With all the distractions, pressure at work, and social media it is easy to let your calm state of mind slip away. Do you feel like your mind can’t turn off during the day? You may feel like your body is anxious internally because your mind is running a million miles per hour from morning to night. If you struggle to sleep at night, recover from workouts, or reach full productivity, it is time to calm your mind and heal your body. Our bodies are not built to live in a stressed state. So, instead of grabbing another cup of coffee today to beat a deadline, take ten minutes to read how to calm your mind and body.

Let’s consider the last time you evaluated your state of mind, not from a place of judgement but awareness. Be honest with yourself, are you calm and relaxed throughout the day or stressed and anxious? To be the healthiest version of yourself, it is imperative that you learn to be in control of your mind. The first step is recognizing that there is a problem and then seeking a solution. At Vessel, your overall health and wellness is very important. We are always in search of new strategies to help optimize and become the best version of ourselves. 

How Can a Stressed Mind Affect The Body?

Our bodies are complex systems, that’s why we must take the time to make sure our mind is calm. We may be resilient humans, but our mind is not intended to live in “flight or fight” mode 24/7. When you allow yourself to live in a stressed or frantic state, your body often takes the beating. What does this look like? Chronic stress can lead to increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, hormone dysregulation, anxiety, depression, heart disease, and more. 

8 Tips for Calming Your Mind and Healing Your Body

We can’t promise you will wake up tomorrow feeling calm but our members have experienced improvements with consistent effort. The great thing is, there’s many ways you can calm your mind. No matter if you are in the comfort of your home, the gym, or at work! There is a strategy that will work for everyone but you have to make the conscious effort of calming your mind and allow your body to heal. 

Start a Gratitude Journal 

What is your perspective and thoughts upon rising in the morning? Kicking off your day by journaling on what you are grateful for can really set the tone for the day. If you find yourself overwhelmed by all the things you need to do and have, ground yourself. Drawing, focus on the things you have and what you’ve accomplished can be great areas to focus on. Start off by listing three things you are grateful for each morning. 

Practice Meditation 

Meditation can be done using many different techniques which can include guided meditation, breath work, yoga, nature sounds, concentration, etc. With all of these techniques, the outcome remains the same; being able to connect with your deeper self without the influence of the outer world. There’s research that supports meditations ability to reduce stress, blood pressure, pain, depression, and anxiety while improving efficiency, memory, and creativity. The most important factor is that you remain consistent with this practice. Start with something as simple as a 5 minute guided meditation before bed or in the morning. 

Set Daily Intentions 

When you reach the end of the day, are you left feeling unaccomplished after scrambling around? You may keep a running tab of things that need to be accomplished in your brain but have no true intentions of completing them. Setting daily intentions allows us to view things from a different perspective and provides a clear path to our desires. You can start with three daily intentions that you believe will have a positive impact on your life. For example, set a daily intention to walk 10,000 steps per day to prevent a sedentary lifestyle. 

Try a Yoga or Pilates Class 

There’s been extensive research regarding the impact yoga has on stress, anxiety, and depression. It comes as no shock that people show up more frequently to yoga when their perceived stress increases. We can also make an assumption from this that yoga provides relief from the daily stressors of everyday life. Yoga and pilates can offer various benefits and it can depend on your age and choice of yoga practice. Some offer more mindfulness techniques, others more mobility, and some offer a mixture. Whichever style of yoga you choose, the higher chances of you leaving class feeling lighter, less stressed, and more mobile! So, grab a friend and schedule yourself a yoga or pilates class. Are you nervous to try in person or have a hectic schedule? Youtube offers a great selection of yoga classes that you can easily do at home on your schedule. 

Deep Breathing 

There isn’t anything more in this world that you need, quite literally. Do you recall the days of kindergarten where there was huge emphasis on using the “count to ten” strategies? It might be time to bring that one back into the schedule. Deep breathing has the ability to relax our nervous system and calm our mind. There is a study that shows an improvement in salivary cortisol levels and heart rate when using deep breathing techniques. Our cortisol levels impact the regulation of our metabolism, stress response, immune system function and inflammatory response. 

Socialize with Friends and Family 

Life during a pandemic that created social distancing and stay at home orders for extended periods of time resulted in a decrease of socialization for many. We’ve seen the effects of this and other factors on the mental health of our population. According to the CDC in late June 40% of Americans reported mental health struggles and/or substance abuse. When we socialize with others, we feel important and reminded of the love that surrounds us and moments we are grateful for. It is a reminder that you aren’t alone in your struggles and provides a safe and healthy outlet to discuss the struggles you are handling with others that can provide support or guidance. 

Set Work Boundaries 

Work, home, and life boundaries can be crossed without hesitation or awareness from many, which often includes ourselves. Over the last year, many individuals transitioned to working from home and fought an uphill battle of shutting down the laptop and spending time with family. The lines can easily become blurred without a drive to break up your day. This can lead to a stress and anxiety filled day that rolls into your evening, and prevents you from giving 100% to each sector of your life. Try doing something that can set the mark for starting and ending your work day like listening to music, going for a walk, sitting on your couch, getting dressed, or spending time with your significant other. 

Practice Self Love 

We saved the best one for last because without practicing self love you will not be willing to do any of the above. For you to want to truly calm your mind and body, you need to love yourself enough to set priorities for yourself, have work boundaries in place, practice meditation, and more. If you’ve had a long day don’t beat yourself up about it, instead redirect the energy into something that you can benefit from like focusing on what you can improve and what you are grateful for. Is there a reminder that you need to hear daily? If so, search for positive affirmations that you can post around your home, on your bathroom mirror, or as a background on your home screen. 

Summary 

There’s many things you can do to help calm your mind and body. The best way to get started is by selecting one or two items from the list and begin incorporating them into your lifestyle. Once you’ve mastered both of your initial choices, start stacking additional items on top of one another to promote an environment for a healthy mind and body! If you find yourself confused about the right strategy to choose or want to take advantage of the features Vessel offers inside of our app, reach out to our nutrition coaches for personalized assistance!