A recent study shows that relaxation training can help lower blood pressure

Investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital found that after a 20-week study period, sessions of relaxation training – including guided meditation and deep breathing – allowed 32% of the participating patients to lower and maintain reduced blood pressure.  Obviously it didn’t work for everyone, but think of the savings in well being and cost if it works for you.

Skills for Physical and Emotional Quieting

Below are three specific skills or practices for quieting the body’s physical and emotional reactions to stress. Although they are not hard to learn, they require regular short periods of practice to be effective.

Deep breathing

This is perhaps the simplest and most underused quieting activity on the list. Our nervous system is wired in such a way that there is a complicated set of reflexes that connect breathing to other autonomic activities such as heart rate and muscle tension. Breathing is unique because it can come under conscious control.

We can use our breathing to trigger the AND to slow things down and ease off on the stress response. We can do this by developing a habit of slowing down our breathing and breathing deeply into the abdomen. In many other cultures around the world, breathing exercises have been practiced to improve health for hundreds of years. In the West, we are just now beginning to understand how vital and effective this practice can be for improving health and overall quality of life.

Deep muscle relaxation

Some kinds of muscle tension are also under conscious control. With practice, we can teach ourselves to loosen up and relax contracted muscles and muscle fibers. The easiest way to acquire this skill is by using audiotape instructions, perhaps with feedback from a therapist or coach.

Some approaches to deep muscle relaxation involve first tensing tight muscles or muscle groups, and then letting go of the tension. In this way the brain begins to identify what tight muscles feels like. This in turn makes it easier to let go of tightness when you feel it. Another approach is to simply sit or lie quietly, pay attention to particular muscles or muscle groups, and then give yourself verbal instructions to “just relax and let go.” Deep muscle training is always focused on releasing muscle tension. It is almost always practiced along with deep breathing.

Meditation

The term meditation covers many different techniques that help cultivate qualities such as calmness, relaxation, one-pointed concentration, loving kindness, compassion, a sense of wellbeing, and insight into the nature of reality.  To meditate is to still the mind – no thoughts, no moving mental picture, just temporary stillness.

In meditating we use some object on which we direct our attention. We can use the sensations of the breath, our emotional connection with ourselves and others, the physical sensations of the body, sounds, visualized images, etc.

Where can you learn meditation?

There may be a local meditation center near you.  Of course there are online resources. Just do an internet search for “meditation.”

Quieting imagery

Quieting imagery involves learning to tell yourself a story or developing a mental picture that you associate with being deeply relaxed. Typical quieting scenes may involve lying on the beach on a warm day or sitting in a sunny meadow in beautiful mountains. First you must find a scene that you find relaxing. Then you begin to practice by placing yourself in that scene. Using a combination of imagination and deep breathing is very helpful. Again, the key to success is a few minutes of regular practice, ideally on a daily basis.

Popularity: 1% [?]