Here’s What ‘Stresslaxation’ is All About

Every now and then, you come across a new word, and you begin to wonder what it means - just like the term 'stresslaxation.'

This term is defined as the sensation or the feeling of stress when you actually want to relax your mind and body, but you end up dealing with negative thoughts or anxiety. While this term might be new and completely unheard of by many people, relaxation-induced anxiety has been under research for quite a few years.

Findings have shown that between 30% to 50% of people witness the symptoms of stress when they plan to relax. These symptoms could be elevated heart rate or sweating uncontrollably.

Tim/Pexels | You relax to de-stress, not to stress yourself further

Meet the Paradox

For many, this has become a paradoxical situation whereby they struggle to relax and find themselves being overwhelmed and/or anxious when they aim to relax or calm themselves. So, if a person tries to relieve stress and tries to relax, but in return, the person faces more stress?

This is extremely dangerous and can push them into a vicious and damaging cycle of dealing with added stress, negative thoughts, and no way to de-stress. However, not everyone faces stresslaxation. Some researchers suggest that people who are suffering from anxiety are more vulnerable to dealing with this condition.

So, what can you do to help it? Here are a few suggestions.

1. Denial

Whether you want to agree or not, denial is a sweet lie that everyone wants to take support for when they are stuck in a difficult situation. For most parts, it does play a major role in coping with emotions.

Polina/Pexels | Denying your problems will not make them go away

However, long-term use of denial ends in your body continuously sending stress signals to your brain, which is why even when you are relaxing, your mind is practically forcing you to think about what you don't want to think about! A simple trick would be to address those emotions and seek help if you think you can not do it alone.

2. Indecisiveness

So, you've got this great deal for a house at a great rate, but you've also got an amazing opportunity to travel abroad - what would you do? Firstly, you will take your sweet time weighing the pros and cons of all the other possibilities you can look into. This is called maximizing thoughts, which only makes you more indecisive. So, you need to be goal-oriented and force your mind to relax, and remember why you wanted to relax in the first place.

3. Other People's Opinions

Throughout your life, you may have met people who didn't care for what others had to say, and they went on to do their own thing. On the other hand, there were people who really took into account other people's opinions. Pleasing others and working hard to get approval can easily weigh anyone down and even stop them from getting the break that they deserve.