relaxation exercises

Re: Stress Management, Relaxation Techniques
Fr: Meyer, R. G. & Deitsch, S. E. (1996). The clinician’s handbook: Integrated diagnostics, assessment, and intervention in adult and adolescent psychopathology (4rth ed.). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon, pp. 499-504.

These two relaxation techniques help clients relax “both physiologically and psychologically” (p. 499).

1. BRIEF RELAXATION TRAINING (pp. 499-500)

-- brief and straightforward, useful in crisis and short-term applications

“Lie relaxed with your legs uncrossed and your arms comfortably beside you. First, focus mentally on your toes, imagining them to be limp, warm, and relaxed (you can vary this procedure by first flexing each muscle group before you proceed into a relaxation phase; some find that this increases the subsequent relaxation effect). Now, visualize your foot and then your ankles, and suggest that they relax and feel loose. Follow this pattern up your body, silently focusing on and identifying each part as you relax it (calves, knees, upper legs, hips). Then proceed through your lower torso, including the genital and anal areas. Suggest relaxation, calmness, and warmth. Proceed slowly but surely into the stomach area, again identifying each area, particularly if there is noticeable tension there. Suggest to yourself that your breathing is normal and calm (neither slowed abnormally nor fast). Go up through your chest, shoulders, and, part by part, down your arms to your fingertips. Then focus on the neck area, particularly noting the jaw muscles and even such small areas as the tongue and the tip of the nose. Focus next on the forehead, but suggest coolness there, for this is one body part where coolness is clearly associated with relaxation. Then suggest looseness in the scalp, and possibly finish off with a mental image of your whole body as relaxing calmly and serenely.

[“You might choose instead to work downward from the head to the toes or to develop other variations that feel more comfortable to you. Don’t expect remarkable results in the first few days or so. But continued practice of a relaxation approach of some sort is one effective antidote and preventive measure in controlling many psychological disorders.”]

2. AUTOGENIC TRAINING (AT) (pp. 500-504)

-- focused on prolonged physiological relaxation, designed to be practiced over a substantial duration and integrated into one’s lifestyle like yoga and tai-chi
-- invented by a German academic Westernizing yoga techniques I the early 1900s
-- indications and benefits: “to (a) enhance IMMUNE responses, (b) reduce situational TENSION, and (c) lessen chronic ANXIETY” (p. 504).

a. Positions

(1) Prone Position (lying on a couch or bed)
- remove shoes
- legs slightly apart
- feet inclined outward at a V-shaped angle
- support (ex: folded blanket) under knees
- trunk, shoulders, and head symmetrical
- arms slightly bent beside trunk
- fingers slightly spread and flexed

(2) Reclining Chair Position
- high enough back for trunk and head
- support length of arms and legs
- (same as most of prone position above)

(3) Straight Chair Position
- feet rest solidly on ground
- straighten up completely in sitting position
- arms hang down at sides, touch legs in loose position
- collapse trunk, shoulders, and neck while back straight
- body feels “hanging loose”
- head drop forward
ps: test: lift hand and let it drop of its own accord

b. Training Elements (pp. 501-502)

(1) Passive Concentration
- attitude toward result = casual and passive, i.e., no need to see results occurring
during exercise
- self-talk: “During this particular session, I really don’t care whether my particular goal happens. I know it will happen sometime, so I’m calm about it now.”
- vs. active concentration = concern, attention, and even active efforts to try to make results come about during the exercise
-
(2) Steady Flow of Images
- by speaking the words aloud, using inner voice, or visual image

(3) Mental Contact
= putting the mind’s attention on the body part in focus

(4) Reduction of Stimuli
- quite with low light
- loosen to a point of comfort or remove restrictive clothing (glasses, belt, girdle, or necktie)
- cut off external distractions like telephone
- no time pressure

(5) Time in Practice
- 1-2x a day
- 1 formula = ~60 sec

b. The Exercises

(1) The Overall Formula
- mental contact:: whole body, “central core” of the body, or up above body looking down
- inserted between specific formulae, ex: “I am at peace.” “I am calmness throughout.”

(2) Standard Exercise 1: Heaviness
- Induce a feeling of heaviness (correlated with relaxation)
- mental contact: limbs
- formula: “My right arm is heavy. My left arm is heavy. Both arms are heavy.” (then change “arm” to “leg”.)
- after some months: “My arms and legs are heavy.”

(3) Standard Exercise 2: Warmth
- induce a feeling of warmth (correlated with relaxation)
- mental contact: most body parts, limbs included
- formula: same as above, just change “heavy” with “warm”

(4) Standard Exercise 3: Respiration
- natural breathing rate
- formula: “My breathing just naturally happens.”
- use passive concentration: goal – to let it just happen
- mental contact: chest area or overall body

(5) Standard Exercise 4: Abdominal Warmth
- mental contact: solar plexus = area ~2-3 inches below navel
- formula: “My solar plexus is warm.” (warmth here counteracts anxiety)

(6) Standard Exercise 5: The Cooling of the Forehead
- mental contact: ~1 inch above eyes into scalp
- formula: “My forehead is cool and smooth.”
(coolness in the forehead is associated with relaxation)