Hey everyone,
Other than the usual meditating, sleep hygiene tips and massage… Does anyone have any tips for living with or dealing with tension?
Feeling tense? Tension in our bodies? Necks? Tension headaches?
Greatly appreciated.
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Hi @GirlInterrupted - what a great post! I would love to read tips on tension relief 
I find regular yoga/stretches make an incredible difference in how the body feels. I can’t go a day without a small workout anymore! It is also a really helpful grounding and focus practice.
Also, limiting exposure to news and stimulating media can be helpful in feeling a bit more safe in our bodies 
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Hi Marina,
I really must try yoga! It’s always recommended to me and I never try it…
But I agree on social media, since deleting Twitter I feel better, so maybe I need to limit my Instagram scrolling before bed?
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I love your suggestions about time spent on news. You have triggered me to consider how much more time, watching news I have been doing at the wrong times given recent events taking place in the middle East. I can’t find words strong enough to describe how much it shocks me that still after all that has taken place historically people can still treat others in what feels like ever increasingly horrific ways.
I feel tension becoming worse every time I watch and see just more negative news reported. I am sure others will agree that it feels like the world has gone absolutely crazy and reaching a point where I actually feel scared for the future. If only people could just be decent and respectful to all, instead see how much we can find in common and realise how futile conflict is. What a wonderful difference it would make to read/see good news in the headlines! All this negativity can’t be helping my tension. I need to find a balance between keeping up with current events to stay informed without over exposure to what a lot of the time when you break it down is just repetitive news from different sources.
No watching news before trying to sleep. I will continue to be responsible and respectful towards others and hope that others will be the same. Thank you for helping me think about the effects of the news, I am going to make some changes!
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Definitely stretches in a morning. Pilates too. I go to a wonderful lady who practises the Hendrickson method of massages / manipulation. She works miracles on my lower back tension.
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Will look into this, thank you.
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It’s an awful awful situation.
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I completely agree with you. I feel on edge all the time because there is so much conflict and hardship in the world today. I can’t believe these people have taken to these actions so closely after a global pandemic threatened life on Earth like it did. Maybe the lockdowns gave them time to realise their extreme negative feelings to other countries and their people 
Whatever their reasons, it doesn’t sit well with me or most other people around the world 
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Absolutely! I would avoid all social media and news for at least a couple of hours before trying to go to sleep.
Reading a good book for 30 minutes usually helps me tremendously. I like my mind continuing on the story as I drift off.
And if you feel the news negatively impacting your life, due to the sheer volume and attention grabbing headlines that are churned out every day, especially during times of conflict, such as now, I would recommend to generally avoid the news. I find it pretty hard to not get the gist of what is happening anyway, simply from being on the internet/social. So I don’t go looking for more unless I feel mentally up to it. And then usually in the morning, so it’s not something that churns in my head when it hits the pillow.
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Hope you can find a practitioner near you and if not some support for your symptoms
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I gave up all social media months or so ago, I don’t miss it, family and friends know how to get me if they need me, and I gave too much thought on negative people and their opinions, until I realised that their opinon of me, is none of my business, its theirs, so I gave up facebook, which is all the social media I really did, people know where to fibd me, and I’ve found I’m a happier version of me, and now I go about my life merrily not wondering what people think of me, or caring what they think, as lingbas those who are close know what type of person I am, and know they can reach out and I will always help if I’m able to, and the diagnosis shiwed me the people who actually cared when they found out, and I was surprised at how many people did reach out, so I’ve not even thought if going back onto Facebook or anywhere else, I have other more important things to worry about, which doesn’t negate whatbityer people get drom their social media, I know that for some people its a lifeline, and thats them, I’m happy doing me.
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I am replying to my own post (at this time in the morning again due to unusual shift patterns and call outs if something serious happens where I usually witness the aftermath of very close up views of incidents and have to deal with them so I get enough bad news locally anyway)
So I took the changes needed re TV news straight after the last post and maybe by chance but I think not as when completing the journal on my return home entered the sleep achieved and discovered that it was the best nights sleep since starting as a pioneer, which seems ages ago now having joined from pretty much the beginning. I didn’t expose myself to any news at all between returning home and going to bed. So if this continues there’s definitely something in the correlation of increased tension and too much news at the wrong times. I hope this continues and also encourages others to try the same! 
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One night of great sleep is already such a win!
I truly hope it continues for you!
Your comment makes me think of how sleep can be such a sensitive part of life (although being so vital at the same time!) and is influenced by so many different factors. Our environments affect our sleep and vice versa, so we should really look out for those too 
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TWO GREAT NIGHTS IN A ROW NOW!
All the points you make are so relevant to your sleep quality. Really I have just made one change regarding the news exposure and time I do watch some and, maybe by chance, but by changing what I thought was one thing actually has inadvertently changed others. For example the difference it makes me adjust other issues such as when I eat, exercise, mentally change my expectations and the potential change in mood after just two nights that have been the best in absolutely ages!
So I can say that I fully agree with you @Marina . All typed out now after several other posts!
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I’m pleased you found the secret to your great sleep, I try to have a bedtime routine, not doing great last couple of weeks, despite the passiflora, but thats just my mind racing at the moment, I hope you have found your own sleep routine, and its great to hear that Sofi is helping people.
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That’s incredible @oliver75gaskell - hats off to you for not wasting a minute to implement that change, too! I think I am particularly sensitive to negative stimuli in the evening, so I do my best to avoid the news, scary movies, etc - but it’s much easier said than done, especially this month 
!
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I’ve cut out coffee except for weekends, stopped scrolling Instagram before bed and only play PlayStation upto 9PM. I’m sleeping a bit better already…
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You are all determined and have great willpower. I admire you all!
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I read for a while before I sleep. I also spray or dab lavender oil on my wrists. I know I shouldn’t scroll and use my phone before and in bed but I do. If I am really struggling to sleep I put on some gentle soothing music.
She is a Shiba Inu. Smaller than the Japanese Akita but I think the breeds are related. She is a diva.
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