Living a happy and active life involves more than simply caring for your body and finding hobbies you enjoy. You also need to take care of your mental health, finding ways to reduce your stress and anxiety in today's busy world. Seeing a counselor/therapist regularly is a good start. Eating healthy and spending time with your friends and family will certainly contribute as well.  

But you also need to find time to simply relax. Far too often, your time is spent either worried about others or busy with your own life, and the longer you ignore your own mental health, the more likely it will affect your ability to find happiness in both the short and long term.

Finding Time to Relax

It's not easy to find a good hour or two to sit in a bubble bath and prune your stress away. You need to find a way to integrate effective relaxation techniques into your daily life, squeezing it in whenever you have a brief moment to yourself. Luckily, there are several techniques you can do in 20 minutes or less that will help you relax your mind and body easily and from the comfort of your own home or office.
3 Relaxation Strategies in 20 Minutes Or Less  

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

The longest of the three strategies, progressive muscle relaxation was borne from the idea that when your body is tense and anxious, your mind is also tense and anxious. The goal is to reduce that physical tension so that your mind can remain calm and free of stress.

This type of relaxation strategy involves tensing each muscle individually for 10 seconds, then releasing. Start at your left food, tense, release, and then move to your right foot. Continually move up in this manner all the way until you reach your face. Try your best to only do one muscle at a time.  

It can be difficult at first, but over time you'll be able to target each muscle and perform the exercises in a limited amount of time – you can even do it in the office or when you have a moment before dinner.

Deep Breathing Exercises

Deep breathing is the quickest of the available relaxation exercises, and easily the best choice for those that have a limited amount of time to relax. There are ample different types of breathing exercise as well, including several inspired by different yoga styles. But the basics of these breathing exercises is fairly similar.

One of the easiest to implement involves sitting with your back straight on a chair. Rest your arms on top of your legs, or on the armrests of the chair if they are up to waist level. The goal of these exercises is deep, restful breathing, so try to start breathing in through your stomach and finish in your chest to get the deepest breath each time.  

Start by slowly breathing through your nose. It should take between 4 and 7 seconds depending on your body. Hold for a few seconds, then slowly release through your mouth for 5 to 8 seconds. Repeat this 10 times. As you become more advanced, you can do this 20 times for added benefits. Only perform this exercise if you do not currently have asthma or any breathing problems.

Quiet Meditation

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your mind and body is to simply relax. Whether you suffer from general anxiety or simply stress and tension from throughout the day, finding a little bit of alone time to calm your mind and body is extremely valuable.  

When you have any free time, find a place you can sit quietly and calmly and simply meditate. Close your eyes and breathe in the air around you and let the calmness wash over you. Simply sitting in a comfortable position and relaxing is enough, but there are also more traditional meditation strategies you can employ. Whether you have five minutes or a full hour, spending this time to meditate and calm yourself is very valuable.

Relaxing Your Mind and Body

You live a very busy life, and you have a packed schedule. But if you truly want to live well, you need to make sure that you find the time to help your mind and body relax from the long day. Most relaxation strategies take a great deal of time, causing people to back out over time because they don't have time to consistently fit it in their schedule.  

You need to find a relaxation technique that works with your schedule, so that you can easily integrate it into your day and get used to the idea of finding a few moments to complete them.  The above relaxation techniques take very little time, so you can perform them whenever you find a free moment and use them to relax away the stresses of the day.

About the Author: Ryan Rivera felt overwhelmed by the stress and anxiety of daily life, but found his own way to relax with information you can find at www.calmclinic.com.