If you need to decrease stress, eliminate anxiety, boost your performance, increase your energy, upgrade your learning or promote healing, then discovering the skills of meditation and guided relaxation will help. More than 3,000 studies prove the benefits of relaxation on health and well being, says the University of Maryland Medical Center. Relaxation techniques have been clinically proven to manage stress, decrease pain sensation, improve sleep disorders, and help prepare people for surgery or childbirth.
Meditation
Transcendental meditation is a relaxation technique that allows the mind to focus on one word/phrase. Mindfulness is a focus on thoughts and sensations. Meditation, by the very nature of the word, means to concentrate. According to Dr. Andrew Weil, author and integrative physician, meditation is deliberate concentration. Typically, meditation is done alone, with or without music or sound. Sitting comfortably, with a straight back and eyes closed, one focuses awareness on an object: the breath, a silent mantra, a memorized passage or an image.
Guided Relaxation
Guided relaxation is a technique that purposely guides thoughts and beliefs to achieve a certain outcome; it is usually aimed at reducing stress or anxiety. Guided relaxation requires the mind to use imagery to affect the body. It uses the sense of sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste in order to allow your mind to visualize your desires, spark your passions, and move your beliefs. With the use of an auditory CD or guide, one listens as the gently spoken words and sounds build a specific image in the mind, guiding it to comfort, peace and serenity.
Benefits of Meditation and Guided Relaxation
A 2009 study from the Liverpool Johns Moore University reports that mindfulness meditation has a high correlation to attention and cognitive flexibility when not in a meditative state. According to a 2009 article in Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, the intervention of guided imagery---a key part of guided relaxation---was shown to significantly improve comfort and decrease depression, anxiety and stress over time. When the mind and body are more relaxed, the subconscious mind is more receptive to intuition, performance, healing, learning and creativity.
Combining Meditation and Guided Relaxation?
Connecting the mind and body is the goal of meditation and guided relaxation. Our capacity to imagine is a powerful tool to help bring the mind and body together. By closing our eyes to meditate, we eliminate visual input to the brain's cortex, forcing the mind inward. When the mind is not occupied with outward visual stimuli, it is able to highly influence the physical and emotional state of the body, says Dr. Weil. Using books or CDs, find images that are right for you or words/sounds that promote a relaxing image for you.
How to Meditate and Use Guided Relaxation
In a quiet environment, close your eyes, take a few deep breaths through the nostrils. Sometimes counting your breaths will help you focus your attention on one thing: the breath, a word, a phrase. Relax the body as you allow your mind to be guided to a place or to your image of comfort. Take time to relish the details of the image, feeling yourself there, touching, smelling, tasting, seeing and hearing as necessary. Imagery works profoundly well because the thoughts we visualize in our mind are just as powerful whether they are real or imagined. If your mind wanders, simply bring it back to the image or the object. The work of meditation is often found in running after your attention to bring it back to the selected object. Dr. Weil suggests 20 to 30 minutes per session each day and urges that it will take much time and practice before the big benefits are realized.
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