Home>>Health Issues>>Stress>>Take Time to Relax

Life can be stressful, especially the college life.

Your brain will work much more efficiently and you will be less likely to get sick if you take time to relax.

Here are some ways to take a quick break:

Mandalas are sacred circles that have long used to facilitate meditation.

An increasing amount of scientific evidence suggests that meditation can boost the immune system, lower blood pressure, combat depression, improve sleep and reduce stress.

Coloring a mandala combines the benefits of mediation and art therapy and can provide a sense of calm and well-being as well as a chance to express your creative side. 

Color a mandala 

Gardening is a great way to reduce stress levels.

It can give you a sense of control as you are the designer in charge.

It can excite your senses and studies show just looking at a garden can be good for your psychological health. It can be a safe haven.

Being outside can elevate your mood as well as get you some much needed vitamin D.

Weeding, watering, planting can all be a form of meditation.

Gardening can be a way to  exercise, and seeing the fruits of your labor is very satisfying.

Not everyone has the space or time to plant an actual garden. If even a windowsill version isn't feasible try a virtual one.

Plant a virtual flower garden 

And now we will count to twelve 

And now we will count to twelve and we will all keep still...

For once on the face of the earth let's not speak in any language; let's stop for one second, and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment without rush, without engines, we would all be together in a sudden strangeness. 

Fishermen in the cold sea would not harm whales and the man gathering salt would look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare green wars, wars with gas, wars with fire, victory with no survivors, would put on clean clothes and walk about with their brothers in the shade, doing nothing.

What I want should not be confused with total inactivity. (Life is what it is about; I want no truck with death.)

If we were not so singleminded about keeping our lives moving, and for once could do nothing, perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness of never understanding ourselves and of threatening ourselves with death. 

Perhaps the earth can teach us as when everything seems dead and later proves to be alive.

Now I will count up to twelve, and you keep quiet and I will go.

           ---Pablo Neruda