Relaxing the tongue has many benefits, while some of these benefits are somewhat self-evident others are more subtle and unique. Aside from potentially boosting the essential functions of the tongue mentioned above, that is to say help you speak or sing better, enhance your taste buds, optimize your chewing and swallowing, relaxing the tongue can also help in calming your overthinking mind.

So much of our work and relaxation time is spent looking at screens, that it’s no wonder that our eyes get stressed, tired, and strained. In fact, if you work on a computer all day, your eyes have to adapt about 30,000 times to different brightnesses, contrasts, etc.

To ease the strain on your eyes, you can try some or all of the following exercises to find the ones that work best for you:

1. Close your eyes and place your palms over your eyes to block out all the light. Take slow breaths for one to two minutes while remaining in this position before slowly taking your hands away and opening your eyes.
2. Squeeze your eyes shut for 15 to 20 seconds before relaxing your face and opening your eyes again. Repeat up to five times.
3. Sitting upright and keeping your head still, look up, down, left, and right by moving only your eyes, and pausing for two counts in each direction. Repeat three times.
4. You can also rest your eyes while meditating by closing your eyes and making a point of relaxing them and the rest of your face.
5. Gently massage the area beneath your eyebrows – from the bridge of your nose to the outside of your eyelid lightly, using the tips of your fingers.

Tip: If your eyes often become red, irritated, or painful, have a look at changing the humidity and/or lighting in your work area. You can also adapt your computer screen’s brightness or use the dark mode of your apps.

Clenching your jaw while stressed or working is quite common, but can lead to jaw pain, headaches, and more.

1. A jaw massage is one of the quickest and easiest ways to relieve jaw pain caused by stress and tension. To do this massage, place your palms flat in front of your ears where the jaw’s joint is. Then use light pressure and circular motions to massage your jaw from ears to chin. Repeat a few times, if necessary.
2. Consciously relax your jaw for the count of 5 before tensing again slightly and relaxing once more for the count of 5. Repeat up to five times.
3. Deep breathing exercises, like box breathing (four square breathing), can also help a lot with easing tension in your jaw.

Tip: The following steps may prevent or lessen jaw tension and jaw pain:

• Keeping up a good posture while working, whether sitting or standing.
• Changing whether you’re sitting or standing and working every half hour or so.
• Keep your stress levels in check through pleasurable activities like exercise, hobbies, meditation, music, reading, yoga, etc.
• Massaging your jaw as soon as you feel tension starting to build and then correcting your posture, putting on some music, etc.

A tense forehead can lead to tension headaches, tension in the scalp, and tension in the rest of your face. (A tension headache often feels like a tight band stretched across your forehead.) To relieve the tension in your forehead, you often need to consciously relax the muscles and then do an exercise like the one below that makes use of pressure points:

1. Ball your hands into fists and place the knuckles of your index and middle fingers in the centre of your forehead, applying light pressure.
2. As you breathe in, keep applying pressure and move your knuckles outward from the centre of your forehead, drawing a line towards your temples.
3. Breathing out, lift your hands away and replace them in the centre of your forehead, applying pressure with your knuckles.
4. Repeat this action 3 to 5 times. Don’t press too hard, though, as the pressure shouldn’t hurt or bruise.

Whether the cause is anxiety, digestive difficulties or any other reason, tension in the stomach is a problem many of us face regularly. Stress is typically the underlying culprit behind stomach tightness and tension. Modern fast-paced life and busy work schedules keep us feeling rushed and often go hand in hand with depression and anxiety.

Shoulder and neck stretch: Relax your shoulders and tilt your head to the right. Hold it for a few seconds then let your hand gently pull your head until you feel a slight burn on the opposite side of your neck. Do the same for the other side, holding every position for 10 seconds.

You may have experienced tension at the back of your head when you’re stressed. The tension can even encompass your whole head and turn into a nasty tension headache if you don’t keep an eye on it.

Luckily, it’s easy to give yourself a scalp massage to ease this tension and pain.

A scalp massage can be done using essential oils like lavender, jojoba, and sweet almond oil when you’re home, but can also be done when you’re at work without the oil.

How to give yourself a scalp massage

A scalp massage should only be done with light to moderate pressure and shouldn’t be painful. Alexandra Engler explains how you can give yourself a scalp massage in a couple of steps:

1. First, let blood flow to the scalp by tilting your head forward.
2. Next, comb from your forehead to the nape of your neck with your fingers (don’t use your nails in case you scratch yourself).
3. Then place your fingers on either side of your head and rub your scalp in circles using light to moderate pressure. Do this all over your scalp, also paying attention to your hairline.
4. Tap your fingers all over your scalp and hairline, making sure that you don’t tap too hard.
5. Finally, take small pieces of hair and gently pull on them (this shouldn’t hurt – you don’t want to pull your hair out!).

You may have experienced tension at the back of your head when you’re stressed. The tension can even encompass your whole head and turn into a nasty tension headache if you don’t keep an eye on it.

Luckily, it’s easy to give yourself a scalp massage to ease this tension and pain.

A scalp massage can be done using essential oils like lavender, jojoba, and sweet almond oil when you’re home, but can also be done when you’re at work without the oil.

How to give yourself a scalp massage

A scalp massage should only be done with light to moderate pressure and shouldn’t be painful. Alexandra Engler explains how you can give yourself a scalp massage in a couple of steps:

1. First, let blood flow to the scalp by tilting your head forward.
2. Next, comb from your forehead to the nape of your neck with your fingers (don’t use your nails in case you scratch yourself).
3. Then place your fingers on either side of your head and rub your scalp in circles using light to moderate pressure. Do this all over your scalp, also paying attention to your hairline.
4. Tap your fingers all over your scalp and hairline, making sure that you don’t tap too hard.
5. Finally, take small pieces of hair and gently pull on them (this shouldn’t hurt – you don’t want to pull your hair out!).

Relax the ankles

Stress can affect your ankles and feet as well as the rest of your body. In your feet, the symptoms of stress can most often be experienced as:

• Cold feet
• Dry and/or cracked skin, including eczema and psoriasis
• Tingling (pins and needles), a burning sensation, or other discomfort
• Muscle cramps and spasms

Being overweight or obese can also contribute to feet aches and pains because there is extra weight adding strain to your ankles and feet.

Tip: Make sure that it’s not your shoes that are causing your foot pain and problems.

Simple relief for foot pain include ice packs or a warm foot soak with epsom salts for 10 minutes (only if your feet aren’t inflamed as the heat can make the inflammation worse).

Tip: Add some peppermint essential oil for tired feet or, to relax, lavender, chamomile, or any of your favorite oils.

Exercises to relieve pain and tension in your feet:

• Pick up small objects with your toes, moving them all onto one pile. First do this with one foot, then with the other.
• Stand up straight and then rise onto your toes (holding onto something for balance at first) and lifting your heels off the ground.
• Move your feet up and down, pointing your toes and then relaxing your foot again.
• Make circles with your ankles (preferably while standing).
• Take a tennis ball, golf ball, or a bottle of frozen water (Put a sock over the bottle or wear socks to prevent your feet from becoming too cold.) and then roll it beneath your feet to massage your foot soles.

Relax the knees

Relax your arms through self-massage, this is how you can do it:

1. Build some heat in your hands by rubbing your hands against each other for 5-10 seconds.
2. Begin, then, by placing one of your hands on the opposite arm, let the hand that’s massaging be loose as you wrap and mold your fingers around different fleshy parts of the arm.
3. When you’ve got the muscle cupped and held in your hand, start rolling the flesh between your fingers and the lower parts of your palm i.e. the heels of your hands.
4. When you’re massaging smaller areas like hands and wrists, you can try kneading the flesh between your fingers and thumbs instead.
5. Always keep your hands loose, relaxed and limber while massaging in a slow, rhythmical movement.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR)

First things first, one effective technique to try out if you have tense and rigid arms is the PMR (Progressive Muscle Relaxation) technique.

Although PMR is generally meant for your whole body, focusing on a single muscle group can also help when it comes to your arms, hands, and legs.

Doing this kind of exercise for your arms throughout the day to ease the tension from working on a computer, for example, can help you to get into the habit of not tensing all your muscles as you get “into the zone” while working. PMR also promotes general awareness of the body which in and of itself is a great antidote to tension and different forms of stress.

How to do PMR, focusing on your arms

• Set aside time to do these exercises without being rushed.
• If you’re only going to focus on your arms, you only need about 5 minutes, but if you’re planning on doing PMR for your whole body you should set aside about 15 minutes.
• Sit comfortably and up straight in a chair, with your hands resting in your lap.
• Tense the muscles in your arms (making fists you like) and hold this tension for about five seconds. During this time, really take note of the tension. (Note that the tension shouldn’t hurt at all.)
• Now relax your muscles slowly and focus on the gradual feeling of ensuing relaxation.

The NHS Inform website notes that you should start by doing five repetitions of each exercise and then add more repetitions as your wrists get stronger and you get used to the exercises.

These exercises can be done sitting:

• Wrist bend: Making a fist, rest your arm on a desk on its side. With your arm and hand remaining on the desk, curl your hand towards yourself so that your wrist bends and stretches.
  Hold the position for the count of two before returning your hand to the starting position. Repeat five times before switching hands.
• Side-to-side bend: Placing your hand flat on the desk – palm down – making sure that it’s vertical to your body.
  First, move your hand to the left, keeping it flat on the table, before bending it to the right while keeping it flat on the table.

This exercise is best done standing:

• The prayer stretch: Place your hands, palms together, beneath your chin. Then lower your hands, all the while keeping your palms together and your hands close to your body. You should start to feel your forearms and wrists stretch. Hold the stretch for the count of 10 or fifteen.

Exercises to do while seated or standing:

• Hand clench: Just what it sounds like, the hand clench consists of clenching your hand into a fist and holding it for the count of 2 before opening your hand until your fingers are straight and relaxed, but not fully stretched. Repeat this exercise 5 times on each hand.
• Finger curl: Curl your fingers onto your palm and hold for the count of 2 before opening your hand as wide as possible to stretch your fingers and holding your hand in this position for the count of 2. Repeat this exercise 5 times on each hand.
• Finger and thumb touch: For this exercise you can support your arm on the table if you want. Turn your hand so that your palm is facing you. Touch your thumb to each of your fingers, starting with your index finger, tapping your fingertips as you go. Once you reach your pinkie, work your way back to your index finger. This counts as one repetition. Repeat 5 times on both hands.

You can also use a stress ball or foam ball (or even aromatherapy clay/”playdough”) to exercise your hands and relieve the tension that has built up in them. Try using lavender or chamomile-scented clay for an extra relaxation boost.

Relaxing your legs can be as simple as taking a bath with Epsom salts to relax the muscles or doing some stretching exercises to release the tension in the muscles.

Tip: Add some of your favorite essential oils to the bath water as well or try some lavender oil for a relaxing bath.

These exercises are also not just meant to be done as a warm-up or cool down when you’re at the gym, but also when you’ve been sitting for some time. This is because your legs and hips can become very stiff - and even swollen - from sitting too much.

Two of the easiest, low impact stretches that you can do at your desk are calf raises and hip stretches:

• Calf raises: Start in a standing position, holding on to the back of a chair for balance. With all your weight on your right leg, bend your left knee, so that your foot lifts from the floor. Slowly, rise onto the toes of your right foot before lowering again. Repeat 15 – 20 times before switching legs.
• Hip stretch: Remain sitting and cross your left ankle over your right knee, resting your left leg on your right leg. Keeping your left shin parallel to the floor, lean forward slowly.

You’ll feel the outside of your hip stretch. Stay in that position for a minute or two before straightening up and switching legs. Note: Don’t push the stretch too far, you shouldn’t feel pain.