Stress management techniques

How Scents Affect Your Body and Mood

Mood and scent are closely linked. This connection happens because odour molecules in fragrance bind to proteins along your nasal passage and create electrical signals. These signals can interact with a part of your brain called the limbic brain and affect your emotions, thoughts, and memory.‌

Molecules are also small enough to cross the blood-brain barrier and interact with your nervous system. Some scents can help lower blood pressure and heart rate and change brain activity.

Candles Promote Relaxation

You might turn to candles after a long day or when you’re feeling stressed. Burning a candle can help lower stress and promote relaxation. These benefits come more from the scent than the candle itself.‌

Pure beeswax candles have a naturally occurring scent that aids relaxation and therefore do not necessarily need any additives for this purpose. Beeswax candles not only aid relaxation but they actually purify the air around them as they release negative ions which bind with particulate matter in the air.

What Is Stress?

Understanding the Fight or Flight Response: How Stress Impacts Your Body.

A little bit of stress is fine - keeps us challenged, but too much stress isn’t good for you. Some situations can cause ongoing stress, which, in turn, can bring on health problems including anxiety and depression.

Breathing Exercises

Make yourself as comfortable as you can. If you can, loosen any clothes that restrict your breathing.

If you're sitting or standing, place both feet flat on the ground. Whatever position you're in, place your feet roughly hip-width apart.

Let your breath flow as deep down into your belly as is comfortable, without forcing it.
Try breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth.
Breathe in gently and regularly. Some people find it helpful to count steadily from 1 to 5. You may not be able to reach 5 at first.
Then let it flow out gently, counting from 1 to 5 again, if you find this helpful.
Keep doing this for at least 5 minutes.

NHS: Breathing exercises for stress

Mindfulness and Meditation

Mindfulness is an ancient form of meditation that promotes awareness of what’s happening in the moment.

It encourages you to focus on your body, your thoughts, and what’s going on around you.

Mantra meditation, on the other hand, is the opposite of mindfulness. In this practice, you place all your attention on a single target, like a mantra, a candle flame, or a phrase.

In both types of meditations, whenever your mind wanders -- and it will - you simply re-focus.

It's a brain skill, that in the first 2 weeks you won't be able to do it very well. Your mind will constantly chatter and distract, and that's normal, that happens.

But as you practice, you’ll get better at it.