Yoga Every Day at Home Week 2 - Relaxation

Yoga Every Day at Home - a four week course for carers in association with Disability Bradford.  

Week 2: Relaxation

Everybody thinks they know how to relax.  Many people claim to derive their relaxation from watching tv/gardening/reading/taking a long bath, and whilst these activities undoubtedly offer the opportunity to switch off from daily life, they fall short of offering the range of health benefits that autogenic relaxation, known as yoga nidra to yogis, enables.

What exactly is autogenic relaxation?

Medical science recognises autogenic relaxation as a technique which restores the balance between the sympathetic nervous system (responsible for the 'fight and flight' response) and the parasympathetic nervous system, (responsible for 'rest and repair').  It teaches your body to respond to your verbal commands and set off biological responses, known collectively as the 'relaxation response' in the body.  By following visualisations through all parts of the body, messages are relayed back to the brain and interpreted as cues to adjust and lower breathing, temperature, heartbeat and blood pressure.  

What are the benefits?

Done regularly, it has important health benefits as the parasympathetic promotes digestion and bowel movements, lowers blood pressure, slows the heart rate and promotes the functions of the immune system.  Below is some compelling evidence for the effectiveness of autogenic relaxation, taken from a study on relaxation to aid gastro-intestinal disorders by the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina:

 “Many researchers and health professionals believe that relaxation provides two important functions:

(1) as a coping skill that can be used immediately when a person is stressed, overly aroused, or in pain, and (2) by preventing some of the damaging effects of stress. Daily practice of relaxation lowers arousal that is associated with wear and tear on the body. Regular use of relaxation enables one to calm the body before beginning stressful activities and has been associated with improvements in the immune system as well as improved survival of cancer patients. Thus, daily practice of relaxation makes a person generally more relaxed, better prepared to manage daily demands, and better able to buffer the long-term effects of stress, while also providing a tool to use when things get out of hand. For individuals with functional GI disorders, relaxation appears to help by dampening the pain, managing the arousal naturally associated with physical distress, empowering the patient with self-help skills, and managing irritability which is a very common consequence of chronic pain.”

Preparing for relaxation

In terms of yoga,  relaxation is best practised in the posture (or asana, to use the yogic term) known as savasana.   
lie on the floor, arms out to 45 degrees, feet slightly wider than shoulder width, toes turned outwards, heels inwards.  

A cushion placed under the head and a bolster/rolled up blanket under the knees and or heels can make this position more comfortable.

 

When back pain is an issue, having the legs resting on a chair can ease symptoms.

Alternatively, take a side-lying position, assisted by bolsters, cushions or blankets.

As the body temperature lowers, it is a good idea to wear socks and cover up with a blanket.   

The icing on the cake is a softly weighted and scented eye pillow!

Try it for yourself

Here is a range of accessible resources available to help you begin a practice of autogenic relaxation or yoga nidra (yogic sleep).

The free Simply Calm audio download by Nirlipta Tuli on http://www.yoganidranetwork.org/  is 18 minutes long and serves as a good introduction to the art of relaxation. 

For those who wish to delve deeper there is an on-line relaxation course on the Psychology Tools website.  This is also free of charge. 

I may be biased, but Dru Yoga relaxation CDs are superb and available to buy in the  Dru Yoga Online shop.  My personal favourite is rather long at 30 minutes, but is amazingly thorough and deeply relaxing.  The Dru Yoga classes on CD (with EBR 1-5 in the title) all contain a relaxation typically 15 minutes long, at the end.  Of course full length DVD classes are also available.

 

Taking it further

Dr Wayne Dyer, an internationally renowned author and speaker in the field of  self-development, once said; "You cannot always control what goes on outside, but you can control what goes on inside".  Autogenic relaxation is the tip of the iceberg - by learning how to control biological responses within our body, we begin to learn that our emotional responses too are ours to bid.