5 Ways To Reduce Stress and Live a More Blissful life
Practical activities you can do each day
Meditate
Meditation is probably the best practice anyone can do to improve all areas of their health, especially mental health and nervous system adaptability. When you meditate using a technique that works effectively for you, you are engaging in a profoundly deep state of rest, easily deeper than your deepest sleep.Opposite of the physiological state of stress, the deep physiological state of restful alertness that comes from meditation provides your nervous system and brain the greatest ability to heal trainers, stressors, and strengthen itself, especially when you experience this state on a daily basis.
The significant effect of a meditation technique where you transcend, such as Transcendental Meditation or Vedic Meditation, may help regulate the neuroendocrine axis, helping with hormones and stress.
Meditation is a foundational technique that if integrated into one’s lifestyle as a daily essential, just like brushing your teeth and eating food,, may have a significant impact not only your mental and emotional state, but your overall health.
At One Eleven Health, we recommend our Vedic Meditation as a potent and effortless method to cultivate the capability to brush off stressors as simply as brushing dirt off your shoulder. If you’re interested in learning to meditate and have any questions about it, or looking for a teacher to learn with, please email our friendly team who can point you in the right direction and recommend some amazing teachers.
Self-abhyanga (Ayurvedic Oil Massage)
Applying oil on your body and giving yourself a massage is a daily ritual in Ayurveda called “abhyanga.”
This is done with coconut, sesame or a medicated Ayurvedic oil before your shower or bath.
Abhyanga enhances the lymphatic system, improves blood circulation, feeds the microbiome living on your skin, which does all the hard work for your body, and promotes skin and tissue detoxification. But perhaps most profoundly are the immediate and tangible effects that self-abhyanga provides for the nervous system.
Your skin is your largest organ. It has more nerve endings than any other part of your body. When you put oil on and gently massage, the nervous system feels nourished, safe, and calm. Stress, anxiety, and dark feelings have the opportunity to be pacified, all while becoming invigorated with a positive cultivation of stable mental and physical energy. From here, sleep may improve and your ability to adapt to any stressful situation is enhanced with resilience. This practice is as fundamental as your daily shower.
For an even greater experience of self-care, self-respect and nervous system rejuvenation, drink half a cup of hot water with a big pinch of One Eleven’s Bliss just before your self-abhyanga to decompress your nervous system and magnify your attention towards this profound Ayurvedic practice of self-nourishment.
If you would like further instruction on how to perform a self-abhyanga massage, you can download our free step-by-step guide.
Mental and Emotional Balancing Ayurvedic Herbs
In Ayurveda, there is a category of herbs called “medhya,” which refers to that which enhances the mental state, thus promoting creative intelligence.
When your mental and emotional state is constantly grounded in supreme state of contentment, the stressors that come into your life won’t “stick.”
Don’t get us wrong, you are still sensitive to the stressful stimuli, but it doesn’t affect you as much. It doesn’t linger on your mind for days or even hours on end, and the body has greater capacity to metabolise the stimuli.
Herbs, but especially those complex herbal formulas where different medhya herbs are synergised to create an ultimate medhya formula, help provide the nervous system and mind with the resilience required to maintain mastery over stress, thus leaving the mind no other choice than to experience bliss.
These therapeutic advantages are our exact intentions for our medhya herbal formulation of Bliss. To learn more about each herb and its unique benefits, please read more about the ingredients here
Get in Nature
According to Ayurveda, spending time in nature or green space around plants builds “Ojas,” a substance linked to longevity, vitality, supreme inner contentment, bliss and overall radiant health.
On the other hand, not spending enough time in nature depletes Ojas and leaves the body vulnerable to disease and stress. Alienation from the natural world comes with dire potential costs.
Lack of sufficient time spent outdoors can put younger generations at risk of shorter lifespans and development of behavioural problems, such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, ADD and ADHD respectively, and depression. People living in the greenest environments typically report to be happier and less depressed. On top of this, one of the causes of progression in myopia, or short-sightedness, is also due to a lack of exposure to natural light. Another growing concern is obesity, which is often caused in part from the separation of people and nature.
To combat all of these negative health ailments, we must focus on building Ojas through time spent in nature. The building of Ojas is an important action to overcome fatigue, increase vitality, stress resiliency, and maintain a stable state of 24/7 bliss in the background of your being while performing actions.
Natural Light, Specifically Direct Sunlight
Simply put, dark thoughts or poor mental states, such as depression, can be "lightened up” with natural light and direct sunlight. This light should be direct with no glass in-between, such as windows or sunglasses.
Working in an office with a lack of natural light, staying indoors all day, working in mines, living in climates with little sun, wearing sunglasses too much, all reduce serotonin and dopamine levels and inhibit melatonin production. When melatonin is reduced, cortisol, the stress hormone, rises and many various vital body processors are compromised.
Adding artificial blue light to the equation further destroys melatonin and makes the circadian mismatch even more chaotic, allowing for a vulnerable mind to be disturbed with confusing and depressive thoughts. The more screen time, the more a person is at risk for suicidal thoughts.
The Sun is a Divine Healer. It unconditionally provides life-force for all on Earth. Do not fear the sun. Responsibly engage in a relationship with gratitude and respect. The sun has a profound capability to uplift your spirit, burn off your stress, and support you to radiate bliss.