Few days ago I was contacted on Instagram by Margaretha who told me that I had won a giveaway for a free 30 minute stress relief session. I was following her business 2 Kind Minds on Instagram but I wasn’t familiar with the services they provided. I was impressed by how much I got out of such a brief session. She even taught me a relaxation technique I had never heard about. I asked Margaretha two things: would she be willing to share more about 2 Kind Minds’ mission and would she offer my readers a special discount for her services? I’m glad to report the answer was yes on both. Read on to find out more about what 2 Kind Minds has to offer for your well-being and how you can get a special discount until the end of 2020.

Stress is a necessary part of life. Feeling tense and stressed over longer periods of time without being able to lower tension yourself can have negative effects on your mental and physical health. There are a variety of ways through which you can help your mind come to ease that do not involve chocolate or meditation pillows.

1. Observe yourself

What do you do when you are stressed? Do you grind your teeth or reach for substances to ease the tension caused by stress? Please, ask yourself: Is my benefit of choosing this stress relief method higher than my cost? Often the answer to this question is “no”, which is why you could extend your options of coping with tension.

2. Evaluate your coping strategies        

Once you are aware of your stress behaviours and how they affect you negatively, you may want to find better alternatives. You can start by looking at how you have coped before and trying to find similar but more effective alternatives for stress relief. For example, a person, who snacks when he or she is nervous, might want to prepare and stock healthy, but satisfying snacks to curb the urge. Another option is shifting the focus, even if it is just for a short while. Activities, like walking around the block or creative art like colouring or singing, can drastically lower your stress level.

3. List effective ways

Taking the next step by listing ways that will ultimately help you become calmer without affecting your physical or mental health negatively. Choose a calm moment to start your list. Being stressed narrows the focus and makes creativity nearly impossible. If you are constantly so tense that you can’t think of anything that could help, you might want to ask for help from a professional.

4. Accept yourself

Everyone is unique, which means that you need to try out different approaches to self-care and stress relief to find the ones, which are effective for you. Your path to a calmer self should not be a constant struggle. The techniques you apply when you are feeling stressed, should come easy to you. Ideally, you want something that you can reach for anywhere and any time.

5. Build your personal toolkit

People are as unique as their needs in different life situations. In order to have a strategy ready for every occasion you should aim to find ways that address different situations. Some examples are relaxation techniques for when you are struggling to sleep, techniques to calm yourself down at work and ways to switch off in the evening. When you have a wide variety of strategies the odds are higher that you will remember one that works when you need it.

6. Ask for help

It is easy to get caught up in stress and feeling of helplessness in the face of vast amounts of information about this topic. If you are struggling with stress and find it difficult and figure the best way out to help yourself with stress relief, you may absolutely ask for help.

Why are you reading this on Paola’s blog?

My colleague Heide and I started 2 Kind Minds with the goal to support people in increasing their stress resilience; i.e. their ability to handle stress well. Both of us are psychologists and certified relaxation therapists, who have been living in Finland for some years now. We initially studied psychology because we love to support people reaching their goals and leading a more happy and satisfied life. After each one-on-one session, training and course the positive feedback of our customers encourages us to proceed. Their success stories show us that we are on the right way!

During our stress management and relaxation training we apply something called active relaxation. Active relaxation are relaxation techniques that are more involved than other common relaxation techniques.
Maybe you have already tried some relaxation techniques, such as meditation. Maybe you found, that you had problems letting go of the different thoughts, while you were trying to focus on your breath or your body. Active relaxation takes a different approach: your mind is focused enough to make it easy for you to “stay with the exercise” without getting lost in your thoughts.

One important example of active relaxation is progressive muscle relaxation, a technique that step by step relaxes the whole body by consciously tensing and then relaxing specific muscle groups.

Our services

At 2 Kind Minds we are helping you to find ways to relax that work for you, by offering:

• Stress management techniques that actually work for you. We specialise in offering online relaxation informative events about different topics concerning mental health (e.g. Anxiety, Sleep, Time Management etc.).
• One-on-one consultations, during which we will figure out what your specific stress behaviors are and help you assemble a personal relaxation tool-kit.
• Regular online group relaxation classes that guide you through evidence-based relaxation techniques such as breathing exercises, visualizations, autogenic training and progressive muscle relaxation. You can get in touch with us or check out our events on our website or Eventbrite.

We would love to welcome you to join our community on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to receive tips, support and further information on upcoming events.
Be kind to yourself!
Margaretha Madoures & Heide Nuutinen, 2 Kind Minds

An exclusive discount code for you

Margaretha and Heidi have kindly granted a special discount to The Elephant Mum readers! Get 10% off on all their events and services until 31.12.2020. This includes gift cards (is someone looking for Christmas gift ideas?) and you can use the discount code multiple times. To claim the discount, book the event or service through their contact form or their social media channels listed above. Make sure to mention the discount code “TheElephantMum“. You can check out the events they have lined up on their calendar. For example, see the webinar “Active against anxiety” or book a 1-1 session to get advice. Take care of yourself!

If you liked this post, check out also:
How I manage the parenting stress
6 Reasons Why You Need a Digital Detox Now

Featured photo by Sarah Dorweiler on Unsplash.