Progressive relaxation process (part one)
Stress is a natural part of everyday life. Any sportsman, or athlete, will tell you that periods of stress followed by quality recovery time give a person a greater stress capacity. This leads to increased performance and repeating the process creates continuous growth. Relaxation of both the mind, and body, is essential to this process.
Continuous stress can cause mental and physical health issues. Our endocrine system, often called our “body chemistry”, is usually in a continuous state of change. Our hormone balance changes from moment to moment; in order to optimise our physiological response to our experiences. In a situation that requires an immediate ‘protection response’ we unconsciously trigger our freeze, flight or fight process. In a stressful situation our adrenal gland secretes adrenaline and cortisol.
Cortisol has powerful anti-inflammatory properties, reducing histamine, suppressing the immune system, metabolising fat, protein and carbohydrate while decreasing bone formation. Also, long-term exposure to cortisol damages the cells in the hippocampus (part of the brain responsible for long term memory) which results in impaired learning.
So although cortisol is perfect for certain situations it is not something that we want to have coursing through our veins all the time. Relaxation techniques are a great way to rebalance our body chemistry if we experience an excessive amount of stress.
There are two types of stress:
1. Mental
2. Physical
So relaxation consists of two aspects:
1. Relaxing the mind
2. Relaxing the body
Our mind and body are one system; so our thinking affects our body; and the way we hold our body affects our mood. In fact people who have had spinal injuries, and have no feeling in their body, say that their emotional response has diminished. This is because without feedback from our body our emotions are indistinguishable from thoughts. A definition of an emotion is: “The conscious awareness of a change in our body chemistry; or physiological state.” For example, fear, anxiety, love, excitement, arousal, etc.
One way of relaxing the mind is to spend a little time understanding the habitual thoughts that are “stressing you out”. The next step is to write a list of these thoughts. Once you have concisely defined and documented and then fold the paper and place is somewhere safe. This first step need not actually happen! You could just imagine writing a list, placing the paper in a box of some kind. I use a black box with a lock and key. I then imagine putting the box in a cupboard and placing the key somewhere behind me. This visualisation process creates a dissociation between what was ‘playing on my mind’ and what I am thinking about during the relaxation process. If I begin to feel that there is something stressful about which I should be worrying. I end up thinking about the key or the black box. This prevents me from getting distracted by planning or reviewing my life and my current issues; which would get in the way of my concentrating on the relaxation process. An essential (imaginary) step, after your relaxation session, is for you to retrieve the box and take out paper, glace at it and leave the box empty so you can use it again next time.
I will document my relaxation technique soon but this first step can be used as preparation for any required change in your neuro-physiological state. You could use it before an exercise session, a party or just to relax in front of the TV.