Relaxation is one of the easiest ways to increase health and vitality. Without regular relaxation, stress levels can creep to dangerously high levels that negatively affect health. Relaxation practices ideally set aside time each day, as well as longer breaks on a weekly, monthly, and yearly rotation. Here are 9 ways relaxation can create health: 1. Protects Your Heart: The research is unanimously in favor of relaxation for heart health. Stress is as bad for your heart as other risk factors like high blood pressure and lack of exercise, and sudden shocks can cause a burst of adrenaline that can keep the heart from functioning correctly. 2. Reduce Inflammation/Boost Immune System: Chronic stress can double your risk of catching a cold, likely because it interferes with your body’s ability to “turn off” its inflammation response. 3. Improve Memory: Stress can impair the functioning of the prefrontal cortex, and even small stressors can reduce the brain’s ability to learn and remember. 4. Lower Risk of Stroke: People who cope best with stressful situations reduce their risk of stroke by 24%. 5. Fight Depression: The stress hormone cortisol can reduce levels of dopamine and seratonin, which is linked to depression. 6. Regulate Appetite: A lack of rest and regular sleep increases our appetite, especially for less healthy foods. Reducing stress and getting enough sleep is very helpful for bringing the body’s hunger cues back into healthy balance. 7. Better Problem Solving: Stress can kill brain cells in the hippocampus, which is linked to complex thinking and problem solving, whereas a good nap increases problem solving abilities by allowing the brain to work on making new connections between bits of information. 8. More Inspiration: When you turn down the volume of the outside world and relax into yourself, your intuitive and inspired self can be heard more easily. 9. Get to Know your Whole Self: A practice of restful self care opens you up to understanding who you are as a whole person, instead of focusing only on what you DO.
