A Few Tips to Help You Stay Emotionally Fit!!

Many people think that in order to stay fit you must focus only on loosing weight, watching your calories and exercising. In all reality, there's many different things besides being pysically fit in order to keep yourself healthy. Being emotionally healthy also helps you stay strong, confident and keeps your appearance looking great as well!!

Here are a few tips to help you deal with stress while getting through college:

*Exercise.
*Eat right.
*Take a walk.
*Write a journal.
*Have an emotional release, let yourself cry, let go of tension and pain. Allow a healing process to take place.
*Talk about your problems with a counselor, teacher, friend or family member.
*Ride a bike.
*Go for a drive, give yourself time to think.
*Get enough rest and relaxation.


In addition to handling your stress in positive ways, many people use relaxation techniques to manage stress. Try these:

Deep Breathing - This helps you concentrate on your breathing and can help to calm down a person under stress. Take deep breaths while putting your hand on your abdomen. Concentrate on your breathing and how your hand moves up and down as you breathe. Do this for several minutes. This can be done several times a day and often people feel better after doing this exercise. Avoid taking quick, short breaths as you may get lightheaded or hyperventilate. The key to this is long deep breaths.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation - When you become stressed, your body reacts by tensing up its muscles. This technique helps the muscles and the mind to relax. Go to a quiet place and tense each muscle group for 8 - 10 seconds, then relax the group for 10 - 20 seconds. Go through each muscle group. Some people begin at their hands, move up the arms to the shoulders, back and chest, then down to the abdomen and buttocks, to the legs, feet and toes.
Relaxation Tapes - These tapes can be purchased at most bookstores or music stores. Some offer the sound of the ocean, birds chirping or just a daily talk on life. Follow the instructions on the tape to help your body to relax.
(Taken from: TeenHealthFX.com)