Relaxation and meditation is the “aspirin of mental health.” It is a panacea for what ails you. Whenever you feel distressed about something, relaxation techniques and meditation will help you to feel better. These are simple, easy techniques to help you release tension, reduce your stress, and let go of negative obsessive thinking.

People can learn to relax themselves. Research has consistently shown that teaching people how to relax can help them reduce the amount of stress they experience. Relaxation techniques can help you to let go of all the tension you accumulate during the day. They can help you to calm down and have a greater control over yourself during stressful situations. They can help you to covercome irrational fears by replacing a state of panic with a relaxed one.

A relaxation technique is any behavioral method of easing muscular tension. Muscular tension typically occurs in response to a stressor and can accumulate over time. Relaxation techniques allow a person to release this tension. The immediate benefit of these procedures is a feeling of ease, calm, and looseness. With consistent daily practice the benefits of these procedures accumulate. Over time people frequently report being less anxious, a greater tolerance for stress, increased mental alertness, more energy, more productive, and better concentration. These techniques include, meditation, progressive relaxation, breathing, imagery, and autogenic training.

All of these techniques have four elements in common. These elements were first outlined by Dr. Herbert Benson in his book The Relaxation Response. These four elements are described below.

A Quiet Environment – The procedure should be done in a quite, calm setting with as few distractions as possible.

A Mental Device – To shift one’s mind away from dwelling on the day’s stresses, one should focus their attention onto some kind of consistent stimulus. This may be a recurring sound, word, phrase, or prayer repeated silently or aloud as in meditation, engaging in a calming activity as in Yoga or Tai Chi, or fixing one’s gaze at an object like a mandala. The consistent stimulus breaks the train of distracting and potentially distressing thought. Attention to the normal rhythm of breathing is also useful and enhances the repetition of the mental device.

A Passive Attitude – When distracting thoughts and stimuli arise, the person should disregard them and refocus their attention onto the mental device. The person should not worry how well he or she is doing and instead adopt a “letting go” attitude. When distracting thoughts, sensations, or noises occur, the person becomes aware of them, passively accepts their presence, and then returns to the mental device. Distractions are normal and do not mean the technque is being done incorrectly.

A Comfortable Posture – The person must assume a comfortable, relaxed posture so their muscles can relax. Ideally the person should sit or lie down. When sitting, do so in a comfortable chair with your feet on the floor and your hands gently folded together in your lap. When lying down, do so on a carpeted floor, bed, or couch. Lie on your back, spread your feet out to about shoulder’s width, and keep your arms at your side with your palms up. If you have a back problem, try placing a cushion under your knees to flatten your back.

Relaxation techniques are as safe as going to sleep. it is a drugless method of easing tension and anxiety. Sometimes though, people experience some minor difficulties. Occasionally people will report feeling more anxious after doing these procedures. Sometimes people state they have difficulty sitting still. When doing these techniques, you might experience floating or spinning sensations. Most people find these pleasant, but some may be alarmed by them. Sometimes people might experience unpleasant thoughts, images, or memories while doing these techniques. Some people give themselves headaches from thinking on the mental device too hard. Stiffness in one’s neck is a common result from doing the technique while sitting in a chair without neck support. Muscle twitches or spasm might occur while doing the technique. People can fall asleep during the technique. Others might tease the person about what he or she is doing. However, the most difficult aspect of these procedures is just doing them. Ideally, you should do them daily in order to derive maximum benefit.

Presented here are a variety of relaxation techniques for you to use. All of them have the four common elements described above. You may find that one technique works better for you than the others. If so, feel free to use whatever works best with you. You may wish to even make up your own relaxation procedure.

Standard Mantra Meditation

The first relaxation procedure described is a simple mantra meditation. This is a very relaxing procedure that is very simple to learn. Ideally you should do it twenty minutes, twice per day.

• Find a comfortable, quite place where you will not be disturbed. Sit or lie down in a comfortable posture.
• Once you have settled into a comfortable posture, close your eyes and begin repeating the mental device. The mental device used in this meditation is call a “mantra”. This is a soothing, resonant sounding, meaningless word or phrase. You should select a mantra that you like and use it consistently. Short prayers that the person repeats over and over can also serve as mantras. The mantras listed below are intended to be free of meaning. However, if you use words or phrases with meaning attached to them, make sure the content has an affirming quality to them. Below is listed several meaning-neutral mantras for you to use. Note that the “a” is a long a and pronounced “ahhh”.
  • ah-nam
  • vahn-day
  • shi-rim
  • sat-yam
  • ha-sam
  • in-dra
  • see-tah-ram
  • ta-sam
  • ma-ha-yam
  • vis-ta
  • at-man
  • ra-ma
  • shan-ta
  • ra-yim
  • ma-na
  • shee-vo-humm
• Think the mantra to yourself slowly and silently. You will soon notice that your mind has drifted away from the mantra onto something else. When you realize this has occurred, let go of whatever you were paying attention to and refocus your mind back onto the mantra. Always bring your attention and awareness back to the mantra no matter how often or how frequently you get distracted. Continue saying the mantra to yourself for about 10 to 20 minutes.
• When you stop saying the mantra take about two or three minutes to just sit or lie silently with your eyes closed. Slowly begin to stretch and open your eyes. It is best to come out of meditation slowly. Coming out too quickly is like jumping into a pool of cold water or being awakened suddenly from a deep sleep. Take time to gradually come out of any relaxed state.

Breathing Techniques

Our breathe is our life. Air is the first substance to nourish us when we enter the world. The first thing we do when we enter to world is to inhale. Our last act when we die is to exhale. Oxygen feeds our brain, circulatory system, muscles, and organs. We can live for weeks without food, days without water, but only a few minutes without air. We constantly breath and it is the most important thing we do at any given moment in time. When we stop breathing, we die.

We take breathing for granted unless we are unexpectedly reminded of its importance when we are suddenly deprived of air. People panic when they cannot breathe. All other concerns immediately fall by the wayside when we cannot get enough air.

We can change our conscious experience by changing the way we breathe. Breathe too quickly or too much and you can become dizzy and eventually lose consciousness. Breathe too little or too slowly and the same thing occurs. Change the way you breathe and you change the amount of oxygen going to your brain. Your brain is so sensitive to changes in the amount of oxygen present, that even subtle changes in your breathing will lead to a change in your conscious experience.

When we face a stressful event, our breathing is one of the first things to change. Often this occurs without us being aware of it. A tense person typically inhales and holds their breathe. This makes the person even more tense. In addition, tense people frequently take shallow breathes. Just as a person needs more oxygen when he or she is exercising, a tense person uses more energy and needs more oxygen.

• LSD Breaths – No, it is not what you think. LSD stands for “long, slow, deep.” Taking a long, slow, deep breath when you are facing a stressful moment can be just what you need to get things back under control. The LSD breath lowers your anxiety and arousal but just a notch. It gives you a moment to think. It is a pause before you act. Combine the LSD breath with self-statements like “relax,” “calm down,” “take it easy,” and “you can handle this.”
• Breath counting – There are any number of breath counting techniques. These are meditation techniques like the ones described earlier. My favorite is the one I use when I am trying to sleep. Here is how it works. When I inhale it is “one.” When I exhale it is “two.” When I inhale again it is “three.” When I exhale it is “four.” When I get to 12 I go back to one. Why count to 12? I like the number 12, but you can set you upper number to whatever you want – 10, 20, 100. If I get distracted, I refocus back to my breath counting starting again at “one.” If I forget what number I am on, I go back to “one.” During this I am taking slow, easy breaths. Other variations on this technique include: counting 1, 2, 3, and so on up a certain number. Then counting 1, 2, 3 and so on up to a certain number on the exhale. One final variation is to coordinate this counting with your heart beats.

Recommendations

These techniques can be used “as needed” but work best when they are used consistently everyday over time. Set aside time in your daily schedule to use these techniques. That might be in the morning before going to work. Doing them at lunchtime is a great way to recharge your batteries for the afternoon push. Doing it after work is a great way to unstress yourself. These are great to do before you must do something challenging and stressful like a job interview. Another good time to do them is before and after a workout.