CONTENTS
The benefits and the mechanisms
Relaxation - Crucial for health
Mental relaxation and "rejuvenation"
Physical relaxation, including breathing
Other activities that have this as a side benefit
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THE BENEFITS AND THE MECHANISMS
One can train relaxation into the body and the mind, so that it does more of this automatically, more easily, and more quickly in the moment. The body and mind both function better in a relaxed mode, as the emergency systems are turned off (letting the body operate as it does best, without diverting energy and shutting off some systems) and the brain becomes conditioned to feeling more safe (it actually rewires itself so it is not only calmer, but the part of the brain that holds instant thoughts for a moment longer to apply rationality to them is increased in size and effectiveness so it does it more automatically!).
Use all of these, as they are well worth the learning!
"As early as 1929, Edmund Jacobson, in his masterpiece, PROGRESSIVE RELAXATION, demonstrated that 80% of what were at that time called psychomatic diseases (and I would call stress diseases) could be controlled by his form of deep relaxation. By 1932, J.H. Schultz had demonstrated the same effect with his technique, autogenic training. By 1969, the first of 6 volumes on Autogenic Therapy, with 2600 scientific references, demonstrated the effectiveness of autogenic training in improving athletic performance, business effectiveness, and student grades, as well as successful treatment for a majority of stress illnesses, such as hypertension, anxiety, many types of pain, etc. There are thousands of studies on the benefits of deep relaxation. In the 1970's Herb Benson demonstrated that relaxation lowered adrenaline production and insulin requirement by 50% for 24 hours!"
(Source: RELAXATION---Crucial for HEALTH, © C. Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D.)
Is that a good enough reason to follow these practices?
MENTAL RELAXATION AND "REJUVENATION"
Meditation - An obvious practice, but it can be done more easily without making a huge deal out of it. Noticing the breath is a quasi-physical method and very easy to do, among the simple techniques that are easily doable.
Peace Of Mind Techniques - These, obviously, benefit the body by peacifying the mind, so that it does not tense up the body.
PHYSICAL RELAXATION - These can also be curative, as the body relaxing helps the body to function with ease instead of "dis"ease. You should be completely, utterly relaxed at least twice a day - this is not only good for the day, but it actually trains the mind and body for the long term, establishing neural circuitry that will automatically fire off to relax you. (If you stop for 30 days, though, the circuitry will go off line and deteriorate, so this is a practice that should be done every day you can. Even doing 1 minute at a time is workable. Some people have trained themselves so they can relax the whole body at once, in "whooooshhhh" mode, relaxing and breathing out and going completely limp. To do this twice a day, once you get into it, maybe will take as much as 10 minutes, but the return for how you feel that day and how you function better will more than redeem the time spent!)
Progressive relaxation - Tensing and relaxing each part of the body, letting go...
- How To Do It (a link to a specialist site). Simple, effective.
Counting downward into deeper relaxation (scanning for tense places and letting them go) - To put the body in a more efficient, less tense operating condition. Often done when one cannot sleep. Easy to do when one is actually in a tense situation (nobody can see you do it). [Note that if you have difficulty doing this with your mind, you can simply tense the muscle a bit and then let it go, which will teach you to pick up the "feeling" of letting the muscles go, so it'll be more automatic in the future.
Deep, slow breathing - Stomach breathing, breathes like you'd do if you were very relaxed. This is the exact opposite of hyperventilating and anxiety type
breathing. It can be done while in a tense or anxiety situation. Worth practicing
and becoming skillful enough to do it whenever you want to. Breaths should be to a count of 4 to 7, often with a rest period of 4 counts after each out and in.
Combination of techniques - When you find that counting backwards and relaxing the muscles doesn't seem to work, you must switch to tensing and releasing the muscles and/or relaxing each muscle in the face, eyes, head. Or simply go to whatever area of the body is holding or feels tense or hurts and do the various relaxation techniques in that area, then go to the next tense area, and so on. If you're trying to sleep, use the "make up a dream" method, where you create some nice scenario or wished for event or even a made up "movie" and just let your imagination go...
Optional extra one:
"Autogenics" (deep relaxation through having body feel heavy, warm, etc.
Directly curative ones, involving a form of relaxation or letting go:
virtually always cures headaches (a good parlor trick, as it is short and
easy to do and people will be surprised at the quick results). It also
lessens tension and/or increases blood flow to the right areas to have
pain lessen or disappear and automatic body curing happen more quickly
and easily.
Other activities that have this as a side benefit:
Checkmark those you choose to build into your program. (Highlight this section, the in "print" in your browser click on "selection" and then press "print".)
___ Hot baths
___ Stretching
___ Walking
___ Play that is absorbing
___ Sitting in the sun
___ Listening to soothing music
___ Gentle, soft stroking
___ Sex, with someone or alone
___ Rejuvenation days
The complete rejuvenation no activity day plus
This is the day where you eat an early dinner the night before, go for a
walk, set up everything (all snacks, reading material, etc. so you do not
have to prepare anything the next day, no TV though), go to bed early,
wake up anytime and read or nap but no to do’s, no phone
conversations, no internet browsing, no projects, etc., sleep as much as
you want – the objective is to be totally refreshed by the next day (so
you need to go to sleep early that night, too, despite all the naps!).
(This complete rejuvenation day is a must when one is exhausted
and/or stressed out!)
Midnight to midnight no work days - To be scheduled in ahead of time, as
a necessary part of rejuvenating, which helps one later to be more
productive and a lot more creative.
The Lost Practice of Resting One Day Each Week
Posted: 10 Mar 2010 07:00 AM PST
He that can take rest is greater than he that can take cities. – Benjamin Franklin
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Joshua Becker of Becoming Minimalist.
Ask any physician and they will tell you that rest is essential for physical health. When the body is deprived of sleep, it is unable to rebuild and recharge itself adequately. Your body requires rest.
Ask any athlete and they will tell you that rest is essential for healthy physical training. Rest is needed for physical muscles to repair themselves and prevent injury. This is true whether you run marathons, pitch baseballs, or climb rocks. Your muscles require rest.
Ask many of yesterday’s philosophers and they will tell you that rest is essential for the mind. Leonardo da Vinci said, “Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer.” And Ovid, the Roman poet, said, “Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.” Your mind requires rest.
Ask most religious leaders and they will tell you that rest is essential for the soul. Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Baha’i, and Wiccan (among others) teach the importance of setting aside a period of time for rest. Your soul requires rest.
Ask many corporate leaders and they will tell you that rest is essential for productivity. Forbes magazine recently wrote, “You can only work so hard and do so much in a day. Everybody needs to rest and recharge.” Your productivity requires rest.
Physicians, athletes, philosophers, poets, religious leaders, and corporate leaders all tell us the same thing: take time to rest. It is absolutely essential for a balanced, healthy life.
Yet, when you ask most people in today’s frenzied culture if they consistetly set aside time for rest, they will tell you that they are just too busy to rest. Even fewer would say that they set aside any concentrated time (12-24 hours) for rest. There are just too many things to get done, too many demands, too many responsibilities, too many bills, and too much urgency. Nobody can afford to waste time resting in today’s results-oriented culture.
Unfortunately, this hectic pace is causing damage to our quality of life. We are destroying every sense of our being (body, mind, and soul). There is a reason we run faster and work harder, but only fall farther behind. Our lives have become too full and too out of balance. Somewhere along the way, we lost the essential practice of concentrated rest. We would be wise to reclaim the ancient, lost practice of resting one day each week.
To get back into balance, just consider the countless benefits of concentrated rest for your body, mind, and soul:
§ Healthier body – We each get one life and one body to live it in. Therefore, we eat healthy, we exercise, and we watch our bad habits. But then we allow our schedules to fill up from morning to evening. Rest is as essential to our physical health as the water we drink and the air we breathe.
§ Less stress – Stress is basically the perception that the situations we are facing are greater than the resources we have to deal with them – resources such as time, energy, ability, and help from others. We have two choices, either reduce the demands or increase our resources. Concentrated rest confronts stress in both ways. First, it reduces the demands of the situation. We have no demands on us as long as we have the ability to mentally let go of unfinished tasks. Secondly, rest reduces stress by increasing our resources, particularly energy.
§ Deeper relationships – A day set aside each week for rest allows relationships with people to deepen and be strengthened. When we aren’t rushing off to work or soccer practice, we are able to enjoy each other’s company and a healthy conversation. And long talks prove to be far more effective in building community than short ones on the ride to the mall.
§ Opportunity for reflection – Sometimes it is hard to see the forest through the trees. It is even more difficult to see the forest when we are running through the trees. Concentrated rest allows us to take a step back, to evaluate our lives, to identify our values, and determine if our life is being lived for them.
§ Balance – Taking one day of your week and dedicating it to rest will force you to have an identity outside of your occupation. It will foster relationships outside of your fellow employees. It will foster activities and hobbies outside our work. It will give you life and identity outside of your Monday-Friday occupation. Rather than defining your life by what you do, you can begin to define it by who you are.
§ Increased production – Just like resting physical muscles allows them opportunity to rejuvenate which leads to greater physical success, providing our minds with rest provides it opportunity to refocus and rejuvenate. More work is not better work. Smarter work is better work.
§ Reserve for life’s emergencies – Crisis hits everyone. Nobody who is alive is immune from the trials of life. By starting the discipline today of concentrated rest, you will build up reserves for when the unexpected emergencies of life strike… and rest is no longer an option.
Properly developing a discipline of concentrated rest requires both inward and outward changes. Consider these steps to reclaiming the lost practice of weekly rest in your life:
1. Find contentment in your current life. – Much of the reason we are unable to find adequate rest is because we are under the constant impression that our lives can and should be better than they are today. This constant drive to improve our standing in life through the acquisition of money, power, or skills robs us of contentment and joy. Ultimately, rest is an extension of our contentment and security. Without them, simplicity and rest is difficult, if not impossible. Stop focusing on what you don’t have and start enjoying the things that you do.
2. Plan your rest. Rest will come only from intentional planning and planning rest will come only if it is truly desired. Schedule it on your calendar. Learn to say no to any tasks that attempt to take precedent. Plan out your day of rest by choosing creative activities that are refreshing and encourage relationships. Understand that true rest is different than just not working. As the Cat in the Hat wisely said, “It is fun to have fun but you have to know how.” Avoid housework. Plan meals in advance to help alleviate cooking responsibilities. And by all means, turn off your television, e-mail, and blackberry.
3. Take responsibility for your life. You are not a victim of your time demands. You are the creator and acceptor of them. Refuse to complain or make excuses and start changing your habits. Remember, you are only as busy as you choose to be. Leave “if only” excuses to the kids. If needed, alert your employer about your desire for rest and tell them you will be unavailable on that particular day.
4. Embrace simplicity. Embrace a lifestyle that focuses on your values, not your possessions. It is difficult to find rest when the housework is never finished, the yard needs to be mowed, or the garage needs to be organized.
5. Include your family. It is much easier to practice the discipline of concentrated rest if your family is practicing it too. The fact that this gets more difficult as your kids get older should motivate you to start as soon as possible.
6. Live within your income. A debtor is a slave to his creditor. It is difficult to find rest for your mind when you are deep in debt. The constant distress of your responsibility to another may preclude you from truly enjoying a day off. It is possible; it’s just more difficult. Don’t overspend your income, live within it.
7. Realize the shallow nature of a results-oriented culture. If you live in a results-oriented culture where productivity alone is championed on every corner, rest is counter-cultural. And thus, the saying goes, “If you rest, you rust.” Rest may even be seen as a sign of weakness by others. Unfortunately, that view of humanity’s role in this world is shallow. It is true that many of the benefits from concentrated rest are not tangible; but then again, only a fool believes that all good things can be counted.
Rabbi Elijah of Vilna once said, “What we create becomes meaningful to us only once we stop creating it and start to think about why we did so.” The implication is clear. We could live lives that produce countless widgets, but we won’t start living until we stop producing and start enjoying. Capture again the lost practice of resting one day each week and start truly living.
Read more from Joshua at his blog, Becoming Minimalist, subscribe to his feed, or check out his new ebook, Simplify
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Notes for possible inclusion later:
The alpha rhythm oscillates at about 10Hz and is strongest when the subject is awake but relaxed with their eyes closed. Note that it is essential to close the eyes; just opening them can block the wave.
Its presence is generally indicative of a state of relaxed awareness.
