One of the
best known techniques for managing stress is the use of anti-stress balls.
There is a huge market for custom stress balls to relieve stress of all types, shapes and colours. Do you really
calm your anxiety by pressing a ball or an anti-stress doll?
How does stress balls work?
Using custom stress balls have very basic
algorithm:
·
You catch the ball with your hand.
·
You squeeze what you can.
·
You relax the pressure.
They truly
relieve stress. And there is also a scientific foundation that explains it.
The sensory and intellectual channels of our
brain
Our brain
has two channels.
·
Sensory channel (sight, hearing, touch,
taste, touch)
·
Intellectual channel, which tries to
interpret the information that comes from the senses and put it in context.
When your
sensory channel is blocked or busy, your experiences are not as intense. In
other words: when you are physically busy, doing something with your hands
(such as pressing a stress ball) your intellectual channel is released, and it
does not feel so stressed.
When you
are squeezing a stress ball, your brain devotes a series of resources to
process the information and sensations that must reach your hand. And this
makes you dedicate less resource to the feeling of alertness and tension that
stress implies.
What is muscle relaxation that anti-stress
balls offer us?
To give
you an idea of what muscle relaxation is, and what it means to relieve
stress, take a test. Squeeze your hand as much as you can, as if you were going
to punch someone. Wait 5 seconds, and relax your hand. Feel the tension and
stress leave your hand. That is muscle relaxation.
Now follow
some stress ball advertisement, grab
a stress ball and squeeze it. You should beat it with your breath. Breathe in
as you squeeze the ball, and expire when you loosen your hand and stop
squeezing.
