Poems for children

Equilibrium within. Internal balance is a necessary condition for the realization of human life goals. Why more and more people are striving to find peace of mind

The unstable economic situation in the world and problems with a partner, lack of work and lack of funds to support a family - in a society, almost all people are exposed to stress. Some individuals skillfully cope with, directing negative energy in a positive direction. Others fall into depression, from which it is rather difficult to get out on their own.

Loss of harmony between mind and body is fraught with global health consequences. To prevent the occurrence of problems and deterioration of well-being, it is important to ask the following questions in time: How to restore mental balance? Is it possible to get rid of the internal imbalance? How to find harmony?

Signs of Chronic Stress and Internal Imbalances

It is of paramount importance to correctly and timely diagnose the presence of a mental imbalance in a person.

A similar state in psychology is characterized by a disease with the following behavioral and emotional signs:

Unreasonable manifestations of anger and anger.
Unreasonable touchiness.
Excessive emotionality and fussiness.
Lack of motivation and desire for self-improvement.
Prolonged depression.
Decreased concentration, distraction and inaccuracy.
A sharp decrease in performance.
Deterioration of memory, perception of new information and brain activity.
, dissatisfaction with the way of life.
Apathy for communicating with others, isolation and, bursting out from within.
Frustration and lethargy, accompanied by a feeling of fatigue.
Loss of interest in world events.
A pessimistic mood and negative thoughts are reasons to consider whether you have chronic stress.
Lack of appetite and decreased interest in favorite activities.
Unreasonable feeling of anxiety and fear, regular.
Unreasonable coldness towards a partner, manifested in the loss of sexual desire.
Violation of the usual daily routine, accompanied by insomnia.

The human body has the ability to regenerate and restore at the genetic level. Your task is to detect the problem in time, having enlisted the desire to find a way out of this situation.

Effective techniques to restore mental balance

Restoring peace of mind is easy. The main thing is to want to enjoy the pleasures of life again. If you want to get rid of a mental illness, then it is important to be guided in solving the problem by the following rules:

Tune in to change your lifestyle. Be patient and learn to perceive events from a positive point of view.
Learn Indian techniques for finding inner harmony. Meditation helps you move away from pressing problems, retiring in your own mind. Respiratory gymnastics "Pranayama" is popular among lovers of Ayurvedic techniques.
Become aware of the fact that life is made up of "white" and "black" stripes. If you add rationality to the worldview, then it will be easier to perceive the events that are taking place.
List 3-5 significant actions that you are proud of. Decorate your creation with an exquisite frame and hang it prominently in your bedroom. Remind yourself of past "victories" by stopping daily at a homemade painting.
with a loved one is another topical way to get rid of depression. Tell a friend or spouse about problems that are bothering you. Share your innermost thoughts, open up and accept the support, accompanied by parting words.
Learn to do nothing. Sitting by the window, observe the passers-by, talk about their behavior, distracting from me.
Write negative thoughts on paper, freeing your mind from negative energy. Throw away or burn a piece of paper that contains pressing problems, without a bit of regret.
Imagine without limiting your imagination to the framework of decency and morality. Visualize your wildest dreams by imagining the likelihood of such events happening.
Do charity work by helping people and animals in need. You don't need to be a millionaire to do a good deed. Compassion is shown in a bowl of food for a stray dog or a warm blanket donated to a newborn shelter.
Do not forget about physical activity, because with the help of sports you can quickly and without harm to health get rid of negative thoughts and negative energy. Join the gym or enjoy jogging exploring the landscape sights of the region.
Imagine that you are constantly inside a special protective ball that protects you from negative thoughts and negative energy.
Place your palm on your chest, feel the rhythm of your heart. Life beating inside can take on a completely different image. The main thing is to make an effort for this and want changes.
Try to stay calm and cool in stressful situations. With the help of decisive actions and rational thinking, you can quickly and without harm to your own reputation get out of the water. Have you been asked? Prepare generic responses well in advance, avoiding embarrassment.
Think about what you can be grateful for. Don't be dramatic by making a list like this. Life, loved ones, a warm jacket, a roof over your head, hot and hearty food - there are quite a few reasons to say "thank you".
Get rid of bad habits, looking at everyday things from a new angle. The flavor profile of food will change significantly if you quit smoking cigarettes.
Try to rationally evaluate what is happening. Take a look around, labeling items with characteristic names. Realities are much simpler than they seem at first glance.
Feel free to smile. The manifestation of a sincere positive emotion will not cause disgust or negativity in society, but, on the contrary, will contribute to a positive mood.
View your own problems from the outside. Imagine that a friend or spouse approached you with an identical question. What would you do? Solutions are on the surface.
Do not neglect the services of professional massage therapists and chiropractors. allows you to relax not only physically, but also spiritually.
Learn to say "No" to people if you really don't want to help them. Only show responsiveness in situations where you really cannot do without your help.
Watch your diet. The daily menu should contain a large amount of water and biologically active substances contained in healthy food. Consult with a nutritionist if you want to improve your own health by changing the list of your usual meals.
Accept your successes and failures as accomplished events. Do not jump higher than the "head" - it is more painful to fall from there. However, strive for self-improvement, adequately assessing your capabilities and skills.
Read, mesmerizing the mind and awakening the imagination. Literature develops associative thinking and helps to distract from problems.
Go shopping while delighting yourself with shopping. Do not answer phone calls while shopping, focus on purchasing goods.
Forgive people, and anger, destroying your own consciousness.
Meet up with friends or family to enjoy fond memories while getting away from pressing issues.
Listen to soothing music to help you calm down and in a positive mood.
Recognize that to restore your peace of mind, you will have to re-enjoy the events of the past and look forward to the adventures ahead.

Answering pressing questions at once, improving your social status overnight, instantly establishing relationships with your loved one and unexpectedly getting a position in the company - these are immediate goals, but not problems because of which it’s worth it. It is impossible to change the reality in one day, but it is possible to reconsider the worldview of the events taking place.

So far, we've talked about how people respond to stressors in their environment. Now it's time to discuss the next question: how to switch from stressful experiences and anxiety to a feeling of inner balance.

What is balance? Some will tell you that balance is well developed in someone who can walk on a tightrope or ride a unicycle. In the opinion of others, the balanced is the one who maintains composure, even when the enemy broke through his defenses and went on the offensive. Still others will say that balance, poise is characteristic of someone who is able to patiently wait out a traffic jam during rush hour. There are many definitions of equilibrium.

Opinions are unanimous in only one thing: having lost balance, it is easy to break off and fall. You can literally fall when your body loses its stability, or you can fall off figuratively when a whirlwind of thoughts and feelings prevents you from behaving rationally. Speaking of inner balance, or poise, I mean such a character trait that makes it possible to achieve the goal set for oneself.

Since thoughts, emotions and the physical body itself take part in human activity, balance can be lost in one of these areas: physical, mental or emotional. When you fall to the ground, it undoubtedly affects both your train of thought and your emotional state. If you get angry, this will again change the direction of your thoughts and in some way affect the state of the physical body. So, if you lose your balance in any of the areas of life, and this will generally affect your relationship with the world around you.

Speaking about fostering a sense of balance in myself, I proceed from the fact that even after a fall, you can get back on your feet and regain stability. Restoring lost balance is our natural ability; we use it every day, often without noticing it ourselves. The development of this natural quality is necessary primarily for those who suffer from excessive emotional excitability, obsessive thoughts and other manifestations of internal disharmony.

Fostering a sense of balance does not mean that you must once and for all find for yourself some kind of balanced, harmonious state and stay in it all your life. A normal person cannot do this.

I suggest a different strategy: you have to make sure.

that every time, “having broken off”, you can again “get back on your feet”, and restore the lost balance.

The means and methods for achieving balance that I bring to your attention are just means and methods. In general, there are many ways that one can achieve balance, and the ones described in this book are far from the only ones. I will only talk about the methods that I used myself, and which, as I am convinced, have helped many people. The results do not appear immediately, but over time and with practice. I will try to give you just a few examples of how you need to behave in order to stand more firmly on your feet, literally and figuratively.

We will learn balance in much the same way as we learned to walk at the very beginning of our life. Taking the first steps, we kept on our feet uncertainly and often fell. We learned to walk in more than one day: hardly any of you in childhood made the decision: "From tomorrow I will walk on my own" and walked around the house with a brisk pace on the first try. It took us a lot of time and practice to learn how to walk properly: we fell, got up again, and learned from our mistakes. All these falls and mistakes helped to understand how you still need to hold on so as not to fall. Then there was a strong skill in maintaining balance while walking.

The methods that will be discussed operate on the same principle. One of the proposed methods helps to reduce the physical manifestations of stress in the body, while the other contributes to the strength of internal balance in general.

If you are under intense stress, the shortest path to balance is through relaxation - relaxation. But this is not always the case. Equilibrium is the ability to function within a specific range that is most favorable. The energy consumption is then not too high, but also not too small. If we recall again how a child learns to walk, then strong tension constrains the muscles, makes it difficult to move, and excessive relaxation interferes with stability.

Equilibrium does not consist in straining or relaxing as much as possible, but presupposes the ability to maintain such a state that is necessary for this particular activity, whatever it may be.

Imagine a modern building with a ventilation system that regulates the air temperature. Such systems are always equipped with a device for maintaining the temperature within a certain range. The system can be programmed so that when the temperature drops to +18 degrees, the thermostat will send a signal to supply warm air until the temperature rises above + 18 °. You can also set the upper limit, if the air warms up above + 24 °, the thermostat will register this and give an appropriate signal, after which cold air will be supplied to the room until the temperature drops again. Systems of this type are called homeostatic. The homeostatic system maintains a certain equilibrium state within itself. Man can be classified as partly homeostatic systems; this means that some of its basic physiological mechanisms are designed to maintain body functions within a certain range.

To find inner balance, you have to find the state to which you will need to return every time in order to effectively cope with your tasks. Simply put, finding inner balance means taking a position so that it would not be easy to "knock you down", despite all life's difficulties.

Looking at the problems of Vietnamese veterans from the perspective of this idea of balance, I found that one of the most common post-stress manifestations is a high level of muscle tension and associated painful phenomena: colic, cramps, headaches, etc. With the help of electromyographic equipment, I have repeatedly convinced that many patients who maintain a high level of tension in certain muscle groups themselves do not realize that these muscles are constantly tense. The fact is that the muscle groups were in a state of tension for a long time, so long that the patient forgot how they felt when relaxed.

In this case, a sensation corresponding to muscle tension is perceived by a person as “normal”. There were cases when patients who were taught to relax muscles with the help of equipment felt discomfort at the first moment, for them it was unusual for them to lack tension in these muscles. But time and practice give their results: the state of relaxation becomes habitual and acceptable. A person can learn to return muscles to a normal, balanced state, like a thermostat that maintains a set temperature range in a room. It is best to learn balance not in theory but in practice. I have found that one of the effective methods of creating a general idea of balance is the old game "push me." Two people take part in it. The rules of the game are few and far between. The players face each other at a distance of about a meter. Stretching out his arms in front of him (palms forward, fingers pointing up), the player touches the palms of the partner. During the game, you can lean forward or backward, but you cannot move your legs. If one of the players moves his foot, this is classified as loss of balance and, therefore, loss. So, the first rule is not to move your legs. Second, you can only touch your partner's palms. If you touch any other part of the body, it is considered a loss. You can push your partner's palms with any force, or move your palms to the side, breaking contact. That's all the wisdom.

Do not try to play "push me" if you do not want to stick to the rules - touch only with your palms: some of the players are at risk of injury. If you follow the rules, then the game is completely safe even for partners of different heights and weights.

Interesting feature games and its difference from most martial arts is that victory is achieved not by defeating the enemy, but by maintaining one's own balance. The object of the game is not for one to become a winner and the other to be defeated, but to avoid losing balance. One of the partners can win, both, or neither of them. The most favorable outcome of the game is when both partners have kept the balance.

To play this game, you need to maintain a certain level of physical balance. It is interesting to note that we often lose physical balance due to imbalance in thoughts or emotions.

Imagine, for example, that at first you energetically leaned forward, hoping to forcefully push the opponent's palms away, and he simply removed his hands. You swayed and almost fell, which caused him to burst out laughing. It certainly pissed you off.

An unfortunate failure has generated in you a desire to win at all costs and to laugh at your opponent just as he laughed at you. This idea will definitely affect your style of play. The desire to win will manifest itself in muscle tension, in attempts to push the opponent harder than required. If he notices this, he will again remove his hands to give you the opportunity to lose your balance again due to an incongruous amount of effort. Thus, emotional imbalance leads to a loss of physical balance.

You can lose your balance also when you resist the efforts of the enemy: if your shoulders, lower back, hips or knees are overly stressed.

This game helps to understand that sometimes it is necessary to bend or dodge to maintain balance.

In this way, you will learn from your own experience that it is easy to lose balance due to physical stress or under the influence of certain thoughts and feelings. You are convinced in practice how unstable your position becomes when you lose control of thoughts or feelings. Thus, in a simple game, you learn to be aware of your individual style of applying force, which accompanies you throughout your life. Moreover, this game allows you to learn how to use force in a balanced way.

We have already talked about aggressiveness as one of the symptoms of post-traumatic stress, about an increased readiness to resort to aggression - physical, mental, emotional or verbal - to achieve their goal, even if the situation is not vital. In a person accustomed to this style of behavior, aggressive actions have become so deeply embedded in flesh and blood, so have become a part of nature that he himself does not notice how it affects others. And even when everyone around them perceives the actions of such a person as aggressive, it seems to him that he is behaving normally.

The "push me" game gradually teaches us to be aware of those moments when excessive force is applied, and in general when our actions are unbalanced in the application of force. However, it is important to clarify what is meant by "excessive", which effort can be considered normal, and which is excessive. I think that excess is such an effort that unbalances.

It is inappropriate to influence others with such a force that does not give the desired result, since it unbalances you,

By balance, let me remind you, we mean the level of activity that is required to achieve a given goal. No more and no less. Excessive activity is a hindrance, as it unbalances.

For example, let's look at the push me game again. When you strive to gain the upper hand, when you are possessed by the desire to "see this clown flop", it is easy for you to lose sight of your main task - to maintain balance! You instantly forget that the most important thing is to stay firmly on your own feet.

When your goal is to defeat and shame your opponent, you easily sacrifice your own balance for her. And although sometimes this strategy does create some advantages, more often it goes sideways - both in the game and in life. In many cases, excessive force does not help, but will prevent you from achieving your goal. This applies equally to any person, and it has been so at all times.

However, while playing, try what happens if you push the opponent with all your might, without worrying about your own balance. An experienced player will simply leave contact and you will involuntarily have to change the position of your legs. You yourself will be to blame for the loss of balance. If the second player does the same, then the result may be different: you will not lose your balance, since your dash forward is extinguished by the counter-effort of the enemy.

Anyone who does not know how to use force in a balanced way will always depend on the presence or absence of resistance. To feel strong, he needs a rival. When a person is balanced, such a need for him is significantly less.

Aggressiveness is a type of behavior that uses tactics similar to the “push me” game tactics: we exert a forceful effect, trying to maintain balance at the same time. When we are driven by our fight-or-flight instinct, we tend to put more force into the punch than is required. To get rid of the phenomena of post-traumatic stress, it is necessary, in particular, to learn how to reduce the intensity of this reflex.

To begin with, we will learn to use our power in a balanced way, i.e. dose it in relation to the situation. Just as a heating system can be programmed to automatically change the temperature when it goes out of a predetermined range, so a person can learn to change their internal "temperature".

If the room temperature reaches 37 °, people feel severe discomfort. You also feel uncomfortable when your internal "temperature" - physical and mental tension - reaches high level... Remember, when you give the command “fight or flight,” you are commanding the body to tense up. If your fight-or-flight reflex has been trained in many stressful situations, then you probably often have to experience internal tension and associated discomfort.

I had to dwell on the sense of balance in such detail, because training in balance is one of the ways to open the “exhaust valves” inside of me and reduce excess stress. To open these valves and get closer to balance, you need to work on yourself. You can only achieve balance if you know what it is, and not only with your mind, but also in practice, as a state that you have experienced and to which you can return.

This is why it is so important to cultivate balance in yourself, in thoughts and feelings: in this way you create a kind of "homing device" in yourself, which in a moment of stress will direct you where you need to.

Let's say, for example, that you have tension headaches. At first, one thing is clear: the head hurts, and the only desire is to get rid of the pain. But, having mastered in practice some methods of achieving balance, you will understand that pain occurs only when stress builds up. This means that when stressed, you actively tense certain muscles, which in turn hinders blood circulation and leads to headaches.

If you know what happens in the body before you feel pain, then your task is not to drown out the pain sensation as soon as possible, but to cope with stress, the reaction to which is your headache. In some cases, the transition from a stressful state to internal balance is possible only by learning how to relax certain muscle groups. Which muscles you need to relax depends on your individual muscle tension pattern.

The same strategy applies to your thoughts. If you have "obsessions" dictated by unreasonable fear, they probably make you tense as much as if something really threatened you. Therefore, speaking about the education of balance, we are talking, in particular, about such a way of thinking, which is free from obsessive unreasonable fear.

Relaxation is especially valuable for those who are often stressed and anxious. I will describe one special exercise that, as practice has shown, can be successfully used to relax muscles and calm the psyche. In teaching this method to my patients, I used electromyographic equipment. With the help of such equipment, the patient can see for himself how effectively his muscles respond to the command to relax. Since you are unlikely to be able to measure your muscle tension with electronic equipment, you will have to use your "internal radar", ie. your own ability to feel what is happening inside you.

Pay attention to how you will feel your muscles before and after exercise. The exercise itself is such that it will take longer to tell about it than to do it. It will involve your body, breathing process and mental representations. I will first go over each of these three aspects separately and then explain how to combine them.

The first part of the exercise is a series of actions called progressive muscle relaxation. It's very simple: you focus consistently on each muscle group. First you tense your muscles, then you relax them. Start with your toes: tense them, and then relax. Do the same for the ankles, calf muscles, thighs, buttocks, lower back, abdominal muscles, chest, upper back, shoulders, neck, face (eyes, forehead, jaw); finally, with the muscles of the arms. Finally, clench your hands into fists, then unclench. The first part of the exercise is over. Perform it at least once to get the feeling you want.

The second part is related to breathing. You will have to master the art of abdominal breathing, which will increase the flow of oxygen into your body. We will inhale through our nose and exhale through our mouth. Breathe in deeply enough - not enough to make you feel like you're about to burst, just take a good full breath.

Many people believe that the lungs fit entirely in the chest, and for a deep breath, you need to suck in your stomach and thrust out your chest. But if you look at the anatomical drawing of the human body, you will see that the lower lobes of the lungs are located directly above the abdominal cavity. This means that by drawing in your stomach while inhaling, you will block the access of air to the lower part of the lungs, as if inflating a balloon, you clamped your hand on its opposite end. So, for a deep and complete inhalation, it is necessary to fill the lower lobes of the lungs with air. Inhale deeply through your nose, placing your palm on your solar plexus (below your rib cage, above your navel). Raise your palm slightly so that it does not touch your skin. Does the solar plexus area rise with inhalation? If not, your inhalation is not deep enough because you are only filling the upper part of your lungs, located in your chest, with air. Let the air enter the abdominal cavity so that you can feel the belly protruding under your hand. This is a sure sign that the lower part of your lungs are full.

Having learned to fill the lungs with air, you can move on to the next stage of abdominal breathing: when exhaling, do not blow out the air from yourself as if you want to extinguish the candles on a birthday cake, but simply relax the abdominal wall and release air from the lungs with almost no effort. When you breathe in, your lungs are like an inflated balloon. By tightening your muscles, you hold the air in your lungs - as if by pinching the opening of the balloon, you would not let it deflate. As you exhale, simply release the muscle tension, as if releasing a ball from your fingers, and let the air escape freely.

Practice doing abdominal breathing: Inhale through your nose, filling the abdominal cavity with air, and at the same time, make sure that the abdominal wall rises; then exhale without effort through your mouth. And while doing this exercise, I would like to draw your attention to the position of the shoulders and lower jaw. In natural breathing, the shoulders rise slightly as you inhale and lower as you exhale. When you exhale through the mouth, the lower jaw also drops slightly. But if you are tense, your jaw will remain clenched, and your shoulders will not drop as you exhale. At first, you may have to monitor all of these movements and give your body the appropriate commands. So now you know how to do abdominal breathing. Inhale through your nose, let your stomach protrude slightly - exhale freely through your mouth, let your shoulders and lower jaw drop slightly. Repeat the exercise several times to understand its essence.

In the next step, we will combine progressive relaxation with abdominal breathing and do them at the same time. Progressive relaxation, as we recall, contains two types of action: muscle tension and muscle relaxation. Abdominal breathing also consists of two actions: inhalation and exhalation. To combine the two exercises, you will tense and relax your muscles in the rhythm of inhalation and exhalation. For example: Slowly tighten your toes while taking a deep, slow breath, then slowly relax your toes at the same time as you slowly exhale freely.

To summarize all that has been said: slowly inhale through your nose, slightly protruding your stomach and at the same time gradually straining your toes. Once you reach the top of your inhalation, stop tense muscles. Begin to exhale effortlessly through your mouth while relaxing your toes. At the same time, make sure that your shoulders and lower jaw drop slightly. Repeat the exercise with the next muscle group, and so on, until all have been completed, and each time combine tension with inhalation and relaxation with exhalation.

Again, this exercise takes much longer to explain than it does. Working out all the main muscle groups will not take you more than 3-5 minutes. Practice until you can easily and naturally combine relaxation with breathing.

Finally, we will supplement this exercise with an element of mental training: it is called visualization. As you inhale and exhale, tighten and relax your muscles, you will call upon your imagination. To master the visualization, first look at your hands and clench them into fists. Close your eyes and visualize your clenched fists. Without opening your eyes, unclench your hands and feel them open again. Thus, the mental part of this basic exercise is that you will mentally “see” different parts of your body during inhalation and tension, exhalation and relaxation.

Let your imagination work with these views. Without opening your eyes, practice clenching your fists as you inhale, relaxing your arms as you exhale, and at the same time paint a mental picture of your palms opening and closing. Once you are good at it, you can move on to the next stage. This is where your imagination has to work hard. Close your eyes again and inhale while straining your arms. But this time, as you exhale through your mouth and relax your muscles, at the same time imagine that you are, as it were, "exhaling through your hands." Of course, this is possible only in the imagination, but in this case it is important for us. With your eyes closed, imagine as you exhale that you are pushing the air out of you through your hands. As you inhale, draw a picture of your arms tense. As you exhale, mentally observe how the hands relax and as you exhale through them, imagine the tension emanating from the hands.

What does muscle tension look like, what does it look like? Here you can give free rein to your imagination. The tension can look whatever you like, depending on the image that comes to mind when you do this exercise. Some say that they imagine dark smoke coming from their hands; others see steam as if from a boiling kettle; to the third it seems that the compressed springs are unfolding. You can use any of these images or come up with your own, if only it helps you imagine how something comes out of the part of the body through which you "breathe out." Smoke, steam, fog - everything that can symbolize the accumulated tension in the muscles.

Many patients report that when they "exhale" through well relaxed muscles, they are presented with light, clean emissions. When the "exhalation" is done through a tense muscle, the imagination draws them a discharge of a dark, dirty color. Choose any look that is convincing to you. If you learn to imagine how the "outlet valve" opens inside you, you will thereby send an order to your muscles through the psyche and brain, and this will help them to relax.

You are now ready to receive the final instruction for a relaxation exercise that combines body, mental, and breathing work. Since it is impossible to read and perform the exercise at the same time, ask someone, at least at first, to read this instruction to you, or speak it yourself on a tape recorder and turn it on at a convenient time for you.

Before you start, find a quiet place where no one will disturb you. Move as far away from the phone as possible. Sit or lie down comfortably. Go to the toilet ahead of time. Unbutton tight-fitting clothing, loosen the belt. When you begin the exercise, make sure that the breathing rhythm is natural to you, even if it does not quite match the verbal instructions that are being spoken. If the commands are given too slowly, do not wait, do not hold your breath, but continue to inhale and strain the muscles, exhale and relax at the pace that suits you. From time to time, "scan" your entire body with your mind's eye, note the condition of the muscles. Take pauses, moving from one muscle group to another, in order to more accurately capture the sensation.

Regardless of whether someone close to you gives instructions, or you use a tape recording, speech should be clear and slow, and the following is recommended.

Sit back. Take a deep breath and exhale. Now tighten your toes as you inhale deeply through your nose. Let your stomach protrude slightly as you inhale. Exhaling slowly, imagine breathing out through your toes. Try to see how tension "flows" from them. Repeat: inhale, tighten your fingers, exhale; the shoulders and lower jaw droop slightly.

Focus on the foot and ankle. While inhaling, strain your foot, while exhaling, "exhale" through it. Repeat: inhale, stick out the stomach, exhale slowly without effort through the feet.

Focus on the calves. Inhale, tighten your muscles. Exhale through your calves. Exhale through your mouth, your shoulders and jaw dropping slightly. Once again: inhale, slowly tighten the calves, exhale, slowly relax.

Thigh muscles. Inhale and strain, exhale slowly through the muscles. Inhale again and tighten your muscles; exhale slowly, lowering your shoulders and jaw.

Now the gluteal muscles, inhale and tighten them; breathe out and relax. Again: inhale through the nose, tighten the muscles; exhale slowly, lower your shoulders.

Small of the back. As you inhale, bend in the lower back, as you exhale, relax and exhale through it. Inhale, tension; exhale, imagine how the tension leaves this area.

Stomach. While inhaling, tighten your abdominal press; breathe out freely, without effort. Inhale through the nose, exhale, the shoulders and jaw descend.

Upper back. Inhale and bring your shoulder blades together. Exhale through your shoulder blades. Inhale slowly, strain your back, exhale slowly, relax.

Shoulders. As you inhale, raise your shoulders, as you exhale, let them calmly lower. Inhale, tension, exhale over your shoulders.

Moving on to the neck. Inhale through the nose, protruding the abdomen, exhale freely through the neck.

Face. While inhaling, tighten the muscles around the eyes and mouth, wrinkle your forehead. Exhale through your face, relax. Inhale, tighten your muscles, exhale, watch how the tension "flows out."

Hands. Inhale and contract the muscles, then exhale through them. Inhale through the nose, then exhale slowly, freely lowering the shoulders and jaw.

Let's finish with the hands. Breathe in and collect all the tension that remains in your body into clenched fists, then exhale through your hands, slowly unbending your fingers. Inhale again and clench your fists, then exhale without effort and imagine the residual tension dripping from your fingertips.

The exercise is over. Once you have gained some experience, it will take you no more than five minutes to complete the entire cycle. Do not forget to "look" your body with your inner gaze, noting all the sensations that arise. Is there a noticeable difference in the state before and after the exercise? Try to remember the "before" and "after" sensations with each exercise. This will develop your ability to notice internally the accumulation of tension in the body.

If you do this relaxation cycle three times a day, after waking up, in the middle of the day, and before bed, after a few days you will begin to realize how muscle tension builds up in you.

I usually recommend that the patient relax in this way for 10 days, three times a day. This is the minimum time it takes for a person to find out if this exercise will help him. It, like all relaxation methods, is by no means a panacea; it just allows you to better understand and bring to consciousness the commands that your brain sends to the body. By being aware of these commands, we thereby take control of them; the better we know our reactions, the more we are able to control them, and therefore, maintain inner balance.

Learning how to relax will be most beneficial during those moments of your life that are marked by the most stressful tension. When you are faced with phenomena and events that easily throw you off balance, it is very important for you to know how to maintain calmness and the ability to control your attention in such a situation. By cultivating balance in yourself, you thereby acquire a tool for curbing the "fight or flight" response, triggered by a real or perceived threat.

In the usual, Everyday life learning to keep your inner balance will help you find peace and more easily cope with stressful events. In extreme conditions, this skill can save your life.

The described exercise, like the oriental martial arts and meditation practice, helps a person develop a sense of balance through special concentration of attention. You are left with the choice of the soil on which you want to rely.

Calm and order, general peace of mind - these are the desired states of every person. Our life basically passes as on a swing - from negative emotions to euphoria, and vice versa.

How to find and maintain a balance point so that the world is perceived positively and calmly, nothing annoys, does not frighten, but currently bring inspiration and joy? And is it possible to find lasting peace of mind? Yes, it is possible! Moreover, along with tranquility comes true freedom and simple happiness to live.

These are simple rules and they work rigorously. You just need to stop thinking HOW to change and start APPLYING them.

1. Stop asking, "Why did this happen to me?" Ask yourself another question: “What was great about it? How good can this turn out for me? " There is good for sure, you just need to see it. Any problem can turn into a real gift from above if viewed as a chance, and not as punishment or injustice.

2. Generate gratitude. Every evening, take stock of what you can say "thank you" to the day lived. If you lose peace of mind, remember the good things that you have and the things that you can thank life for.

3. Exercise your body. Remember that the brain most actively produces the "happiness hormones" (endorphins and enkephalins) during physical training. Therefore, if you are overcome by problems, anxiety, insomnia - go outside and walk for several hours. Taking a brisk step or running will distract from sad thoughts, saturate the brain with oxygen and raise the level of positive hormones.

4. Develop a "bouncy posture" and come up with a happy posture. The body is wonderful to help when it is necessary to restore peace of mind. It will "remember" the feeling of joy if you just straighten your back, straighten your shoulders, stretch yourself happily and smile. Consciously hold yourself in this position for a while, and you will see that the thoughts in your head become calmer, more confident and happy.

5. Return yourself to the state of "here and now". A simple exercise helps relieve anxiety: look around, focus on what you see. Start mentally "sounding" the picture, inserting as many words "now" and "here" as possible. For example: “I'm walking down the street now, the sun is shining here. Now I see a man, he carries yellow flowers…" etc. Life consists only of the moments "now", do not forget about this.

6. Don't exaggerate your concerns. After all, even if you bring a fly close to your eyes, it will acquire the size of an elephant! If some experience seems insurmountable to you, think as if ten years have passed ... How many problems have already been before - you have solved them all. Therefore, this trouble will also pass, do not dive into it with your head!

7. Laugh more. Try to find something funny about the current state of affairs. It doesn't work - then just find a reason for sincere laughter. Watch a funny movie, remember a funny incident. The power of laughter is amazing! Peace of mind often returns with a good dose of humor.

8. Goodbye more. Resentments are like heavy, foul-smelling stones that you carry around with you. What peace of mind can there be with such a load? Therefore, do not be angry. People are just people, they cannot be perfect and always bring only good. So forgive the offenders and forgive yourself.

10. Communicate more. Any pain hidden inside multiplies and brings new sad fruits. Therefore, share your experiences, discuss them with loved ones, seek their support. Remember that a person is not meant to be alone. Peace of mind can only be found in close relationships - friendly, loving, kindred.

11. Pray and meditate. Don't let bad thoughts control you, sow panic, pain, and irritation. Change them to short prayers - an appeal to God or meditation - a state of not thinking. Stop the uncontrolled flow of internal conversation. This is the basis of a good and stable state of mind.