Other Techniques For Relaxing

There are many techniques for relaxing; and no one method is better than another.

Experiment with the following relaxation techniques and discover what is rewarding for you!

• Visualization
• Meditation
• Progressive muscular relaxation
• Short relaxation drills  

Visualization

Through visualization you can achieve a focused awareness while minimizing thoughts, emotions and physical pain. It will be useful to tape each exercise, and play it back while you are resting in a comfortable position.

Push your Tension away:

Close your eyes. Give your tension or pain a color and, a shape. Pause. Now change the shape and color of your tension and/or pain. Pause. Push this second shape and color away until it is out of your awareness.

Colors:

Close your eyes. Imagine your body filled with lights.

For example, red lights for, tension or pain, and blue lights for relaxation. Pause. Imagine the lights changing from red to blue, or from blue to red, and be aware of any physical sensation you may experience while this is taking place. Pause. Change all of the lights in your body to blue and experience the overall relaxation.

Mountain Path:

Close your eyes... Imagine yourself leaving the area where you live... Leave the daily hassles and the fast pace behind... Imagine yourself going across a valley and moving closer and closer to a mountain range... Imagine yourself in a mountain range... You are going up a winding road... Find a place on the winding road to stop... Find a path to walk up... Start walking up the path... Find a comfortable place to stop on the path... At this place, take some time to examine all the tension and stress in your life... Give the tension and stress shapes and colors... Look at them very carefully and after you have done this, put them down on the side of the path... Continue walking up the path until you come to the top of a hill. Look out over the hill... What do you see? Find an inviting, comfortable place and go there... Be aware of your surroundings... What is your 'special' place like?... Be aware of the sights, smells and sounds. Be aware of how you are feeling... Get settled and gradually start to relax. You are now feeling totally relaxed... Experience being relaxed totally and completely... Look around at your special place once. more... Remember this is your special place to relax, and you can come here anytime you want to. Come back to the room and tell yourself that this imagery is something you have created, and you can use it whenever you want to feel relaxed.

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Meditation

A Short Meditation (5-10 minutes)

• First, scan your body. See what your muscles feel like. Attempt to relax and loosen up. Allow yourself to feel body sensations. Stay with this body scanning for a couple of minutes. Allow the muscles to feel as heavy and warm as possible. Focus on warmth in your arms and hands.
• Focus now on your thoughts. What are you thinking of? What kinds of thoughts have you had today, and which ones come to mind now? Are these upsetting thoughts or comforting ones? Dwell on the comforting or pleasant thoughts.
• Focus now on your emotions or feelings. What do you feel? Content? Angry? Annoyed? Sad? Excited? Peaceful? Allow yourself to feel.
• Take 3 deep breaths (easy and slow) and return to your activities.

Meditation Phrases

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Progressive Muscular Relaxation

Whether you're performing an athletic feat or merely doing your job, the quality of your efforts depends in part on your ability to relax. There are a variety of relaxation techniques to choose from. Progressive relaxation yields a variety of benefits, including the development of a feeling of well-being, lowered blood pressure, decreased muscle tension, thereby reducing the body's need for oxygen and reducing fatigue and anxiety.

To profit fully from progressive relaxation, you have to create a habit of the process, which means you have to set aside time 3-5 times a week for relaxing. The nice thing about establishing a routine of relaxation is that it only requires 20 minutes and it can be done almost anywhere.

There are two basic parts to progressive relaxation: 1) the recognition of tension in muscles, and 2) the relaxation of each muscle group.

The process for muscle tension recognition begins by assuming a comfortable position of lying down, sitting, or leaning back. You should be in a quiet area, away from distractions. Check for tension in each muscle group in your body: major tension areas include the shoulders, jaw and forehead. Since there is tension in every muscle group, progression in a logical order is required to recognize and alleviate tension.

As you focus on a muscle group, begin the relaxation process by tensing the muscle group; hold that tension for five seconds. Then relax your muscles slowly for 20-30 seconds so that the tension feels like it's draining from your body. As you perform the process, tell yourself to "feel the tension go", and "Let all the tension drain slowly from the muscle." Tension of a muscle group followed by a relaxation of those muscles can be repeated several times before moving on to the next muscle group. The progression is as follows:

1. Chest - Take a deep breath. Beginning with the abdominal area, fill the lungs with air while feeling the tension in the chest area from the" expanded lungs. Expire from the top of your lungs t6 your abdomen while relaxing.

2. Right foot and lower leg - Keeping the heel down, curl the toes back until tension can be felt in the ankle and calf muscle.

3. Right upper leg - Tense the top of the upper leg (quadraceps) and the bottom of the upper leg (hamstring).

4. Left foot, lower leg and upper leg - Repeat the process identified in numbers 2 and 3.

5. Right hand and forearm - With the palm down, lift the hand until tension can be felt in the top of the hand, the wrist and the forearm.

6. Right upper arm - Tense the bicep and tricep.

7. Right shoulder - Shrug the shoulder toward the ear and roll the head toward the shoulder so that shoulder and ear are touching.

8. Left hand and forearm, upper arm and shoulder - Repeat the process identified in numbers 5, 6 and 7.

9. Jaw area - Without damaging the teeth, bite down until tension can be felt in the jaw area.

10. Mouth - Purse the lips as if whistling.

11. Chin - Place the bottom of the tongue on the roof of the mouth and push upward.

12. Forehead - Wrinkle the brow.

13. Breathing - Throughout the full exercise, breathe at a steady rate.

As you begin the relaxation process, your body should feel heavy and warm. The feeling of heaviness will turn into a sensation of weightlessness as your body begins to relax. Typically, a cool band forms across the forehead as relaxation occurs. The feelings of weightlessness, warmness and a cool band across the forehead are all natural responses in the relaxation process. You will feel a sense of well-being if relaxation is achieved.

It takes several weeks to attain a full relaxation response, but you'll make progress daily as you acquire the skill of relaxing. There will be days where there are setbacks followed by days of great gains. Eventually, relaxation can be achieved in short period of time in any location.

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