Once upon a time, like most people I know, I thought a life of stress and tension was quite normal. Getting up in the morning, I already felt that I had not gotten enough sleep, although I could no longer fall asleep. Of course, I was looking for ways to relieve nervous and mental stress and relax, but until I understood the cause of this tension and the subsequent stress, all my attempts led to nothing.
And these are the reasons for mental tension and stress that I want to share with you today. Perhaps they will help you get out of this state, as they once helped me.
Where does nervous tension come from in our lives?
We strive for peace of mind all the time. The more we strive for it, the more elusive it seems. Thanks to our lifestyle, the constant pursuit of desires (sometimes contradictory to each other), we continue to create stress in our lives and accumulate tension within us. We try to do something to make us feel happy, we run after all kinds of luxuries, hoping for peace of mind, but to no avail. We forget that to relieve tension and relax, we need to look inward rather than outward.
A pebble thrown into a pond creates ripples. External pleasures can help the ripples continue, but we must stop throwing stones into the water to find peace of mind. Only when we do not stir up the water, only then the surface of the water, like our mind, is calm.
Yoga and Qigong help not only the body, but also the mind. The mind is the place where all tensions and anxieties reside. They become so ingrained in our minds that they sink more and more into the depths of our psyche and begin to influence our consciousness and control our mood even without our knowledge.
Feelings of sadness, anxiety, failure, power, greed, jealousy, etc. If not eliminated, they constantly pop up in our minds. These feelings then continue to surface more frequently and then create tension and unexplained mood swings within us.
Types of nervous tension
There are three types of tension: muscular, mental and emotional. All of them can be controlled through the practice of yoga.
Muscle tension
This is tension in the physical body, nervous system, digestive problems, hormonal imbalance or any disease. This voltage can be measured using tests.
They are easy to handle. They can be felt physically and can be easily eliminated through appropriate practice of hatha yoga, asanas and pranayamas. Qigong is also very effective in dealing with this type of tension.
Emotional stress
This tension is a result of emotions such as feelings of hatred, love, loss, success, failure, death, happiness, etc. Emotions sometimes lead to confusion and are difficult to deal with. Things like expressing yourself clearly, facing honest facts are all difficult, leading to shock and increased tension.
Sometimes emotional tension is released in the form of dreams or other areas or experiences. But otherwise, effort must be made to relax the mind.
Emotional stress can be overcome through the practice of Karma Yoga and Bhakti.
Karma yoga is not any physical yoga that includes asanas and exercises. This is yoga on the mental level, yoga to discipline the senses, mind and emotions. This can be practiced all the time while doing office work or work from home.
Karma Yoga is the attitude of doing work without any expectations. The work must be done with all your heart and don't expect anything in return. This is getting joy from the process of work itself. This requires a big change in ideas and perspectives and can take several days or years. When you don't expect, you don't add mental garbage to your mind. If the task is completed successfully, everything is in order, if not, then everything is also in order. It's treating work like play.
But, at the same time, this is not a disregard for what you do. The work is done with all the heart, with full dedication, at the highest level. The only difference is that you do not take credit for the results of this work.
Bhakti Yoga means surrendering everything to a higher power. For some, this may mean God or simply their Guru, Teacher. You should understand and accept that everything that happens happens according to his will, and I am just an intermediary - a guide. This means complete devotion and boundless love for your deity (no matter what form it is expressed in). It is love that becomes a guiding light.
Emotions create chaos in our mind. When emotions dominate our wisdom, they cause us to pursue the eternal enjoyment of life, which leads to repeated disappointments. Then we participate in the eternal race for what we want. Only in this case the object of desire is God.
With the practice of Bhakti, love and emotions are channeled into a higher power, keeping us bright and peaceful.
Mental stress
Mental stress is caused by excessive intellectual activity. The intellectual processes of the mind create balance or imbalance. The mind is a whirlpool of fantasies, delusions and hesitations. Over the years, the number of these whirlpools increases, which affects our lives. These accumulated feelings - happy or sad - affect our mood from time to time. We sometimes get angry, irritable or depressed and blame it on a superficial reason, other people, circumstances - which is not always true. It is what is within us on the mental level that causes us to see things as good or bad.
It is our thoughts, which are a consequence of what happened to us and what decisions were made, that force us to make one assessment or another. And when our idea does not coincide with what is happening to us, we get nervous mental tension.
Before such accumulated feelings begin to affect daily life, it is important to clear the mind. To detoxify the mind, release deep-rooted experiences, beliefs and ideas, and relieve stress, meditation is the key. When released emotions are released, a feeling of nothingness and calm arises.
Of course, in the process of release you may be thrown from one extreme to another, sudden mood swings are possible, but if you have a strong determination to reach the end and find peace, it will be worth it.
There are several ways to practice meditation. Different methods suit different people. But starting is what matters. What you like or dislike will be a process of self-discovery over a period of time.
How to cure mental stress
Nervous and mental tension, symptoms, stages and how to relieve nervous tension in its various stages, what you need to know, treatment.
Good afternoon everyone! Let's talk about nervous tension. Tension that arises as a result of various psycho-emotional stress, be it the solution to some problem or experience. It is very important for anyone to learn to recognize this or that tension in time and relieve it in time. Know how and what to do in a situation of mild or severe tension, which can easily turn into neurosis. First of all, this is our health, both mental and, of course, physical. Everything is nearby. How to relieve tension, what methods and what stages of tension there are. In order to control your emotions, manage them and promptly catch yourself when tension arises, you need to know yourself well and your individual characteristics. Only this will allow you to react and switch positively and correctly. And of course, this will require some strength and energy from you. I will write in my own words, without any scientific expressions, it will be easier for me and I think more understandable for you.
Relieve stress through meditation
Mantra Japa, Antar Mauna and Yoga Nidra are very effective and easy to practice ways to achieve a state of meditation.
- Mantra japa or repetition of mantra penetrates the mind where thoughts are found as seeds. From there they act on deep-seated feelings and expel them. However, in the initial stages of mantra practice, the mind becomes more restless. But when thoughts lose their power, the burdened mind becomes calmer. Tensions are released, leaving the world behind. The easiest way to practice mantra japa is with beaded strings or beads.
- Antar Mauna or Inner Silence is a practice in which one simply observes the behavior of the mind without any judgment or hindrance. The practitioner simply observes what is happening in his mind without any bias or analysis. When the mind ruminates on a thought, we can become sad or happy. The idea of this practice is not to touch our thoughts, but to simply look at them with detachment, like in a movie. Observe your thoughts as if they were not yours. This practice will also help in releasing tension.
- Yoga Nidra or psychic sleep is a relaxation technique where you are not actually sleeping. When lying down, every part of the body relaxes, and then the mind relaxes. This is a powerful technique that results in powerful release of tension and strengthening of goals. This practice takes only half an hour a day.
Like anything new, it will take you some time to master meditation practices. It may take several attempts to achieve a meditative state, depending on the state of mind and how relaxed or agitated the person is. There is no need to be discouraged, just keep practicing to get relief.
Zhdanov Oleg. Four degrees of mental stress
Oleg Igorevich Zhdanov has been running his own program for effective stress and life management “Life Management” at the GO-UP club since 2005.
About the author:
Psychoneurologist of the highest category, Doctor of Psychology, Professor of the Russian Academy of Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation, Colonel. Graduated from the Military Medical Academy in St. Petersburg. For more than 25 years he headed the psychological service of the Cosmonaut Training Center named after. Yu.A. Gagarin. Read more…
About the program:
Stress is a reaction of the body that occurs in response to a variety of extreme influences. The key word in this definition is “reaction”... Read more...
Author's training by Oleg Igorevich Zhdanov...
Four degrees of mental stress
Neuropsychic stress is a special mental state that occurs in difficult, unusual conditions for the psyche, requiring a restructuring of the entire adaptive system of the body.
There are four degrees of
neuropsychic tension .
1. First degree
characterized by improved attention and mobilization. Both the mental and physical capabilities of the body and performance increase. The body's resistance to adverse factors increases.
At the initial stage of working on an important and interesting goal, your NPI will probably be within the first degree. The process of working on a task completely absorbs you. Working time flies quickly and unnoticed. It is filled with many important things that give you pleasure. You rarely feel hungry and usually snack on the go. You try to spend more time at work, don’t rush home.
Use this period of increased productivity by trying to get a lot of things done. Also, remember to rest, get enough sleep and eat well.
2. Second degree
tension is typical for situations where the level of mobilization of reserves, typical for the first degree, is insufficient. Physiological changes and mental changes are more pronounced here. Physiological processes are rearranged in such a way as to provide the body with the opportunity to solve a more complex problem. The body's energy resources are mobilized almost completely.
Work still gives you pleasure, but you began to notice that at times you have a headache, periods of decreased appetite alternate with periods of acute hunger. Your loved ones note that you look somewhat tired, and you yourself understand that you need to rest a little and recover.
Pay attention to how you feel. Try to take breaks from work more often. In an office setting, this means two hours of productive work, then a break of half an hour. It’s great if you can spend these minutes in the fresh air.
Remember that the best rest is a change of activities. Do not abuse tea, coffee, cigarettes. Eat healthy, light foods. Take vitamins. Ventilate the room more often.
3. Third degree
neuropsychic stress occurs when the situation is insurmountable. The body's intellectual and energy resources sharply decrease, and immunity drops.
The process of working on the project is dragging on. You notice that it is difficult for you to concentrate, concentrate, or remember something. Personality traits appear that interfere with productive communication and which you previously successfully hid (shyness, indecisiveness), and chronic diseases worsen.
It is necessary to give a break to the nervous system, to abandon solving the problem for a while. If possible, take one or two days off and make the most of it. Turn off your cell phone. Go fishing, hunting or to a country house, go to the park. If you don’t want to do anything, just get some sleep and ventilate the room more often. Forget about work for a while, nothing too irreparable will happen during your absence there.
If it is impossible to take a day off, work these days with the least stress. Warn your colleagues with whom you are doing a common task about your condition so that they try to get by without you for a while.
Remember that you won’t be able to work productively in this state, and therefore don’t direct your energy to important things.
Do something that doesn't require strenuous effort (perhaps simple paperwork). Leave for lunch on time and finish your work day. Drink more fluids (juices, still mineral water).
4. Fourth degree
mental stress occurs if the relevance of the problem requiring solution does not decrease, and the possibility of solving it does not arise. Its result is neurosis, which requires treatment in a specialized clinic.
The level and degree of neuropsychic stress vary depending on various conditions, especially on the resources available to the body. In physically and psychologically trained people, even in extreme situations, high degrees of mental stress rarely occur.
Characterizing the development of mental stress among workers involved in the preparation of a project, we note that mental stress arises both at the initial stage of work and at the final stage (delivery of the project, its presentation). But they differ in focus and content.
The tension in preparation is associated mainly with the process of activity, with the need to withstand an ever-increasing mental load. In extreme conditions of project presentation, mental stress is added to it, determined by the desire to achieve a result.
The state of mental tension, if it is not represented by the third and fourth stages, is a positive factor, reflecting the activation of all functions and systems of the body, harmoniously included in the activity and ensuring its high productivity. However, high and prolonged stress can have a negative impact on both the body and mental state.
Prolonged hard work leads to mental stress. In the conditions of modern enterprises, this particular mode is used more and more often, since at an ultra-high level of production achievements only it provides a significant increase in results.
Managers who direct employees to work in conditions that cause a state of mental overstrain should remember that such a regime can only be effective for a short time.
Mental and physical exhaustion occurs extremely quickly, because the body works for wear and tear.
Zhdanov O.I. Author's training “Stress management. Life Management"
