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It’s absolutely essential for hormonal health to bring some form of relaxation response into your daily life. Volumes have been written about relaxation, meditation, and mindfulness, but here are some of my favorite ways to replenish and repair. 

1. Cave Proactively

When you hit the wall of overwhelm, stop everything. Unplug. Step away from your cell phone, stay off the internet, turn off alarms and notifications, and take some time to be a human being — not a “human doing.” It takes downtime for productivity to blossom, clarity to return, and your mood to smooth out. It could be a minute, an hour, or a vacation! But when you need it: cave.

2. Do a Quick Meditation

Meditation rebuilds the thickness of your brain’s cortex, improves memory and emotional regulation, and renews willpower. It prevents shortening of your telomeres, the protective end caps on your DNA sequences, whose greater length is associated with longevity. This takes just two minutes, can be done anywhere or anytime, and immediately relieves tension and shifts your mindset:

  • Sit or stand comfortably, becoming aware of your feet on the floor. If you can, close your eyes.
  • Take a few normal breaths in through your nose, out through your mouth.
  • On your next inhale, breathe deeply through your nose for a count of four while saying to yourself, “I am.”
  • Exhale deeply through your mouth for a count of six while saying to yourself, “at peace.”
  • Repeat four to eight times, then open your eyes (if you closed them).
  • Take a few seconds to note how you feel.

3. Practice Yoga — or Find Your Move Groove

Yoga releases deep tensions and sets tissue-healing in motion, while calming the mind and helping you to be present — all of which powerfully invite the benefits of the relaxation response. Restorative yoga is particularly effective at bringing you into deep relaxation fairly quickly, without stress and strain on your muscles.

If yoga isn’t your thing, regular physical movement of pretty much any kind, in moderation, improves your health, relaxes your mind, and does good things for your cortisol curve. 

4. Take a Bath

Before you go to bed, or anytime you need to soak up some relaxation response, fill your tub with water as warm as you can tolerate, add one cup of Epsom salts and seven drops of lavender (or other relaxing) essential oil, and enjoy. If you have candles, light them, and soak away your troubles, practicing a few minutes of deep breathing while you’re in the tub.

5. Practice a Daily Ritual

A daily ritual can be as simple as a cup of tea or coffee, sipped in peace and quiet for 15 minutes, a regular 30-minute walk alone or with a friend, a five-minute meditation, or a hot bath. Pick one ritual that you make your own. If daily is too much to fit in, pick one evening or one weekend morning a week for self-care, mark if off on the calendar, and make it happen. Religiously. You have to show up for yourself.

6. Try Journaling

Grab a pen and a notebook and write what comes to you — journaling doesn’t require great writing skills. Two journaling techniques to try:

  • Worry Journal: 30 minutes before bed, write out your fears, worries, and troublesome experiences. This has been demonstrated to reduce cortisol, alleviate anxiety, and help to overcome PTSD. It has also been shown to reduce the frequency of visits to the doctor and reduce chronic illness and inflammation.
  • Gratitude Journal: Several times each week, write down three things you’re grateful for. Practicing gratitude has been shown to have numerous health benefits and improves quality of life.

7. Reset After Work

To prevent your cortisol levels from being jacked in the evenings, make it a daily end-of-work habit to decompress for 15 minutes with any of the relaxation response practices in this article when you get home. My favorite end-of-day practice is a solo dance party. I play loud music and dance like no one is watching — even if someone is watching. I don’t care. I sing really loud, too.

Lastly, give yourself one evening a week completely off from work and chores. This simple act can work wonders to keep you feeling like you’re a human being, not just a ‘human doing.’

8. Try a Digital Detox

Information overload is a new kind of toxin that is addling our brains and making us feel that we never know enough, do enough, or are happy enough (especially if you believe everyone else’s perfect happy-life pictures on Facebook!). Additionally, staying on the computer and other electronic devices too close to bedtime not only introduces other people’s agendas and a whole lot of social concerns into your awareness, but also the blue light itself emanating from these devices keeps your cortisol elevated and inhibits melatonin production, both of which interfere with sleep. So I dare you — unplug yourself from your digital habit every evening by 9 o’clock, and for one full day each week be internet- and device-free. No cell phone. No email. No Facebook. No computer. It’s a game changer, I promise.

9. Get Some Fresh Air

Ancients have always known what science now proves — that nature heals your brain, reduces cortisol, reduces inflammation, and shifts you to a calm, happy, mindset. You don’t have to buy a farm or a vacation home in the country; walking in a park for 30 minutes a couple of times a week can make a difference. Or try standing in the sunshine, bare feet on the ground, and breathe consciously, even if just for three minutes, directing your breath to wherever you feel discomfort or tension in your body.

10. Play

Play is as necessary for health and happiness as exercise, and laughter puts you straight into the relaxation response. Make some time to play with friends or your kids. Pick up a hobby that you used to love, but haven’t let yourself enjoy in years. Do it with no pressure, no self-judgment — just for pure pleasure. Fun is good. What do you miss doing? Roller-skating? Riding a bicycle? Pottery-making? Hula-hooping? (I have a hula hoop!) Just do it.

11. Have Sex

Having sex with someone you love improves sleep quality, reduces cortisol overdrive, and boosts your mood. Good relationships with intimacy can offset daily tensions, improve your immunity, and increase your longevity. That said, having orgasms is good for you even if you’re the only one involved. It’s still a stress buster and oxytocin releaser. So you don’t have to wait for someone else to get your mojo going. 

Excerpted from The Adrenal Thyroid Revolution: A Proven 4-Week Program to Rescue Your Metabolism, Hormones, Mind & Mood by Aviva Romm, MD. 

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