Create a family relaxation atmosphere, say goodbye to stress at home
A hard day at school or at work seems impossible to overcome, but with a little effort it can be achieved. In these days where the clock seems not to advance the arrival at home seems a oasis in the middle of the desert, therefore, we must try that this environment serves as a relaxation for all members of the family, a space where stress has no place.
However, the tensions derived from these stressful days or a mind too tired can cause that far from relaxing, drag these behaviors home. To avoid it, from the Castilla-La Mancha university a series of tips are offered to get the house to become the desired oasis in these days without apparent purpose.
The importance of the environment
The first thing that families are advised is to create an environment conducive to relaxation. When it comes to fighting stress it is advisable to avoid as much as possible auditory and visual stimuli. Therefore, we must dispense with television and strong lights, these are some elements to take into account when working in this environment:
- Quiet atmosphere. No noise and as much remoteness as possible from disturbing external stimuli.
- Appropriate temperature; the room must have a moderate temperature (neither high nor low) to facilitate relaxation.
- Moderate light; It is important that you keep the room with a dim light.
Relaxation techniques
Once the appropriate environment is available, members of the household can proceed to perform different relaxation techniques. One of them is the "stress inoculation" of Meichenbaum and Cameron, which is divided into the following points:
- First step. Create a personal list of stress situations and arrange it vertically from the least stressful points to the most. Once recognized the environments that do not allow relaxation, we must work to reduce them.
- Second step. Creating an own arsenal of positive thoughts with which to cope with stress, which will be used to counteract the usual old automatic thoughts. Once at home, you have to unleash these memories
- Third step. Use of relaxation skills to act with pressure on the stress that has disturbed us while breathing deeply, loosening muscles and using the aforementioned thoughts.
Another technique that can be used is the Systematic Desensitization of Wolpe, this consists of 4 steps:
- Relaxation training.
- Construction of the hierarchy.
- Evaluation and practice in imagination.
- Systematic desensitization itself.
Anxiety hierarchy is the list of stimuli generators of stress that have to be ordered according to the intensity of the responses provoked in the subject. The elements that make up this compendium must be: concrete, relevant and proposed by the person who is going to relax.
It is recommended that the anxiety hierarchy include between ten and twenty scenes. These stimuli should be organized in the following terms: minimal, mild, moderate, strong, very strong. Once this compendium has been detected, one by one the individual must counteract these elements with positive thoughts that can range from a family talk even the memory of an episode of happiness.
Damián Montero
