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Relaxation
Relaxation is loosening of tension. As a result of the relaxation you feel
better, because the relaxation improves your contact with your inner self.
What is relaxation? Relaxation is fundamentally all about release from
physical and emotional tension.
State of mind of well-being, which we achieve as a result of the
relaxation is a balance between stimulation, mobilization, and relaxation
and tranquility (see: ).
Relaxation and
Nervous System ( the Parasympathetic Nervous System)
Excessive tension of our muscles produce electrical resistance and
electrical conductivity that negatively affect our body. As a result, the
nervous system works less efficiently. Relaxation leads to a balance
between stimulation and calming, through which it leads to an optimal
state of tension.
Therefore, one can say that relaxation is a balance of the Peripheral and
Central nervous systems.
As far as the Peripheral Nervous System goes, relaxation leads to a
balance between Orthosympathetic and Parasympathetic nervous systems.
Typically, most people have overly active Orthosympathetic (adrenalin)
Nervous System. This means that we are overly stimulated and stressed, and
we lack the experience of harmony and happiness over extended periods of
time.
Relaxation adjusts our tensions and meets the deficit - it is pushing for
Parasympathetic System, which is responsible for leisure, regeneration and
reconstruction of vital forces.
This is why relaxation leads to a state of equilibrium, it gives Siudo to
our well being and happiness.
Relaxation and the
development of creativity
It also is said a lot about the fact that the relaxation develops our
creativity by introducing the Alpha state. As we well know from the
scientific research on the brain, our brain can generate (or pass through
itself) the following waves: Gamma, Beta, Alpha, Theta and Delta.
Beta waves are the most typical for the average person in the state of
regular activity.
However, the entrancement into relaxation state - increases the amount of
Alpha waves produced. We will continue to feel aware and intellectually
and mentally active, but we have less stress level, less sense of threat.
That is why we have more energy for our development; when less our energy
goes to the defense emotions – the remaining energy is added to the
potential of our mind an gives us significantly greater potential.
Relaxation does not create resistance, does not tension muscles and so we
do not have a strong negative emotions. Therefore, thanks to the
relaxation we can be mentally active at a slightly more subtle level.
Relax promotes a balance between the right and left brain hemisphere.
Typically, most people have more active the left-brain hemisphere, while
the right hemisphere is active insufficiently. The hemispheres are
balanced by the relaxation, because that state of mind typically triggers
a strong sense of security. In addition, relaxation increases imagination
and our ability to visualize things by creating mind pictures.
Since the left hemisphere is more verbal and logical, and the right brain
hemisphere is more intuitive and able to imagine things - relaxation
balances both hemispheres by increasing our ability to visualize.
The both effects of relaxation: the increased presence of Alpha Waves, and
balanced brain hemispheres - both of these effects increase our creativity.
Superlearning effect and the development of creativity, which the
relaxation gives, uses a variety of ways to work with potential of human
mind, as Silva Mind Control, NLP, Biofeebdback.
Relaxation
techniques
There are many relaxation techniques. Some work more with flesh and muscle,
the others with the breath, targeting, (or controlling) the mind.
A separate group of techniques is Biofeedback - using an external
monitoring equipment (measuring brain waves, to measure skin resistance,
heartbeat rate or rhythm of breath).
Without a doubt the most well-known relaxation techniques are:
Jacobson’s Method and Schultz’s Autogenic Training.
Relaxation
technique: the Jacobson Method
This method uses the impact of the state of muscle tension on our state of
mind. Muscle tension has an important relationship with our emotions,
because emotions are demonstrated by the biological especially by the
electricity through the muscles and the composition of hormones produced
by endocrine.
Jacobson Technique relaxation method involves learning about the status of
your muscle tension.
Relaxation training is performed by repeated tensioning and loosening
muscles, while we keep awareness of breathing.
Breath is not something special here. Just relax when you breathe freely
and deliberately - does not stop when you breathe or tensioning or during
loosening muscles.
Each batch of muscle should be tensioned for about 10 seconds and then let
loose for about 15 seconds.
This relaxation leads to self-awareness of muscle condition - initially
only during exercises, but after some time - also in our everyday life.
Relaxation
technique: Schultz’s Autogenic Training
Schultz, like Edmund Jacobson, was a doctor and psychiatrist. Referring to
Siudo techniques of Yoga he has created a method extremely helpful in
combating the excess stress, nervous tensions and emotional problems.
While the Jacobson Method works directly with the body (muscles) and
indirectly with the feelings and well-being of the state of mind,
Schultz’s Autogenic Training works directly with our mind.
This relaxation technique is aimed at controlling your own stream of
thought. The person working with this method repeats actively for some
time various monotonous suggestions on loosening the body, and on the
temperature and weight of various parts of the body.
The phenomenon of influencing the various somatic processes in our body by
mental processes is well known in experimental Yoga (specifically in Raja
Yoga). In Autogenic Training Schultz used it as a very effective technique
for relaxation.
See more about relaxation:
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