What is relaxation?

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The primary aim of relaxation is to prevent or reverse the reactions that occur in stress and anxiety. Contrary to belief, relaxation is not merely sitting and doing nothing. It is an active process, which serves to induce physical and emotional effects opposite to stress and anxiety. Many people find it difficult to relax when they just do nothing.

it is important to remember that relaxation is a skill that must be learnt and practised as often as possible for you to feel any benefits.

How does relaxation help?

Physically, relaxation can help initially to lower the heart rate, reduce the blood pressure and sweat gland activity, regulate breathing and relax tensed muscles. The relaxation methods in this article aim to increase awareness of muscle tension. Therefore, you will be able to start dealing with any unnecessary tension to help prevent it building up.

Why is it important to relax?

Relaxation can help to counteract the detrimental effects of stress. It can act as a preventative measure to protect the body from undue exertion. Relaxation can help to control conditions such as tension, headache, panic, insomnia, chronic pain, epilepsy and many others. Finally, it can help to calm the mind and restore clarity of thought.

Overall, relaxation leads to improved psychological and physical well-being.

Relaxation and Daily Life

There are many situations that can be stressful, from waiting in a queue at the shops to losing a job, yet the effects on the body are similar, illustrating that it is often the person's own view of the events rather than the events themselves that can cause problems, what is stressful to one person may not be to another.

Using relaxation in day to day life can help you to deal with different situations yet allow you to stay focused. This depends on the depth of relaxation you require. If therefore may be helpful to identify specific everyday situations you perceive as stressful, then go on to think about how you could use relaxation techniques to cope more effectively. For example, you could use breathing techniques to help you feel calm while waiting to see the doctor or dentist or you could actively let go of tension in your shoulders when driving.

For more on methods of relaxation, ask CMT United Kingdom to send you a copy of “A guide to relaxation”, produced by the Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery.

Relaxation do’s and don’ts

Do practice relaxation techniques daily, as with all things – practice makes perfect.

Do try to relax before you go to sleep – especially if overtired. Otherwise you may wake up still fatigued and un-refreshed.

Do get up slowly after relaxing; stretch and yawn. You should feel refreshed, more supple and alert and ready to pursue your activities

Do enjoy it!

Don’t think that you should be doing something else. Relaxation will increase your energy and mental efficiency.

Don’t try too hard to relax – just let go of tension and enjoy the comfortable feeling.

Don’t think you can make your mind blank. You have spent years filling it with information. To begin with, concentrate on pleasant thoughts. Then allow thoughts to come and go. If a thought increases your tension…. “let it go”. Deal with it later when you have renewed your energy.

Don’t confuse relaxation with recreation. Both are important. The use of one may help you to achieve the other.

Don’t feel guilty. You need to relax. We all do. Rest is an inbuilt rule for the body. The heart rests longer than it pumps in order to last out a lifetime.

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