How to Do Deep Relaxation – Elimate Stress & Build Up Energy

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Unfortunately, if you’re an anxious type, and especially if you have panic attacks, it’s hard to think of anything but fleeing when you’re afraid.

A brain flooded with adrenaline is an unreasonable brain, obedient to chemical messengers commanding it to run from the charging bull. To take control of your body and master your anxiety, you need to first slow it down—to release your natural powers of relaxation that are being drowned out by an out-of-control flight/fight response.

Once you are able to quiet your body at will, then you can begin to take command of it in any situation. That includes profiting from therapies such as systematic desensitization and visualization, that require a relaxed state as a starting point.

There are different routes to inner tranquility. If you make them your own, you will find that they work amazingly well in helping you to calm yourself.

Deep Relaxation:

Most people think of relaxing as unwinding in front of the TV set at the end of the day, reading a juicy novel, or soaking in a lavender scented hot bath. That’s all right, but it won’t help you achieve calmness as a mode of being, nor reduce the frequency or intensity of panic attacks.

For that, you need to learn the relaxation response, a state of deep relaxation that is a distinct physiological state the exact opposite of the way your body reacts under stress or during a panic attack.

Daily deep relaxation gives your body a chance to recuperate from the day’s stresses and to prevent stress from piling up. Over time, you will start to feel calmer, sleep deeper and more soundly, and feel more energized and more productive.

You will experience less “age of stress” illnesses, like hypertension, migraines, headaches, asthma, and ulcers. And you will feel more in touch with your feelings, since you are less focused on stress, bodily symptoms and how to cope.

How to do Deep Relaxation:

Here’s how to prepare for your unwind time and to achieve maximum benefit from the exercises:

1.  Find or create a quiet, relaxing place where noise, lights, bothersome odors and other distractions are minimal.

2.  Find a comfortable position. You can sit up, lie back in a reclining chair, or lie down flat, but don’t let this position seduce you into a snooze, which is counter-productive.

3.  Wear comfortable, loose clothing and take off anything that puts pressure against your skin—shoes, watches, glasses, etc.

4.  Practice at regular times to discipline yourself. Generally, the best times are just after waking, before going to bed or before meals. A full stomach tends to disrupt deep relaxation, since your system is working to digest your food.

5.  Practice at least 20 to 30 minutes per day and preferably twice a day.

If your body does not easily chill out at first, don’t try to force it. It will take practice to retrain your body out of your usual hyper-alert, tense state, and at first, it will seem hard and effortful.

Once you learn deep relaxation, you return to the world with a different consciousness and sense of yourself that makes it addicting. Without it, the day seems incomplete.