Relaxation
Living well requires relaxation. Relaxation counteracts the physical effects of stress by restoring the body to a state of calm and balance.
Relaxation is the foundation for meditation and pervades all self-improvement practices.
Practiced regularly, relaxation increases energy, improves health, and enhances performance. Relaxation is also the foundation of meditation, which extends the benefits of relaxation to the mind as well as the body.
Improve the body's performance
Relaxation has real physiological benefits, including:
- Decreased muscular tension
- Increased muscular circulation
- Decreased heart rate
- Decreased blood pressure
- Decreased respiratory rate
Improving physiological function makes the body more adaptable and better adapted. Life takes less of toll on us as our bodies become better at handling its demands. The physical effects of stress diminish and peace and joy take their place.
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Deep Relaxation and Meditation Webinars
Basic RelaxationThe benefits of relaxation
- Improved immune function
- Enhanced recuperative ability
- Increased energy
- Less physical pain
- Better sleep
- Enhanced self-composure and poise
Improve your quality of life
Relaxation brings peace and balance to our bodies. Such physical improvement has a natural bearing on one's state of mind. By attuning both our bodies and minds, relaxation makes us more available. We become more attentive, more aware, and less self-centered. Relaxation enables us to be our best for our families, our communities, and ourselves.
The benefits of relaxation constitute both a groundwork and an incentive for the practice of meditation. Meditation builds on the foundation of relaxation to deepen the psychic effects of relaxation and expand our peace and well-being.
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The physiology of relaxation
Relaxation induces a physiological state known as the relaxation response. The relaxation response can most simply be thought of as the opposite of the fight-or-flight response, which prepares the body for action in stressful situations by effecting changes like increasing heart rate, blood pressure, and respiratory rate through the release of specific hormones. The harmful effects of stress on the body are the result of chronically or too-frequently elevated levels of these hormones in the body.
The relaxation response slows the heart and respiratory rates, reduces blood pressure, decreases muscular tension, and increases muscular blood flow, returning the body to a more calm and peaceful state. There is evidence that, when regularly activated, the relaxation response reduces the body's receptivity to norepinephrine, one of the stress hormones—so that even when the hormone is present in the body it does not have its usual effects.1
Improve immunity
There is evidence that hormonal changes associated with the relaxation response have a beneficial effect on the immune system.
Medical students who received relaxation training during exams were found to have increased levels of helper cells, a type of white blood cell involved in fighting infectious disease.2
IAnother study found that elderly residents of a retirement home who were taught relaxation techniques had increased blood levels of two key indicators of tumor and virus resistance.3
Alleviate chronic pain
Patients at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center who were suffering from chronic pain were trained in relaxation and were able to reduce—and in some cases cease altogether—their use of pain medications.4 Moreover, the majority of these patients who continued to practice relaxation regularly reported four years after the study that their pain remained abated and that they continued to be less reliant on drugs to control it.5
Treat Disease
There is experimental evidence that relaxation can be beneficial in controlling a number of common disorders, including:
Relaxation has seen clinical success in the treatment of:10
- Emphysema
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome
- Insomnia
- Anxiety
- Mild Depression
- Procedural side effects, e.g. chemotherapy and kidney dialysis
Improve your health through relaxation with the foundational CD, Basic Relaxation.
Bibliography
The scientific community has recognized the benefits of relaxation for over twenty-five years.
- Hoffman, J, H Benson, P Arns, G Stainbrook, G Landsberg, J Young, and A Gill. "Reduced Sympathetic Nervous System Responsivity Associated with the Relaxation Response." Science 215.4529 (1982): 190-192. sciencemag.org. Web. 15 June 2010. [Back to text]
- Kiceolt-Glaser, Janice, Ronald Glaser, Eric Strain, Julie Stout, Kathleen Tarr, Jane Holliday, and Carl Speicher. "Modulation of Cellular Immunity in Medical Students." Journal of Behavioral Medicine 9.1 (1986): 5-21. springerlink.com. Web. 15 June 2010. [Back to text]
- Kecolt-Glaser, J, R Glaser, D Williger, J Stout, G Messick, and S Sheppard. "Psychosocial Enhancement of Innumocompetence in a Geriatric Population." Health Psychology 4 (1985): 25-41. Print. [Back to text]
- Kabat-Zinn, Jon, Leslie Lipworth, and Robert Burney. "The Clinical Use of MIndfulness Meditation for the Regulation of Chronic Pain." Journal of Behavioral Medicine 8.2 (1985): 163-190. springerlink.com. Web. 15 June 2010. [Back to text]
- Kabat-Zinn, Jon, Leslie Lipworth, Robert Burney, and William Sellers. "Four-Year Follow-Up of a Meditation-Based Program for Self-Regulation of Chronic Pain: Treatment Outcomes and Compliance." Clinical Journal of Pain 2.3 (1986): 159-174. lww.com. Web. 15 June 2010. [Back to text]
- Peters, Ruanne, Herbert Benson, and John Peters. "Daily Relaxation Response Breaks in a Working Population: II. Effects on Blood Pressure." American Journal of Public Health 67 (1977): 954-959. aphapublications.org. Web. 15 June 2010. [Back to text]
- Surwit, Richard, Miranda van Tilburg, Nancy Zucker, Cynthia McCaskill, Priti Parekh, Mark Feinglos, Christopher Edwards, Paula Williams, and James Lane. "Stress Management Improves Long-Term Glycemic Control in Type 2 Diabetes." Daibetes Care 25 (2002): 30-34. diabetesjournal.org. Web. 15 June 2010. [Back to text]
- Alexander, A, Donald Miklich, and Helen Hershkoff. "The Immediate Effects of Systematic Relaxation Training on Peak Expiratory Flow Rates in Asthmatic Children." Psychosomatic Medicine 34 (1972): 388-394. psychosomaticmedicine.org. Web. 15 June 2010. [Back to text]
- Holroyd, Kenneth, and Donald Penzien. "Pharmacological Versus Non-Pharmacological Prophylaxis of Recurrent Migraine Headache: A Meta-Analytic Review of Clinical Trials." Pain 42.1 (1990): 1-13. sciencedirect.com. Web. 15 June 2010. [Back to text]
- "Relaxation:Surprising Benefits Detected." New York Times 13 May 1986: n. pag. nytimes.com. Web. 15 June 2010. [Back to text]
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