Relaxation Techniques


	Relaxation Techniques: How to Learn to Relax The ability to relax is essential to successful stress management. Relaxation techniques can help you relax, and once you have learned to relax, you can do it in almost any situation, which means you can reduce your body's "fight or flight" response to stress in non-"fight or flight" circumstances and preserve your health. How do I know this? Because I have done it myself. Learning to relax takes practice. Like any new skill, you have to work on it. Here's how it all started for me. The cats' meows were not the "cat's meow" It all started with my cats being morning people living with a night person (me). My cats would start meowing for food at 5:00 in the morning. I did not have to wake up until 6:30 in the morning. When their cries would start to intrude on my sleep state, I would have adrenaline rushes in response to them. "Meow." Adrenaline rush. "Meow." Another adrenaline rush. It only took a couple until I was lying there wide awake and very annoyed. I didn't want to get up at 5:00 a.m. (I didn't want to get up at 6:30 a.m. either, but that's another story.) It occurred to me that this was probably what happens to parents hearing their babies cry. But as much as my cats are in some ways my "babies," one of the benefits of having animals is supposed to be that they don't need as much care, supervision, and coddling as babies. There was no need for me to wake up to adrenaline rushes in the morning. The cats were o.k. and could wait another hour and a half to be fed. I also noticed that if the cats meowed at me when I was awake, I didn't feel the adrenaline surge. It seemed to be more of a subconscious or unconscious response. Adrenaline, be gone! I needed some relaxation techniques. So I started thinking, what if I could desensitize myself to the cats' meows? Could I halt the adrenaline rush by willing it to stop? I started practicing this lying in bed. When the first meow sounded and I could feel the adrenaline start, I focused on my breathing and tried to calm my heartbeat back down. It worked. I could feel the rush subsiding. So I kept on doing this. After awhile, the cats could meow in the morning and I could sleep right through it. Or if I happened to be half-awake, I could hear the meow and feel nothing in response. Success! First the cats, then the world I had discovered the most effective of relaxation techniques. This was a really cool thing. I started applying it to other situations. If my boss snapped at me, I would calm myself when I felt the adrenaline surge. I found I could work and problem solve better if I remained calm, whereas I would get scattered when the adrenaline started rushing. So I made it a practice to control my stress response in every non-"fight or flight" situation. After many years of doing relaxation techniques, I now rarely experience physiological responses to stress. I'm not saying I don't have some kind of physiological response, just that I don't feel my heart speeding up and all the other fun physical reactions that usually come with a stressful stimulus. Step by step, breath by breath The way I did it worked for me, and it can work for you, too. As with all relaxation techniques, first, you have to become aware of your stress response. The surge of adrenaline, your heart speeding up, whatever you feel when you start to get stressed. When you start to feel it, take a deep breath, let it out slowly, and breathe out for as long as you can. You are emptying out the stress so push down deep. Continue to breathe deeply, thinking about breathing in calm and breathing out stress. Put your own personal spin on this, however it makes sense to talk about it to yourself. When your heart has slowed down and the adrenaline has subsided, really take in the feeling of calm and give yourself a big pat on the back (literally or figuratively, it's up to you). Stay vigilant and repeat the calming process as needed. If the stressful situation is still happening, you will probably have to do the deep breathing more than once. The more you practice this though, the longer the calming effect will last. You can get it to where you stop the stress response before it gets started. Just be patient with yourself, take your time, and give yourself lots of credit for your little victories. Even if you do get a little stressed, that's still better than getting a lot stressed, right? Make stress your bitch Continue to practice relaxation techniques and pretty soon, you will no longer be stress's bitch, you will have made stress your bitch!	Stress News It's National Stress Awareness Month! Did you know April is National Stress Awareness Month? Since 1992, thanks to the Health Resource Network, Americans have a month to focus on the problem of stress and how to better handle it. According to HRN's website, health care professionals and people who promote health are disseminating information and leading forums, discussion groups, and community events to raise awareness and educate the public about stress. There's also a National Stress Awareness Day -- April 16, the day after taxes are due. Which may make it a great occasion on which to reflect about starting your taxes earlier next year. Gene Reduces Vulnerability to Stress If you handle stress well, you may have mom and dad to thank. UCLA researchers studying the IL6 gene and the biochemical pathway that triggers it have discovered that people who have a less common variant of the gene may be more able to withstand life's stressful events. The IL6 gene controls the body's immune response, causing inflammation when activated during the body's "fight or flight" response to stress. The most common variant of IL6 is associated with cardiovascular disease and cancer, and people with this variant have an increased risk of death for 11 years after suffering a stressful life event severe enough to trigger depression. But a less common version of IL6 lacks the pathway for stress to trigger it, resulting in no increased risk of death following major stress for those who carry it. The study will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (UCLA News Release, 2/10) Want More Stress News? Check out the Stress News Archive
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