When we face stressors in life, we can carry physical and psychological tension, and these tensions can feed off of one another. Feeling physically tense can increase your psychological and emotional tension and vice versa.

Conversely, relaxing your body physically can help relieve psychological stress, and relaxing your mind can help you to physically relax and release tension in your body.

When your stress response is no longer triggered, it becomes far easier to approach challenges in a proactive, peaceful way.

Learning to master techniques that enable both types of relaxation is a highly effective route to stress relief. Many people try to ignore stress and hope that stressors pass quickly. It’s not uncommon to be caught off-guard by stress. It’s important to know when you have too much stress and need to relax.