With the school year fully underway, the weather changing, and the holidays fast approaching, many people find this time of year to be the most stressful and demanding. With all of this activity comes increased anxiety and stress that impacts our lives in negative ways making enjoying what is supposed to be the best time of year very challenging, but it doesn't have to stay that way.
Whether you regularly experience anxiety, or if this time of year usually makes you feel more anxious, there are opportunities for relief. With the help of SWatson Solutions and the SWS Method, a mindfulness based program, you can greatly reduce your stress levels and promote more positive mental and physical health.
SWatson Solutions provides full-body stretch therapy with Mindfulness based stress reduction blended throughout that is designed to help everyone from professional athletes to everyday people support their physical and mental well-being through the application of stretch routines, breathwork, and much more.
Whereas most people allocate the practice of stretching to their pre- or post-exercise routine, stretching has many more benefits than just reducing soreness or preventing injuries. There are also many proven mental health benefits that make stretching a beneficial practice even for those people who don’t participate in intense physical activities.
SWatson Solutions, through the SWS Method, can provide you with the tools you need to reduce your stress during these busy times and support your lasting mental and physical well-being. To help illustrate the effectiveness of stretching and breathwork, we’ll offer some key insight into stretching and what makes it so beneficial. We’ll also talk a bit about breathwork and how SWatson Solutions uses this practice to help promote mindfulness and relaxation.
The Power of Stretch: Stretch for Anxiety Reduction
When it comes to the physical benefits of stretching, they are much more well-known among most people. For instance, stretching is known to help reduce muscle tension, helping to alleviate tightness, pain and soreness post-workout. Pre- and post-workout stretching has long been advised for athletes in order to promote flexibility and ensure that your workout goes as smoothly as possible.
While these physical benefits are more commonly understood, the mental health benefits derived from a unique program like this should not be overlooked, and can make stretching an even more valuable exercise for those who do and don’t participate in intense physical activity but want to move and feel better overall.
Consider the fact that stretching has been shown to increase serotonin levels – i.e. the hormone that helps stabilize our mood, reduce stress, and overall makes us feel good – which causes a decrease in depression and anxiety. There are many other more harmful activities that people seek out for serotonin production, so being able to reduce your stress through such a beneficial practice is great to consider during this time of year.
Even outside of seasonally related distress, stretching has been shown to provide benefits for people in many other scenarios, with studies pointing to the value of stretching in the workplace. According to the National Library of Medicine: “The implementation of a short program of stretching exercises in the workplace was effective for reducing levels of anxiety, bodily pain, and exhaustion, and for raising levels of vitality, mental health, general health, and flexibility. This type of intervention could be seen as a low-cost strategy for improving the well-being of workers.”
What a lot of studies point to, is the value of following stretching routines on a regular basis. While a one-time stretch routine might make you feel better in the moment, for lasting relief you’ll want to work in a stretching routine on a regular basis.
You could do some stretching to start your day, take some time during midday to get a small session in, and then wind down with another at the end of the day. As with any physical activity,
there is the possibility of overdoing things, but with utilization of the low-intensity nature of The SWS Method, this should not be too serious of a concern.
Why is Stretch so Beneficial?
Some of these claims about stretching may seem overblown, and it is understandable to be skeptical of anything claiming to have so many benefits, but the effects of stretching are well documented and well explained by scientific study.
When you stretch, your body releases chemicals called endorphins. These endorphins interact with the receptors in your brain that reduce your perception of pain. Endorphins also trigger a positive feeling in the body, a “high” if you will.
For example, the feeling that follows a run or workout is often described as “euphoric” – a feeling that is accompanied by a positive and energizing outlook on life. This is often why physical activity is recommended for those who are experiencing frequent sadness or anxiety. By getting active, and allowing these chemicals to flow, you can greatly improve your mood.
Stretching also induces physical effects that can make your body feel much better every day. By stretching, you can reduce a lot of physical tension that builds up in the body. For athletes, the source of this tension is pretty straightforward. After a long workout, your muscles will be tired from physical exertion, they can start to spasm and contract leading to tightness and this tension will build if you rest without a “cooldown” period and/or don’t have proper stretch protocols in place while training.
Even if you don’t work out, you may notice tension building up throughout your workday. This can affect your posture, as long hours sitting down at a desk can cause soreness in your back and other areas depending on your sitting position.
To keep your muscles limber and prevent tension and tightness from setting in, you should consider regularly stretching throughout your day, just to make sure everything stays mobile. This does not have to be a prolonged event, and just making sure to focus on every muscle group for 60 seconds during a session will be enough.
This work-related tension has even led to a specific name for the issues that are caused in an office setting: Office Syndrome. Office Syndrome is associated with headaches, backaches, muscle pain, fatigue, tightness in the shoulders, and much more, including mental concerns like anxiety and depression.
To combat Office Syndrome, you’ll want to regularly reposition yourself, make sure to rest your eyes when looking at a screen, and get up and move around when you can. By doing this, you’ll stay mobile and keep your muscles loose and your mind sharp.
Breathwork
While stretching is an essential part of the Swatson Solutions method, there are many more tools that are employed to help you understand how to be mindful and support your mental well-being. One of these important techniques comes in the form of breathwork.
How you breathe, not only during yoga or while stretching, but throughout your day every day, is an important tool that you can use to help your body feel less stressed on a physiological level.
If you pay close attention, you will notice that nearly every relaxation technique you have been suggested, and even exercise techniques, incorporate breathing in some manner. A lot of meditative practices rely on breathing to promote relaxation and a calming response in your mind, and this is achieved through physical as well as cognitive means.
Slow, deep breathing is often recommended for those experiencing anxiety, as it engages the body in a calming response. This physical relaxation is also combined with mental focus. By intentionally breathing slowly, you are keeping your mind clear of other worries as you focus on your current activity.
Breathwork has been shown to help reduce blood pressure and depending on the type of breathwork you do, it can produce more noticeable effects.
While there are some basic breathwork techniques you can try at home, the most significant benefits will come from following a trained instructor in a reliable program. This is because understanding the principles and timing involved in a lot of breathing techniques are not intuitive, and you’ll need assistance to get the full effect.
When you combine stretching and proper breathwork, you can offer your body a whole host of benefits. If you want to make sure you are maximizing the potential of your routine and can achieve the best results, then consider SWatson Solutions for your breathwork partner.
How Does SWatson Solutions Help?
Shannon Watson created SWatson Solutions and the SWS Method to help people maintain a healthier lifestyle that supports their mental and physical well-being. By emphasizing mindfulness based stress reduction or MBSR through processes such as stretching, breathwork, and other techniques, SWatson Solutions provides people with the tools they need to better serve their overall comfort and happiness.
With SWatson Solutions, you can focus more on your intentionality in life, making more clear and precise movements, focusing your mind on more productive thoughts, and being more mindful of your needs and desires. By combining these techniques into the comprehensive SWS Method, you can help keep your body in great physical shape, while providing for your happiness and cognitive performance.
By following the guidance of Registered Nurse Shannon Watson, you can better understand the philosophy and application of stretch and breath techniques. Doing these things improperly can void a lot of the benefits that are associated with them, so you’ll want to make sure you have an expert on hand to assist you. Shannon Watson is that expert, and with SWatson Solutions, you’ll have all the assistance you need to start taking better care of your health.
SWatson Solutions currently serves athletes, business teams, executives, and everyday people by providing them with the proper tools to address their needs. No matter what level of experience you have, or how severe you feel your issue may be, everyone can benefit from at least giving the SWS Method a try.
The practices followed by SWatson Solutions are backed up by science while also having demonstrated effectiveness with past clients. If you want to be the next SWatson Solution beneficiary, then you can visit the swatsonsolutions.com. If you want to implement this program with your entire team please email us today to get started.
There, you can choose to sign up for an online program you can practice from your own home, or sign up for an in-person session in Columbia, South Carolina.
Let’s get stretching!