How to de-stress after a tiring week

A lot of stress can cause your body to release cortisol, a natural steroid hormone. High levels of cortisol for extended periods of time have been shown to be seriously detrimental to your immune system.

As compiled by womenstalk.com, huffingtonpost.com and mindbodygreen.com, here are some ways to take a break from the pressure at work or otherwise.

Read!

The ultimate mode of relaxation is to lose yourself in the pages of your favourite book, says cognitive neuropsychologist Dr David Lewis. Reading can help to relax your body by lowering your heart rate and easing the tension in your muscles. This is because your mind is free from the stressors that occupy your daily life.

Call a friend

It might be worth calling a friend and letting all the stress come out. There is a reason why talking therapy works and people spend so much money to get appointments with a therapist. If you have a friend who is a good listener as well then make yourself feel better by sharing your inner thoughts and worries.

Buy yourself a plant

Houseplants aren’t just beautiful air purifiers – they can actually have a great calming effect. According to a Washington State University study report in Prevention magazine found, a group of stressed-out people who entered a room full of plants had a four-point drop in their blood pressure, while a comparison group who didn’t see plants dropped only two points.

Play some music

Grab your headphones and listen to your favourite music. Listening to good music release feel-good neurochemicals like dopamine in your brain. Try to empty your mind of negative thoughts and just focus on the sound.

Go into the light

Stress can be triggered when our bodies don’t know what time it is, says Julie Holland, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at New York School of Medicine. It can be depressing to be stuck indoors throughout the work during the day at office, hence weekends should be spent enjoying in natural sunlight.

Munch on your favourite snack mindfully

The connection between the gut and brain is huge, called the ‘gut-brain axis and lots of interesting data supports the idea that the gut is a major mediator of the stress response, says DR Ramsey, an assistant clinical professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and the author of The Happiness Diet. Choose a snack that will keep you satiated and full as nothing is more stressful to the brain Ramset explains, than feeling like you have run out of nourishment.

Sleep to combat stress

Lack of sleep can wreak havoc on your general well-being. Experts have connected stress with blood sugar and belly fat. Chronic stress raises insulin, driving relentless metabolic function that becomes weight gain, insulin resistance and ultimately diabetes. Hence, get your eight hours of sleep no matter what.

Compiled by: Komal Anwar

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Science Shows What Meditation Really Does to Your Brain

Meditation, according to its spiritual gurus, is a universal panacea. Enthusiasts have long preached its benefits, which include its ability to lower anxiety, improve concentration, help treat those with HIV and even extend one's life expectancy.

While it's undeniable meditation contributes to a sense of inner piece, its physiological benefits remain less certain. That is, until a team of researchers confirmed them. What they uncovered is more than surprising.

"We found several brain regions that had changed," Sara Lazar, an associate research scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital, told Mic. Lazar conducted a major study on meditation in 2011 and was one of the earliest scientists to take a serious look at the practice, according to the Washington Post.

Some of the changes she saw took place in the posterior cingulate cortex, which helps control one's ability to focus on the task at hand, the left hippocampus, which helps in learning, cognition and memory and the temporo parietal junction, which helps manage empathy and compassion. Brain scans of people who meditate reveal they have more gray matter than non-meditators.

Increased gray matter in areas of the brain often correlates to heightened abilities in a range of skills. "Musicians," said Lazar as an example "have more gray matter in music areas than non-musicians." The logical conclusion, therefore, is that skills touched by areas of the brain that benefit from meditation will undergo a similar improvement.

Meditation is like a super-vitamin for your brain. It targets and boosts the parts that are already strong, and improves their functionality to make them even stronger.

Lazar said when people began meditating, their amygdala got smaller. That is the area of the brain most closely associated with fear and aggression.

Of course, meditating is not a universal panacea, but there are distinctive benefits to the practice. "There is something more to meditation than just sitting," Lazar said.

Nationally, 50% of Americans report working more than 40 hours a week. Unsurprisingly, all the added time at the office has come amid shrinking vacation for employees as well. A 2013 study by the global forecasting agency Oxford Economics found workers have taken less vacation than at any time in four decades.

Given all the unique challenges faced today by young and old, anything safe that helps people chill out is worth a look. Given how easy meditation can be, it's something everyone should give serious consideration.
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