WHAT IS RELAXATION?

During a 1986 study at the Menninger Foundation, researchers Joseph Sargent, M.D. and Patricia Solbach, Ph.D. found that many of their patients were unaware of what it felt like to be deeply relaxed. Only after undergoing relaxation training could they appreciate the difference between tense and relaxed states. One reason is that millions of headache sufferers live in a continual state of emergency and may not have experienced genuine relaxation in many years.

Biofeedback therapists have shown that mind and body are intimately linked. When body muscles are tense, the mind is anxious and disturbed. Conversely, when body muscles are relaxed, the mind also becomes calm and relaxed—a transformation which takes only two or three minutes. And when the mind is relaxed, muscular tension also swiftly drops away.

Important physiological changes occur as we achieve the relaxation response. The breathing rate slows from an average 15-22 breaths per minute to only 4-8 breaths per minute. The pulse rate slows, the mind becomes clear and calm, and every muscle, bone and cell feels completely rejuvenated. We sink into a pleasant state of calm and stillness, liberated from all involvement with anything external.

A caution: because muscle-tensing calls for a brief but strenuous physical effort, anyone suffering from any form of chronic disease, or who is under medical treatment, or who for any other reason should not undertake muscle-tensing, should consult his or her physician before attempting any form of muscle-tension therapy. If you are in this category, you’ll want to know that it is possible to skip the physical act of muscle-tensing and still achieve a relatively deep level of relaxation. Muscle-tensing is just faster and thorough.

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