If only! But recently I have started using the power of visualisation to instantly feel chilled out from a hard days work and intense training sessions.
Working long hours or going through a stressful time at home or work will stress your body out. This in turn will raise your levels of the hormone cortisol. This is bad news, and will effect your ability to train, lose fat and build muscle. One simple way to combat this is to use your imagination to visualise a scene in such detail it actually effects your mood and outlook. The subconscious can't differentiate between what is perceived and what is real. Therefor if you can imagine something so vividly the body will react as if its actually experiencing it. Creative visualisation will help you de-stress, ease anxiety and lower blood pressure. 15 mins in this deeply relaxed state could equate up to the equivalent of an hours sleep!
Follow the steps below and in 15 mins you'll feel so much better! Believe me...
- close your eyes and take deep breaths, imagine your in beautiful surroundings. It could be a holiday you've been on in the past, or you can conjure up something from your imagination.
- use your senses of sight, sound, taste and smell, put yourself in the scene and and allow it to come to life. Revel in the colours, smells and sounds. I found a great iPhone app called 'nature sound'. It contains many sound samples of different scenes such as the beach or a tropical rainforest. So by playing them with your headphones on, your able to block the rest of the world out and make the scene more realistic.
- stay in the scene for as long as possible, soaking up all the details. Then slowly bring yourself back into the room.
- try this technique 1-2 times a week or whenever you feel stressed to help recover from exercise and everyday life.
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