Healthy Activities Proven to Help You Relax

If you’re struggling with stress and anxiety, you need healthy activities to help you relax.

Below are five easy ones you can do anytime that are proven to not only help you relax but to create other health benefits as well.

Healthy Activities to Relax Tip 1. Take a Hot Bath

You may already be a fan of hot baths, but did you know that regularly taking one could help reduce your risk of heart disease?

Researchers examined data from over 30,000 people gathered over nearly 20 years. They found that the more often the participants took a hot bath, the lower their risk of cardiovascular disease, including heart attack and stroke.

A daily hot bath was associated with a 28 percent lower risk of heart disease and a 26 percent lower risk of stroke. The researchers believe the effect was due to the ability of a hot bath to help lower blood pressure.

Tub bathing is known to help improve “hemodynamic function,” or the ease with which the heart can pump blood to all the areas of the body. Like exercise, a hot bath makes the heart work but relaxes the blood vessels to get blood to other parts of the body.

Other studies have found additional physical and emotional benefits to bathing. In addition to improving blood flow, for example, a warm water bath can improve mental and emotional health while lowering stress and anxiety.

Light a candle if you like, add a few drops of your favorite essential oil to the water, and sit back and relax.

2. Go Somewhere You Can Be Near Water

Most of us find the beach relaxing. A 2013 study showed that individuals living nearer the coast reported significantly better general health and mental health than those living in other areas.

It doesn’t have to be a beach, though. Any body of water will do.

“People can experience the benefits of the water whether they’re near the ocean, a lake, river, swimming pool or even listening to the soothing sound of a fountain,” marine biologist and author of the 2014 book Blue Mind, Wallace Nichols, tells Quartz magazine. ”…as humans, we’re naturally drawn to blue space…but even if you aren’t in an area where there is easy access to water, you can still experience [its] emotional benefits.”

If you don’t have a body of water nearby, check to see if the spas or other businesses in your area offer flotation tanks. These are a recent health tool promising total relaxation through sensory deprivation.

Even just listening to water can be enough to put you in a calmer state of mind. After assigning 60 women to three conditions—listening to water sounds, a relaxing piece of music, or no sounds at all—scientists found that only those listening to water sounds experienced a reduction in stress, as measured by levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

“Research has shown that being near, in, on or under water can provide a long list of benefits for our mind and body,” writes Nichols in his book, Blue Mind, “including lowering stress and anxiety, increasing an overall sense of well-being and happiness, a lower heart and breathing rate, and safe, better workouts.”

A bonus? Research shows that being near water can improve creativity, too.

Healthy Activities to Relax Tip 3. Go Forest Bathing

Forest bathing is a Japanese form of therapy (Shinrin-yoku) that involves simply walking through the forest and inhaling the scent of the trees.

Studies have shown that this form of therapy can reduce stress and anxiety (via lower cortisol levels), lower blood pressure, lower heart rate, and lower sympathetic nerve activity. Those who walked for only 15 minutes in a forest experienced these benefits.

In one study of nearly 100 volunteers, researchers found that hostility and depression decreased significantly after a forest walk, while “liveliness” scores increased significantly. The higher the stress levels in the volunteers to begin with, the greater the therapeutic effects of the forest.

You can read more about forest bathing in our previous post, “Forest Bathing—The Secrets of Writers and Trees.” Meanwhile, when you’re feeling stressed and you can’t find water, maybe you can find a clump of trees to walk through. Even a park is likely to help, though the main goal with forest bathing is to inhale the scent of the trees’ leaves and bark.

If you don’t have a forest around you, try using aromatherapy. Diffuse some pine, cedarwood, sandalwood, or silver fir essential oils and inhale deeply.

4. Wash the Dishes

Studies show: washing dishes can help you relax.

As noted above, water is soothing to us no matter how it’s applied. But scientists have also found that doing mundane chores like washing dishes can reduce stress.

After assigning 51 college students to mindful dishwashing or a regular dishwashing practice, researchers found the mindful dishwashers—those who focused on the smell of the soap, the warmth of the water, and the feel of the dishes— decreased their feelings of stress by 27 percent while increasing feelings of inspiration by 25 percent.

The control group didn’t experience any benefits.

Healthy Activities to Relax Tip 5. Knit or Crochet

I’ve noticed some writers on Twitter displaying their new knitted or crocheted creations. Have you picked up the needles recently to help fill in the time at home?

If you have, you’ve done yourself a favor. Mental Health America notes that knitting can help reduce depression and anxiety, distract from chronic pain, and increase well being. In one national survey of about 3,500 knitters, researchers found a strong connection between knitting and feelings of calm and happiness.

“Knitting has significant psychological and social benefits,” the researchers wrote, “which can contribute to well being and quality of life.”

In an earlier study on women with an eating disorder, patients reported a subjective reduction in anxious preoccupation when knitting. More specifically:

• 74 percent said it lessened their fears and helped clear their minds
• 74 percent reported it had a calming and therapeutic effect
• 53 percent reported it provided satisfaction, pride, and a sense of accomplishment

Odds are that other similar activities could provide similar benefits, so if you’re not a knitter but a quilter, you are still likely to enjoy the relaxation.

What activities do you use to relax?

_{Photo by Roberto Nickson on Unsplash}

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_Sources

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