Hi Ben, thanks for doing a literature review on this topic.
Tangentially, what would you recommend for someone who is having a hard time “decompressing”? To give a few examples:
after working for long hours I find it hard to relax and start doing anything but potato-watching culinary YouTube (I am not truly exhausted as if I have a date social pressure will make me go out and shortly after I will enjoy myself);
after acute stressors (most recently: after spending an hour in a very loud club I was unable to relax and was reflexively shaking my back to let go of tension a few times)?
Intuitively: breathing exercise, PMR, and massage might be worth trying. Anything else?
Hi Misha, I’d say a quick breathing exercise and PMR might be particularly helpful, especially as you can pretty much do them at any time/ location. Otherwise, it’s maybe worth experimenting with things you particularly enjoy as a way of quickly relaxing— e.g. personally, I find it surprisingly effective to spend even just 5 minutes strumming on my ukulele if I’m feeling quite highly stressed
Hi Ben, thanks for doing a literature review on this topic.
Tangentially, what would you recommend for someone who is having a hard time “decompressing”? To give a few examples:
after working for long hours I find it hard to relax and start doing anything but potato-watching culinary YouTube (I am not truly exhausted as if I have a date social pressure will make me go out and shortly after I will enjoy myself);
after acute stressors (most recently: after spending an hour in a very loud club I was unable to relax and was reflexively shaking my back to let go of tension a few times)?
Intuitively: breathing exercise, PMR, and massage might be worth trying. Anything else?
Hi Misha, I’d say a quick breathing exercise and PMR might be particularly helpful, especially as you can pretty much do them at any time/ location. Otherwise, it’s maybe worth experimenting with things you particularly enjoy as a way of quickly relaxing—
e.g. personally, I find it surprisingly effective to spend even just 5 minutes strumming on my ukulele if I’m feeling quite highly stressed