Want more iVillage? Sign up for our
Newsletters
Stress Management: Relaxing Your Mind and Body
Relaxing your mind and body can make you feel calm and peaceful. It can help relieve stress as well as anxiety, depression, and sleep problems.
Stress is a physical or emotional response to life’s changes and challenges. When you are under stress or feel anxious, your body reacts as if it is under attack. This is called the fight-or-flight stress response. Your body releases hormones that speed up your heart rate and breathing and make your muscles tense. Stress also affects your emotions, making you feel moody, tense, upset, or depressed. Over time, stress can affect your health in other ways too. For example, stress has been linked to high blood pressure.
When you are able to relax your mind and body, your body stops producing the hormones that create stress. The feelings of stress ease, and you return to a state of calm, both physically and mentally.
Test Your Knowledge
Relaxing your mind and body can have a positive effect on your health.
TrueAs you relax, your body stops producing hormones that create stress. So your heart rate slows, and your muscle tension eases. Relaxing may even lower your blood pressure.
FalseAs you relax, your body stops producing hormones that create stress. So your heart rate slows, and your muscle tension eases. Relaxing may even lower your blood pressure.
Continue to 
How can you relax your mind and body?
Return to 
Stress Management: Relaxing Your Mind and Body
| By: | Healthwise Staff | Last Revised: May 11, 2010 |
| Medical Review: | Kathleen Romito, MD - Family Medicine Lisa S. Weinstock, MD - Psychiatry | |
© 1995-2011 Healthwise, Incorporated. Healthwise, Healthwise for every health decision, and the Healthwise logo are trademarks of Healthwise, Incorporated. This information does not replace the advice of a doctor. Healthwise, Incorporated disclaims any warranty or liability for your use of this information. Your use of this information means that you agree to the Terms of Use. How this information was developed to help you make better health decisions.
