Relaxation Techniques: Teach Yourself

Alice Muir

• Publisher: Teach Yourself
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9781444107425
• eBook ISBN: 9781444133745
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: General Health

The ultimate user-friendly, comprehensive relaxation guide!Learn effective relaxation techniques with this complete guide to feeling good and beating stress.
You will discover a wide range of different techniques, from muscle relaxation to visualization, from soothing sounds to calming breathing, so you're bound to find something that works for you. This new and updated edition features free audio with practical exercises on physical and mental relaxation, breathing and even basic meditation, available from library.teachyourself.com. Relaxation Techniques includes: Chapter 1: Relaxation - a skill with a long history
Chapter 2: Relaxation, stress and tension explained
Chapter 3: Coping with stress and tension
Chapter 4: Vulnerability to tension or stress
Chapter 5: Relaxing your body
Chapter 6: Relaxed body language
Chapter 7: A relaxed mind and calm thinking Chapter 8: Relaxing mind and body together
Chapter 9: More alternative and complementary therapies
Chapter 10: Making the most of the internet and modern technology
Chapter 11: Relaxation and your feelings
Chapter 12: Relaxation in situations
Chapter 13: Relaxation and your mood
Chapter 14: What now? Relaxation as a way of life

1

Relaxation – a skill with a long history

In this chapter you will learn:

• about the benefits of relaxation
• the many uses of relaxation
• easy and quick ways to relax
• about the early beginnings of relaxation.

As long as you live, keep learning how to live.

Seneca, Roman dramatist, poet and statesman (circa 4 BC–65 AD)

Learning is an intrinsic and natural part of life. It is as old as life itself. From the instant of our birth, we are active learners, hungry for knowledge, and motivated to understand what goes on around us. We automatically strive to make sense of the jumble of information reaching our brand new and very acute senses. We learn so much without even noticing we are doing it. Learning new things is part of what makes us human; humanity has always had a drive to learn.

The Teach Yourself series of books provides a forum for learning a wide variety of new skills, or acquiring new knowledge and understanding of a huge array of topics. In this book, you will be able to teach yourself how to relax, and be able to pass on this information to family and friends, should you want to. Learning to relax is not something new. Although it may seem to be something we associate with today’s rapid pace of life, and the stresses and strains of twenty-first century living, the art of relaxation has a very long history, and these skills can be found stretching back many centuries, and to many diverse parts of the world. The journey through life has clearly never been an easy one.

For example, the organized practice of meditation is thought to go back at least 5,000 years to its development in India. It is even thought that meditation may have developed as long ago as when early humans stared into the flames of their fires for long periods of time, and fell into a state of relaxation. Acupuncture originated in China, some 5,000 years ago. The practice of t’ai chi (pronounced ‘ty chee’) originated in China and has been in use there for many centuries. It involves slow, rhythmic movements of the body, which are believed to help calm the mind and relax the muscles and nervous system.

Benefits of relaxation

Relaxation is a tremendously effective antidote to tension and stress, and it has the added advantages of being straightforward to learn and having no side effects. But it is not just about relieving tension and stress. Being relaxed and at ease has many, many benefits in its own right, even if you are not stressed or tense to begin with. Being able to achieve a state of complete relaxation in mind and body has numerous benefits for us all, whether thousands of years ago, or today. This means that no matter what your reason for wanting to learn this exciting and most rewarding of arts, there is so much that you can get out of it.

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Research, evidence and statistics

A four-year research study funded by the NHS in the 1990s showed that patients who were attending their GP because they were stressed had found that regular relaxation had the most effect in reducing their tension and stress.

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The most profound benefits relaxation can bring are those relating to you as a person, the whole you, the inner you – your core being if you like. Here are just some of the benefits which relaxing regularly can bring to you:

• calmness
• stillness
• inner glow
• inner strength
• togetherness
• contentment
• completeness
• confidence
• positivity
• peace
• fulfilment
• feeling in control of yourself and your life
• cushioning from stress
• it just feels really good.

Apart from these holistic effects, being able to relax can also help you to deal much more effectively and successfully with all sorts of situations that may arise in everyday life. Here are some examples:

• exams or tests
• interviews
• making a presentation
• making a complaint
• if you are angry or frustrated
• if someone else is angry with you
• your driving test
• at the dentist
• when you can’t sleep
• an argument or difference of opinion
• being criticized, fairly or unfairly
• taking something back to a shop
• if you feel panicky or nervous
• at work in general
• appraisals at work
• being a parent
• being a carer.

Relaxation can have beneficial effects on immune and psychological well-being.

Dr Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, Ohio State University (1999)

YOUR RELATIONSHIPS

In your relationships, an ability to stay calm and unruffled means that you can deal more effectively with whatever life throws up for you. This might be with family, friends, your partner, neighbours, or at work. An added bonus is that if we are calm, this rubs off on those around us too, making them feel calmer, more in control and more confident – colleagues, employees, partner, children, friends, and so on. In this way you are teaching by example, something which shouldn’t be underestimated. You can even take things a stage further, and if someone in your circle of family and friends is struggling to cope with tension or stress, or one of the situations already mentioned, you can teach them what you learn from this book.

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Insight

Life, family and friends are special and wonderful gifts.

It seems to me that learning how to relax will help you to make so much more of these, and even to be able to help a friend in need.

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Try this – Letting go

1. In your own time, breathe in slowly, and as you do so, silently scan and check over your body for any tension. Shoulders, hands, back, neck, jaw, head, legs, feet… wherever. Notice where there is any tension.
2. Then, in your own time, breathe out again, and let go of any tension you found.
3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 again.

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YOUR HEALTH

Being able to unwind and relax, on a daily basis, also brings with it profound and wide-reaching health benefits. If you have frequent colds, sore throats or other illnesses, your immune system may not be as strong as it might be. Relaxation has been shown to strengthen your immune response. It can also enhance your general sense of well-being. There is evidence confirming benefits in the following areas of health for most people who maintain a regular relaxation programme or, better still, build it in to their everyday life:

• Healthy blood pressure is maintained.
• Cardiovascular health (heart, circulation etc.) is improved.
• The immune system is strengthened.
• Energy levels are improved.
• A feeling of overall health and well-being is achieved.

Relaxation techniques are often taught in antenatal classes. Being able to relax during labour helps conserve energy, reduce pain and maximize the oxygen supply to the baby.

National Childbirth Trust

Uses of relaxation

There are so many uses for relaxation, with more being added all the time. Most smoking cessation programmes now include teaching relaxation as a way of coping better with the cravings and general agitation brought about by trying to stop smoking. Audiologists find relaxation can be helpful for the many people who are troubled by constant sounds in their ears (tinnitus). Studies also show that those with depression, or chronic fatigue syndrome (also known as ME or Myalgic Encephalomyelitis), can have their symptoms improved if they use relaxation regularly. Here are just some of the applications relaxation has been used for. These will be discussed in more detail in later chapters:

• stress
• depression
• postnatal depression
• insomnia
• tension
• migraine
• childbirth
• anxiety
• pain management
• ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis)
• anger ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• Meet the author
• Only got a minute?
• Only got five minutes?
• Only got ten minutes?
• 1 Relaxation – a skill with a long history
• 2 Relaxation, stress and tension explained
• 3 Coping with stress and tension
• 4 Vulnerability to tension or stress
• 5 Relaxing your body
• 6 Relaxed body language
• 7 A relaxed mind and calm thinking
• 8 Relaxing mind and body together
• 9 More alternative and complementary therapies
• 10 Making the most of the Internet and modern technology
• 11 Relaxation and your feelings
• 12 Relaxation in situations
• 13 Relaxation and your mood
• 14 What now? Relaxation as a way of life
• Taking it further
• Index