Tips for Mindfully Releasing Tension & Stress

If tension, stress and/or anxiety have become a regular feature of your daily life, the following suggestions may help. The accumulation of tension and stress create excessive restlessness and inability to focus and relax (as I'm sure you know).
Breaking the habit and force of these accumulated energies can take a great deal of perseverance, as they dictate how we behave, what we feel, what we think and what we believe.
The practices and activities below cultivate presence when done mindfully and help to naturally discharge the accumulated energies which make it difficult to be present. Try substituting these for the less wholesome things you do (or consume) to unwind or relax.
Also, if you find it difficult to sit down and meditate, I recommend you do one or more of these activities beforehand.
- Listen to Meditation for Moving Through Resistance, Restlessness or Emotion
- Being grateful/practising gratitude
- Being in nature
- Walking (especially barefoot, when possible)
- Yoga, Tai Chi
- Other exercise done mindfully (e.g. being present in body, no music or screens)
- Cold exposure, cold shower (not recommended if you are depleted of energy or have weak constitution)
- Singing, dancing, laughing
- Being affectionate with a partner, giving your dog or cat a pat, watering your plants/garden
- Bilateral sounds
- Bowen Therapy, Craniosacral Therapy, Massage
- Join a Meditation class
When practising or participating in any of these activities, being present and mindful is the key as to whether they allow for a natural discharge and release of stress and tension or whether they are an unconscious expulsion of energy. Be aware of your inner state and focus, is there a forceful push or drive to release/get rid of energy or to go harder or further? Or are you present and aware?
Be aware of activities you engage in where there is a force or push to release or dissipate energy or the urge to express an emotion. These are areas that are ‘leaking’ energy and perpetuate unconscious, habitual patterns.
The above is an extract from my article Tips for Dealing with Resistance to Meditation.