Tips to help you relax

Feeling overwhelmed by work deadlines, household demands, and the constant hustle of daily life? You’re not alone. Many of us struggle to balance a clean home, active children, work, sports, cultural events, and social commitments. It’s easy to feel like it’s all too much.

Sanitas, the leading Swiss insurer, offers tips to help you take care of your health. They recommend taking regular breaks to ease the stress and recharge. Even short moments of relaxation can make a big difference in managing life’s challenges.

Here are five simple exercises to help you relax and recharge amidst your busy routine:

1. Practice abdominal breathing

Breathe in … breathe out … breathe in … breathe out … the stress fades a little with every breath you take. All of us have access to the simplest means of relaxation: breathing. When we’re nervous or stressed, we often breathe shallowly and quickly. However, long and deep breathing calms our whole body. Better still, this exercise can be done while standing, sitting or lying down.

Here’s how: Assume a comfortable position, place your hands on your stomach and breathe in deeply through your nose. Make sure that your breath flows down into your stomach. Your abdominal wall rises. Your concentration is now entirely on your breathing. Hold the air in your stomach for a moment and then exhale in a relaxed manner from your mouth. With each repetition, the mind becomes a little calmer and more relaxed. Repeat ten or more times.

2. Relax your muscles 

When you rush from one task to the next every day, you often unconsciously tense your whole body. This leaves you exhausted. This exercise helps you to loosen the muscles.

Here’s how: Close your eyes and tense all the muscles in your body – in your face, arms, hands, stomach, legs, buttocks and feet – at the same time for ten seconds. Then release the tension again in a controlled manner and consciously perceive the relaxation in your whole body. It’s a good feeling! Repeat the exercise five times and then stretch and release.   

3. Do a three-point face massage 

Our eyes are often strained throughout the day, especially when we’re working at a computer screen. Taking a break every now does them good.

Here’s how: Close your eyes. Grasp the bridge of your nose with your thumb and middle finger. Place your index finger between your eyebrows. Now massage with all three fingers in small circles for 20 seconds. This exercise is also perfect if you wear glasses.    

4. Enjoy the warmth

Having a hot bath or wrapping yourself in a cosy blanket on the sofa are perfect examples of doing something good for yourself. Warmth has a beneficial effect on the body and mind and is associated in our minds with relaxation. You can also enjoy the same effect while on the move.

Here’s how: Consciously take a tea or coffee break. Hold the warm cup in both hands and close your eyes. Now run the cup over your cheeks. Enjoy the warmth and pause for a moment. Washing your hands consciously in warm water for a moment can also help.  

5. Shift your perspective

Visiting another world beyond your own everyday life every now and then can be hugely liberating and provide new perspectives. If time is short, even ten minutes a day will do. The important thing is not to create any additional pressure to perform. It’s supposed to be fun!

Here’s how: Consciously choose topics that have interested you for a long time – but which definitely don’t have anything to do with your job. Why not listen to the great classics of world literature for ten minutes a day? Or a podcast about equality, philosophy or religion? And didn’t the winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics recently upload a fascinating video ...?

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