DodgyBarnet.com - Relaxation - -

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What's this? The Dodgy Barnet providing Self Help literature? Well yeah, kinda.

I've found the following information useful for both Academic and Personal reasons, and thought I'd share my findings with any readers that stumble into this section. If you've got this far, you'll probably need a wee rest.

What follows are a couple of simple guides detailing how to train your body to relax on command. No 'becoming one with your inner child'. No Chakras. Just simple techniques you can practice at home. Trust me - you'll appreciate it.

Being Tense…

When you get stressed your muscles start to tense up leading to pain and more stress. The first thing to do then, is to stop this tensing response and relax your muscles.

The problem is, although most people can tell when their muscles are tensed, they usually don't notice till they are completely stressed out.

You therefore need to learn what tensed muscles actually feel like if you're going to do anything about them.

There are two Basic Techniques that are the most effective: Progressive Muscular Relaxation (PMR) and Autogenic Therapy (AT).

Progressive Muscular Relaxation: The PMR procedure teaches you to relax your muscles through a two-step process. First you deliberately apply tension to certain muscle groups, and then you stop the tension and turn your attention to noticing how the muscles relax as the tension flows away.

The actual training itself is not that relaxing (you're tensing muscles after all) but through repetitive practice you quickly learn to recognise—and distinguish—the associated feelings of a tensed muscle and a completely relaxed muscle. With this simple knowledge, you can then induce physical muscular relaxation at the first signs of the tension that accompanies anxiety. And with physical relaxation comes mental calmness—in any situation.
Autogenic Therapy: There's a lot of spiel out there about AT, but in essence it's very simple.

Simply focus on a muscle group and tell yourself that it feels warm and heavy. Truly relaxed muscles do feel warm and heavy so this form of guidance helps assist the muscles to relax.

AT is a form of auto-suggestion rather than self-hypnosis, but can be very effective when done right.

A great deal of Psychological literature points to a combination of PMR and AT to be the most effective at reducing stress.

If you're interested here's a quick literature review comparing the different methods of relaxation and it generally shows the a combined PMR and AT is the puppy to go for. Real science this; no Guru's to be found.

Exciting huh? Well here come the guides to actually doing this training:

Dodgy Guides

Okay, there's two choices here:
* Full PMR/AT (about 30 minutes); and
* Shortened Version (about 10 minutes).

It is recommended that you practice Full PMR/AT once a day for about a week before moving on to the Shortened Version. Of course, the time needed to master the Full PMR/AT varies from person to person.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

What you've read above is only a very brief description of the PMR and AT techniques. Because of this, I'd definitely recommend you read the following pages before you try the PMR/AT program:

     * A website outlining all the background
        information on PMR

     * A website outlining all the background
        information on AT

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