Relaxation

Relaxation is a feeling of calm and tranquillity throughout your Mind, Body and Soul. The ability to relax is one that takes just a little time to learn, and can provide numerous benefits to a person as a whole. Relaxation is the exact opposite of being anxious. When a person suffers from anxiety the heart quickens, blood pressure increases and breathing gets faster. Learning to relax helps a person to increase their physical and mental efficiency by lowering their heart rate, slowing their breathing and decreasing their blood pressure.

Benefits

• Improved sleep
  
• The feeling of increased control of who you are
  
• The ability to think clearly and focus
  
• You can feel happier
  
• Positive thinking that can promote positive effects
  
• Reduction of stress, you can’t be relaxed and stressed at the same time
  

Treatment

Hypnosis is one of the easiest ways for a person to learn this wonderful technique. At first guided by the therapist, you will (with practice) become able to completely take charge and control of your own skill in relaxing.

I use Progressive relaxation which is a system of relaxation developed by Edmund Jacobson and means focusing separately and progressively on each of the muscle groups in your body in turn and allowing any tension held in those muscles to be released. Jacobson designed this technique based on the argument that "an anxious mind cannot exist within a relaxed body". Particular attention is given to the neck, shoulders and facial muscles as these areas can hold a great deal of tension.

Passive Progressive relaxation does not require you to actively tense your muscles at all. Instead you simply imagine the tension flowing out of your body with each breathe you exhale, working progressively around your body as before. It can help to visualise the tension as a kind of liquid which drains away out of your body as you breathe. This is a comfortable and easy method of relaxation which can be done almost anywhere.

Once you are fully relaxed you will be encouraged to remember how it feels, and create an image in your mind that describes your relaxed state. This will help you to return to this state of relaxation again more easily in future. Once learned, you will always be able to take time out of your busy life and rediscover that tranquillity of Mind, Body and Soul.

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