Relaxation Tips When Nervous

A stressful lifestyle can prove damaging to your health. Stress can cause you to lose sleep, lowers your immune system's capability to fight off disease, and causes indigestion and acid reflux disease. Chronic stress can also result in nervousness. Nervousness can also be caused by specific events, rather than exist as the result of constant stress. Because nervousness can negatively affect work, relationships and social life, techniques to reduce nervousness are vital.

Deep Breathing Exercises

Deep-breathing techniques have a calming effect on the body. Slow and deep breathing creates a relaxing effect on the body because you have an increased oxygen intake. Also, according to Help Guide, deep breathing normally occurs when you feel relaxed, and helps to counter the fight-or-flight response by tricking your mind into a state of relaxation.

Proper breathing involves opening your throat and breathing into your diaphragm. Your stomach should expand as you inhale. When your diaphragm is filled, let the air fill your chest. Hold the breath for three slow counts, then slowly exhale from your chest down through your diaphragm. Set aside 15 minutes of each day to engage in deep-breathing exercises, or do so when you feel nervous.

Acute nervousness is often accompanied by muscle tension due to the fight-or-flight response to prepare for possible confrontation. You can relax your muscles and trick your body into lowering its adrenaline levels. According to Awakenings, muscle relaxation is based on tensing a specific muscle group to full strength for 10 seconds and then relaxing. When muscles relax, they return to their normal resting state and then relax even further to recuperate more quickly in times of stress. Fully relaxed muscles require less blood and oxygen, therefore your heart rate and breathing slow down and nervousness is reduced.

Although most of the time you cannot eliminate the cause of your nervousness, you can make yourself less likely to become nervous by making changes to your lifestyle. For example, consuming large amounts of caffeine and sugar increase your energy and anxiety levels. Instead, drink fresh fruit juice or eat fresh fruit. Get a balanced diet low on artificial sugar.

Getting regular amounts of sleep each night will also reduce your likelihood of becoming nervous. According to the National Sleep Foundation, adults need at least seven hours of sleep nightly, and at most nine hours.