It’s been demonstrated that a well balanced life where physical and emotional health is experienced leads to radiant skin and abundant shiny hair.

Let’s face it, most of us certainly could have more of that.

Poorly managed, stress is well known to affect major organs such as the heart and the cardio vascular system. Stress is also an important cause of hair loss, even making it fall out 3 to 6 months after a traumatic event in your life.

Here are three activities which won’t cost a thing to practice and will have you feel completely detached from the hectic universe in which we live:

Deep Breathing or Pranayama

Deep, controlled breathing is an effective technique for stress management. In the Pranayama tradition, there are several breathing techniques.

This is a popular one.

Simply relax for a few minutes in a quite place while sitting with your back straight. Note that you will follow a pattern of time in order to control the process. The pattern is as follows: 2-8-4 or 5-20-10 or 10-40-20, etc.

Let’s say you start with the 2-8-4 pattern in order to find your comfort zone. Slowly start to inhale while counting until 2. Try to completely fill your lungs. Hold your breath while counting until 8 and then exhale for 4. You must completely exhale by emptying your longs. This helps you rid your body of toxins. Repeat ten times. Remember to breathe from your belly.

Inhaling should start from the lower part of your abdomen and feel as if you gradually filling up your lungs with air as a bottle gets filled up. You should inhale from the mouth and exhale from the nose, although several variants of this method exist. Do this breathing exercise every day.

Meditation Techniques

Meditation has long benefited from worldwide recognition as an extraordinary tool to not only manage stress but to also master your mind.  Meditation basically occurs when you become focused on one particular thing but without having any thoughts. Not an easy thing to do but after several attempts, most people start to develop the skill to do it.

There are several ways to meditate and the web is full of helpful advice and resources on this subject. The most common practice is the repetition of a mantra while you sit comfortably eyes closed in a quite place. I recommend viewing Deepak Chopra videos which you can view on Youtube. He has a very simple and effective meditation method. This is something you practice every day for about 20 minutes.

Do not, I repeat DO NOT fall into the trap of paying hundreds or sometimes thousands of Pounds to attend a meditation course. Any Buddhist temple in your locality will provide this service for free. Monks will be more than happy to teach you and you may leave a small donation.

Yoga

The ancient India art of exercising and stretching your body, although great practitioners will tell you there is much more to it than just sweating.

We all know one or two people who practice yoga, and guess what? They’re addicted to it right? Well, that’s because it works. It rejuvenates like nothing else.

There are many forms of yoga; Raja, Karma, Jnana, Bhakti, and Hatha amongst others.

Learning a style might cost you little at first but you are sure to see results rapidly. To practice it will eventually cost you nothing.

Yoga has the capacity to restore the harmony and balance in your body and soul.

Celebrations are set for this fall: the region does so because of its status as Britain’s most tranquil area by offering a week of events honouring peace and tranquillity and escape from the rat race, monkey race and anything for that matter…. You know what I mean, all the stresses of modern urban living.

For the third year, Durham is presenting UK Peace and Tranquillity week scheduled from September 7 to 13 and has released a calendar of free or very affordable events such as open air picnics, Tai Chi, yoga classical music recitals and Chi Kung, photography and painting workshops, baby owl walks and candlelit gardens. I bet you’re already more at peace with the universe, right?

UK Peace and Tranquillity Week is the brainchild of the County Durham Tourism Partnership. A national tranquillity map designed by the Campaign to Protect Rural England pointed to North East England as the country’s most relaxing region.

Chief executive of the County Durham Tourism Partnership Melanie Sensicle said: “Crowds and persistent noise, experienced by many of the UK’s urban areas, leave people feeling stressed and vulnerable to health problems, which is why UK Peace and Tranquillity Week is a much-needed antidote for those leading a fast-paced lifestyle. It’s hard to find a better place to escape to than Durham.”

There are 18 events open to the public during the week, for more details please visit thisisdurham.com/relax.

We would like to thank www.easier.com for quotes used in this article.

Yoga is a science which permits getting tuned in to one’s body while art focuses on seeing and sensing colours and shapes.

The Columbia Museum of Art is fusing art and yoga to keep local moms and dads, as well as visitors, active and healthy.

Yoga classes are scheduled with a certified yoga teacher and each session is practiced in the presence of a Cleve Gray painting. Each week brings a different painting from the artist.

This Art Yoga is an experimental six-week class which runs until September 9 and is filled with enticing multi-sensorial Art Yoga.

Art Yoga enthusiast Melanie Neil comments: “I feel pleasure to be in this space, to have a moment of quiet and know that for this moment, this is the only place I want to be.”

Yoga attracted Melanie here, but she claims art has worked its magic and did the rest.

The combination of the two disciplines is incomparable, claims Yoga teacher Rikki Donahue.

“You notice the vastness of the canvas, the colors and the mixture and your senses are so much more aware,” Donahue said.

“It is about realising that what we have is enough. If we have food to eat and air to breathe, it is enough,” Donahue said.

The classes are scheduled on Wednesday at 8:30 a.m.

Call the museum at 803-799-2810.

We would like to thank www.wltx.com for quotes used in this article.

If a body’s immune system is too week to fight the surrounding microbes, a person needs to take constructive steps in order to strengthen the system.

When your body is functioning properly, the immune response is much quicker and efficient. The immune response is a body’s reaction to threats. They say a smile boosts the immune system. A depressed individual will therefore definitely possess a weaker immune system than a happy person.

Yoga has been used for centuries to relax and tone the body, this fact has come to be quite famous around the world. It also has the capacity to settle the mind, making the practitioner calm, relaxed and alert; the qualities required by the human body and soul to meet the challenges of modern life.

Yoga has been known to do miracles and it is considered to be an experimental science; where the yoga student performs experiments on his or her own body and soul. Do not look outwards for answers, they are already within you.

Asanas (movements) recommended to improve the immune system and fight the H1N1 virus are Vipreetkarni Kriya and Kapalbhati. They should be practiced daily for 15 – 20 minutes.

We would like to thank www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com for information used in this article.