquility and peace flood over you. It is as if it were a movie in which you are the protagonist and the objective is to enjoy.
9. Learn to be fully present. We often get stressed because we are in one place doing something but we think about the problems we have to solve. This means that we are not able to enjoy the small pleasures in life. Therefore, a very simple strategy to learn to relax is to be fully present when we enjoy some activity, even the most inconsequential one, like eating an orange. Focus on the sensations that come to you through your senses, you will discover a totally new dimension of each of the activities you do daily.
10. Don’t put pressure on yourself. If you don’t get it the first time, don’t worry. Learning to relax is a process that takes practice and not everyone is able to disconnect with the same ease. However, the good news is that once it becomes a habit, you will be able to relax more easily and everything will feel more natural. The secret is in perseverance.