MIND OVER BODY: USING THE POWER OF SUGGESTION

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       Another important approach to bodily relaxation is called autogenic training, or AT for short. The word autogenic means self-generation or self-regulation. This method attempts to regulate your autonomic nervous functions and more specifically your parasympathetic nervous system (your heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing, among others) rather than relaxing your muscles. With autogenic training, you use your mind to regulate your body’s internal stress levels.

            AT relies on the power of suggestion to induce physiological changes. These suggestions are mental images that your subconscious picks up and transmits to your body. Just thinking about certain changes in your body produces those kinds of changes. As a result, you experience deep feelings of relaxation. AT may sound mysterious, but it isn’t. After you master this technique, AT is a highly effective way of putting yourself in a more relaxed state. The method I describe here is a more abbreviated form than the one originally devised. However, it’s better suited to a busy lifestyle. Here’s what you do:

1.                 Get comfy.

            Find a suitably quiet, not-too-hot, and not-too-cold place. You can sit or lie down, but make sure your body is well supported and as comfortable as possible. Try to breathe slowly and smoothly.

            2.        Concentrate passively.

            For this approach to be effective, you need to adopt a receptive, casual attitude of passive concentration. You want to be alert, not falling asleep but not asking your mind to work too hard. You can’t force yourself to relax. Just let it happen. Be aware of your body and your mind, but don’t actively analyze everything or worry about how you’re doing. Should a distracting thought come your way, notice it and then let it go. If the relaxation doesn’t come at first, don’t worry. It comes with more practice.

            3.        Allow various body parts to begin feeling warm and heavy.

            Although autogenic training utilizes many suggestions and images, the two most effective images are warmth and heaviness. Start by focusing on your right arm. Now slowly and softly say to yourself:

            I am calm . . . I am at peace . . . My right arm is warm . . . and heavy . . . My right arm is warm . . . and heavy . . . My right arm is warm . . . and heavy . . . I can feel the warmth and heaviness flowing into my right arm. . . I can feel my right arm becoming warmer . . . and heavier . . . I can feel my right arm becoming warmer . . . and heavier . . . I can feel my right arm becoming warmer . . . and heavier . . . I am at peace . . . I am calm . . . I am at peace . . . I am calm.

            Take the time to become aware of the feelings in your arm and hand. Notice that your arm is becoming warmer and heavier. Don’t rush this process. Enjoy the changes your body is now beginning to experience.

            4.        After you complete the phrases, remain silent and calm for about 30 seconds, letting the relaxation deepen; then focus on your left arm.

            Repeat the same phrases again, this time substituting left arm for right arm. (Hopefully by now you’ve memorized these phrases and can close your eyes and not worry about a script.)

            5.        Move to other parts of your body.

            Focus on other areas, repeating the same phrases but substituting other parts of your body. Here is the complete sequence: right arm, left arm, both arms, right leg, left leg, both legs, neck and shoulders, chest and abdomen, and finally your entire body.

            Completing the entire sequence shouldn’t take you more than a half hour or so. If you can fit in two or three autogenic sessions a day, all the better. You may need some time to master this technique, but the results are well worth the effort.

Copyright © Allen Elkin Phd – Originally appeared in Stress Management for Dummies 2^nd edition by Allen Elkin

TENSING YOUR WAY TO RELAXATION

Exploring how progressive relaxation works

            You begin progressive relaxation by tensing a specific muscle or group of muscles (your arms, legs, shoulders, and so on). You notice the way the tension feels. You hold that tension for about ten seconds and then let it go, replacing that tension with something much more pleasant — relaxation. By the time you tense and relax most of your major muscle groups, you feel relaxed, at peace, and much less stressed. The following general guidelines set the stage for muscle-group-specific relaxation techniques later in this chapter.

            1.        Lie down or sit, as comfortably as you can, and close your eyes.

            Find a quiet, dimly lit place that gives you some privacy, at least for a while.

            2.        Tense the muscles of a particular body part.

            To practice, start by tensing your right hand and arm. Begin by simply making a fist. As you clench your fist, notice the tension and strain in your hand and forearm. Without releasing that tension, bend your right arm and flex your bicep, making a muscle the way you might to impress the kids in the schoolyard.

            Don’t strain yourself in any of these muscle-tensing maneuvers; don’t overdo it. When you tense a muscle group, don’t tense as hard as you can. Tense to about 75 percent of what you can do. If you feel pain or soreness, ease up on the tension, and if you still hurt, defer your practice till another time.

            3.        Hold the tension in the body part for about seven seconds.

            4.        Let go of the tension quickly, letting the muscles go limp.

            Notice the difference in the way your hand and arm feel. Notice the difference between the sensations of tension and those of relaxation. Let these feelings of relaxation deepen for about 30 seconds.

            5.        Repeat Steps 1 through 4, using the same muscle group.

            6.        Move to another muscle group.

            Simply repeat Steps 1 through 4, substituting a different muscle group each time. Continue with your left hand and arm and then work your way through the major muscle groups listed in the following section.

Relaxing your face and head

            Wrinkle your forehead (creating all those lines that everybody hates) by raising your eyebrows as high as you can. Hold this tension for about five seconds and then let go, releasing all of the tension in your forehead. Just let your forehead muscles become smooth. Notice the difference between the feelings of tension you felt and the more pleasant feelings of relaxation.

            Now clench your jaw by biting down on your back teeth. At the same time, force a smile. Hold this uncomfortable position for about five seconds and then relax your jaw, letting your mouth fall slightly ajar.

            Finally, purse your lips, pushing them together firmly. Hold that tension for a bit and then relax, letting your lips open slightly. Notice how relaxed your face and head feel. Enjoy this sensation and let this feeling deepen by letting go of any remaining sources of tension around your mouth and lips.

                                                Relaxing your neck and shoulders

            Bend your head forward as though you’re going to touch your chest with your chin (you probably will). Feel the tension in the muscles of your neck. Hold that tension. Now tilt your head slightly, first to one side and then to another. Notice the tension at the side of your neck as you do so. Tilt your head back as if you’re trying to touch your upper back. But don’t force it or overdo it, stopping if you notice any pain and discomfort. Now relax, letting your head return to a more comfortable, natural position. Enjoy the relaxation for a moment or so.

            Now scrunch up your shoulders as though you’re trying to reach your ears. Hold it, feel the tension (again for about five seconds), and let your shoulders fall to a comfortable, relaxed position. Notice the feelings of relaxation that are spreading through your shoulders and neck.

                                                Relaxing your back

            Arch your back, being careful not to overdo it. Hold that tension for several seconds and then let your back and shoulders return to a more comfortable, relaxed position.

                                                Relaxing your legs and feet

            Either sitting or lying down, raise your right foot so that you feel some tension in your thigh and buttock. At the same time, push your heel out and point your toes toward your head.  Hold this tension, notice what it feels like, and then let go, letting your leg fall to the bed or floor, releasing any remaining tension. Let that relaxation deepen for a while. Repeat this sequence with your other leg and foot.                                                                         Relaxing your buttocks

            Tense the muscles of your buttocks, noticing what that feels like. Hold that tension for several seconds. Slowly release that muscle tension, letting go, letting the muscles in your buttocks gently release. Notice those feelings of relaxation and let them deepen even further.

                                                Relaxing your stomach

            Take in a deep breath and hold that breath, tensing the muscles in your stomach. Imagine that you’re preparing yourself for a punch in the stomach. Hold that tension. And relax, letting go of the tension.

            After you finish this sequence, let your body sink into an even deeper state of relaxation. Let go more and more. Mentally go over the sensations you’re feeling in your arms, face, neck, shoulders, back, stomach, and legs. Feel your body becoming looser and more relaxed. Savor the feeling.

                                                Scrunching up like a pretzel

            When pressed for time, you can do a quickie version of the progressive relaxation exercise that I talk about in the preceding section. Simply, this technique compresses all the muscle-tensing and relaxing sequences into one. Think of it as one gigantic scrunch.

            In order to do this, you have to master the gradual version first. The success of this rapid form of relaxation depends on your ability to create and release muscle tension quickly, skills you master by slowly working through all of the muscle groups individually. Here’s what to do:

            Sit or lie comfortably in a room that is quiet and relatively free of distractions. Now, tense all of the muscle groups listed below, simultaneously:

1.     Clench both fists, bend both arms and tense your biceps. At the same time, 2. Lift both legs until you notice a moderate degree of tension and discomfort, and  3. Tense the muscles in your buttocks and hold that tension, and 4. Scrunch up your face, closing your eyes, furrowing your brow, clenching your jaws, and pursing your lips, and 5. Bring your shoulders as close as you can to your ears, while you 6. Tense your stomach muscles.

            Hold this “total scrunch” for about five seconds and then release, letting go of any and all tension. Let your legs fall to the floor or bed and let your arms fall to your sides. Let the rest of your body return to a relaxed position. Repeat this sequence at various points throughout your day.

Copyright © Allen Elkin Phd – Originally appeared in Stress Management for Dummies 2^nd edition by Allen Elkin

STANDING UP STRAIGHT!

       Your mother was right! When you’re under stress, you have a tendency to hunch over, making your posture lousy and your breathing impaired. You then breathe less deeply, denying your system the proper supply of oxygen you need. As a result, your muscles get tense. When you stand or sit straight, you reverse this process. You needn’t stand like a West Point cadet to correct bad posture. Overdoing it probably produces as much tension as you felt before. Just keep your shoulders from slouching forward. If you’re unsure about what your posture looks like, ask your mother or a good friend.

The yawn that refreshes

Yawning is usually associated with boredom. Business meetings you think will run well into the next millennium or painful telephone solicitors explaining (in detail) the virtues of their long-distance plan may trigger more than a few yawning gasps. However, your yawn may signal something more than boredom.

Yawning is another way Mother Nature tells you that your body is under stress. In fact, yawning helps relieve stress. When you yawn, more air — and therefore more oxygen — enters your lungs, revitalizing your bloodstream. Releasing that plaintive sound that comes with yawning is also tension reducing. Unfortunately, people have become a little over-socialized, making for wimpy yawns. You need to recapture this lost art.

The next time you feel a yawn coming on, go with it. Open your mouth widely and inhale more fully than you normally might. Take that breath all the way down to your belly. Exhale fully through your mouth, completely emptying your lungs. What a feeling! Enjoy it. So what if your friends don’t call you anymore?
Copyright © Allen Elkin Phd – Originally appeared in Stress Management for Dummies 2^nd edition by Allen Elkin

BREATHING AWAY YOUR TENSION

Breathing properly is one of the simplest and best ways to drain your tension and relieve your stress. Simply by changing your breathing patterns, you can rapidly induce a state of greater relaxation. If you control the way you breathe, you have a powerful tool in reducing bodily tension. Just as important, you have a tool that helps prevent your body from becoming tense in the first place. This section shows you what you can do to incorporate a variety of stress-effective breathing techniques into your life.

Your breath is fine. It’s your breathing that’s bad.

            “Bad breathing” can take a number of forms. You may be a chest and shoulder breather, bringing air into your lungs by expanding your chest cavity and raising your shoulders. This description certainly fits if you have more than a touch of vanity and opt for never sticking out your tummy when you breathe. You also may be a breath holder, stopping your breathing entirely when you’re distracted or lost in thought. Both are inefficient, stress-producing forms of breathing. And when you’re under stress, your breathing patterns deteriorate even more. To make things worse, once your breathing goes awry, you feel even more stressed. Quite a nasty cycle. 

“Why change now? I’ve been breathing for years.”

            You probably take your breathing for granted. And why not? You’ve been breathing for most of your life; you’d think by now you would have figured out how to do it right. No such luck. When you’re feeling stressed, your breathing becomes faster and shallower. When you breathe this way, your body reacts:

1.      Less oxygen reaches your bloodstream.

2.      Your blood vessels constrict.

3.      Less oxygen reaches your brain.

4.      Your heart rate and your blood pressure go up.

5.      You feel light-headed, shaky, and tenser.

            Our primitive ancestors knew how to breathe. They didn’t have to deal with the IRS, stacks of unpaid bills, or the Boss from Hell. These days only opera singers, stage actors, musicians who play wind instruments, and a couple of dozen moonlighting yoga instructors actually breathe effectively. The rest of us mess it up.

            However, for a period of your life, you did get the whole breathing thing right. As a baby lying in your crib, you breathed serenely. Your little belly rose and fell in the most relaxed way. But then you grew up and blew it. Thankfully, all is not lost. You can re-teach yourself to breathe properly.

            You probably think of breathing as a way of getting air into your lungs. However, in times past breathing was elevated to a more important status. Many religious groups and sects believed that a calming breath replenished the soul as well as soothed the body. In fact, the word ruach in Hebrew and the word pneuma in Greek have double meanings, connoting both breath and spirit. If you remember your Bible, the book of Genesis says that when God created Adam, he “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”

Evaluating your breathing

            You may be one of the few people who actually breathe properly. But before you skip this section, read a little further. To find out whether the way you breathe is stress-reducing, take this simple test.

                        1.Lie on your back.

                        2.Put your right hand on your belly and your left hand on your chest.

            Try to become aware of the way you breathe. Check to see whether your breathing is smooth, slow, and regular. If you’re breathing properly, the hand on your belly rises and falls rhythmically as you inhale and exhale. The hand on your chest should move very little, and if that hand does rise, it should follow the rise in your belly.

Changing the way you breathe, changing the way you feel

            Sometimes, all it takes to make you feel better is one simple change. Changing the way you breathe can make all the difference in how you feel. The following exercises present various ways to alter your breathing. Try them and discover whether all you need is one simple change.

                                  Breathing 101: Breathing for starters

            Here is one of the best and simplest ways of introducing yourself to stress-effective breathing.

            1.Either lying or sitting comfortably, put one hand on your belly and the other hand on your chest.

            2.Inhale through your nose, making sure that the hand on your belly rises and the hand on your chest moves hardly at all.

            3.As you inhale slowly, count silently to three.

            4.As you exhale through your parted lips slowly, count silently to four, feeling the hand on your belly falling gently.

            Pause slightly before your next breath. Continue to breathe like this until you feel completely relaxed.

            Moving on to something more advanced: Taking a complete breath

            Taking complete breaths (or doing Zen breathing, as it’s often called) helps you breathe more deeply and more efficiently and helps you maximize your lung capacity.

            1.Lie comfortably on a bed, in a reclining chair, or on a rug.

            Keep your knees slightly apart and slightly bent. Close your eyes if you like. You may feel more comfortable placing a pillow under the small of your back to help relieve the pressure.

            2.Put one hand on your abdomen near your belly button and the other hand on your chest so that you follow the motion of your breathing.

            Try to relax. Let go of any tension you may feel in your body.

            3.Begin by slowly inhaling through your nose, first filling the lower part of your lungs, then the middle part of your chest, and then the upper part of your chest.

            As you inhale, feel your diaphragm pushing down, gently extending your abdomen, making room for the newly inhaled air. Notice the hand on your abdomen rise slightly. The hand on your chest should move very little, and when it does, it should follow your abdomen. Don’t use your shoulders to help you breathe.

            4.Exhale slowly through your parted lips, emptying your lungs from top to bottom.

            Make a whooshing sound as the air passes through your lips, and notice the hand on your abdomen fall.

            5.Pause slightly and take in another breath, repeating this cycle.

            Continue breathing this way for ten minutes or so — certainly until you feel more relaxed and peaceful. Practice this technique daily if you can. Try this exercise while sitting and then while standing.

With a little practice, this form of breathing comes more naturally and automatically. With some time and some practice, you may begin to breathe this way much more of the time. Stick with it.

Trying some “belly-button balloon” breathing

            A simpler way of breathing more deeply and more evenly is to work with a visual image, in this case a balloon. Here’s what you do:

            1.Imagine that a small balloon — about the size of a grapefruit — is replacing your stomach, just under your belly button.

            2.As you inhale through your nose, imagine that you’re actually inhaling through your belly button, inflating this once-empty balloon. This balloon is small, so don’t overinflate it. As the balloon gets larger, notice how your belly rises.

3.Exhale slowly through your nose or mouth, again imagining that the air is leaving through your belly button. Your balloon is now slowly and easily returning to its deflated state. 

4.Pause slightly before the next breath in and then repeat, gently and smoothly inflating your balloon to a comfortable size.                        

Repeat this exercise, as often as you can, whenever you can.

Copyright © Allen Elkin Phd – Originally appeared in Stress Management for Dummies 2^nd edition by Allen Elkin

RELAXING YOUR BODY

The following is a short — and only partial — list of some of the effects tension has on your body. Unfortunately, many of these symptoms are all too familiar.

   Neck pain

             Headaches

            Stomach cramps

             Lower-back pain

             Clenched, painful jaw

             Teeth grinding

             Sore shoulders

             Muscle spasms

             Tremors or twitches

            And that’s just on the outside. Inside your body, other tension-related changes are happening. Here is a sampling of what else is quietly going on in your body when you feel tense:

                        Your blood pressure goes up

                         Your stomach secretes more acid.

                         Your cholesterol goes up.

                         Your blood clots more quickly.

                        All in all, knowing how to prevent and eliminate bodily tension seems like a pretty healthy idea.

                                                Funny, I don’t feel tense

            The fact is, you may not know when your body is tense. You get so used to being tense that you usually don’t notice that you’re feeling tense. Muscle tension creeps up on you. Slowly and often imperceptibly, your muscles tighten and, voila, the tension sets in. You don’t feel the tension until you get a headache or feel the soreness in your neck and shoulders. The trick is to become aware of bodily tension before it builds up and does its damage. Tuning in to your body takes a bit of practice. The next section gives you a simple awareness technique that helps you recognize your tension before it becomes a bigger problem.

                                                Invasion of the body scan

            One of the best ways to recognize bodily tension is to use this simple one-minute scanning exercise.

            Find a place where you can sit or lie down comfortably and be undisturbed for a moment or two. Scan your body for any muscle tension. Start with the top of your head and work your way down to your toes. Ask yourself:

                         Am I furrowing my brow?

                         Am I knitting my eyebrows?

                        Am I clenching my jaw?

                         Am I pursing my lips?

                         Am I hunching my shoulders?

                         Am I feeling tension in my arms?

                         Am I feeling tightness in my thigh and calf muscles?

                         Am I curling my toes?

                         Do I notice any discomfort anywhere else in my body?

                        With a little practice, you can scan your body in less than a minute, finding your tension quickly. Once you have the hang of it, try the body scan while sitting at a desk or standing up. See if you can do a body scan three or four times a day. It’s a great way of becoming aware of your stress.

Copyright © Allen Elkin Phd – Originally appeared in Stress Management for Dummies 2^nd edition by Allen Elkin