How To Really Relax

Utilise each of your five senses for deeper and more satisfying levels of calm

There's something unique about the level of frazzle that hits at this time of year. Wrapping up the latter part of the year while battling fatigue, getting your head around what the next four months might bring; there's little hope to dampen the brain's constant whirring. Real calm, it turns out, is hard to find. As neuroscientist Dr Tara Swart explains, when your body is stressed - even when sometimes doing nothing you're in fight-or-flight mode. "The difference between the non-relaxed mode and the relaxed mode is your stress hormone levels," says Dr. Swart. "When cortisol is high, which happens when you're really focused, switched on, busy or stressed, that prevents your body from going into rest-and-repair mode because it's trying to make sure that you can meet any challenges," she adds. "It's so important that we learn to encourage a switch to recuperation mode, using the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps us rest and digest." Unsurprisingly, given the last two years the world has weathered, making this switch is proving harder than ever. And while regular yoga classes and a Netflix binge can help in the short term, how can you make real change for the long haul? Dr. Swart suggests honing in on each of the five senses, in turn, to focus on what you're experiencing, rather than multitasking, as everyone's guilty of doing. Here's how...

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