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Here’s How To Relieve Stress Through Extreme Sports (Yes, Really)

Health . Mental Health . Sports & Recreation

These days there are a lot of reasons to feel stressed. You have to worry about bills. You have to worry about the kids assuming you have them. You have to worry about your safety when you go out in public because there are so many people out there who might be looking to cause you harm.

 

Then you have the constant worry of losing your job in a rough economy. With all of this weighing on you it is easy to succumb to stress. But there is one way you can overcome it though and that is through extreme sports.

 

Now at first it might seem like extreme sports would not help you relieve stress. If anything you would think it is going to make you feel even more anxious, especially if you are not accustomed to engaging in such activity. But this is not the reality at all. Extreme sports are good to relieve stress for the following reasons:[arrowlist]

  • Extreme sports give you an outlet for all sorts of pent up energy you might have in you that you are not able to express anywhere else. When you take part in extreme sports you will be able to let out all that energy at once and you will feel much better. This is going to help you to be more calm during the day when you feel stress coming on, because you will know you indeed have an outlet for it.
  • Extreme sports will help take your mind off of whatever is worrying you or bothering you and put you in a fun mood. These types of sports are designed to be so intense that they require all of your attention. So you will quickly forget about whatever it is that is worrying you while you do them. As a result you will look much more forward to doing them regularly.
  • Extreme sports are made to make you feel excited. Stress is often associated with depression. These types of sports get you in a great mood because they make you feel alive. They make you test your boundaries. You feel a sense of accomplishment once you are finished with them. You might not be able to get the high you will get from taking part in extreme sports anywhere else.

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Now here are some ways extreme sports can be used to relieve stress.

Using Mental Imaging as You Take Part in Extreme Sports

You know how when you were a kid your parents would tell you to tear something in order to relieve stress. In some cases they might have told you to hit something or to break something. Why do you believe they told you to do this? Well one reason is because when you do these things you probably have an image in your mind at that moment that you are using in order to fuel your anger. This is what your anger is being directed at. Well the same thing goes when it comes to stress. If you use extreme sports you can use mental imaging to form a very distinct picture of the things that are causing you worry.

 

In some cases they do not have to do with people, maybe it might be circumstances such as bills piling up. In any case the goal of extreme sports is to help you direct your frustrations while you take part in them. You are trying to zap away the power these things have over you so that you feel better. Once you have taken part in some sort of extreme sport and you get into the habit of directing your stressful energy towards certain thoughts and images as you go you will be shocked at how much of a positive effect this has on you.

 

Setting The Bar High so That Your Adrenaline Rush is Good

If your goal is to relieve stress through extreme sports then you cannot do this by going easy on yourself. You have to find a way to amp things up. You have to find ways to really make what you are going to be doing intense otherwise it will not have the desired effect. Here is a way to know if an extreme sport you are taking part in is adrenaline filled enough or not. Monitor how fast your heart rate speeds up as you think about it or as you are about to do it.

 

Being calm is the not goal when you do extreme sports. The reason why they are called extreme is because they require a lot out of you mentally and physically. Total concentration is required, which is going to work perfectly for those who are so stressed out that they find it hard to think about anything else. The concentration required for extreme sports cannot be denied. And just a small amount of time spent not thinking about what is stressing you can be great therapy.

 

What Type of Extreme Sports Can You Do to Relieve Stress?

There are actually quite a few extreme sports you can do in order to help with stress. What you need to focus on though is starting small and working your way up as your initial resistance begins to fade. Do not go all in with the most extreme sports right off the bat. This might be too much for you to handle and can actually cause other problems.

 

It is very important that you have an outlet for all the stress you are going to experience everyday. If you take a look around you it is not hard to see that a lot of people just do not have this outlet. This leads to them taking out there stress on people in various ways and this can end up costing them in ways they are not aware of. Use extreme sports to let out all of your stress and take part in them on a regular basis. You will not only feel better afterwards, you will also feel a great desire to want to get others involved in the future.

 

[box_light]Todd Miller is a freelance writer who is keen on physical fitness, extreme sports and skateboarding. He also writes for Box13 among various other businesses.[/box_light]

 

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