Relaxation Techniques for Anxiety

Everyone gets anxious from time to time: there’s public speaking, job interviews, the dentist and all the rest.
relaxation techniques for anxiety,relaxation techniques for anxiety,relaxation techniques for anxiety
For about one in six of us this will cross over into what psychologists term a disorder at some point in our lives. This is when people are almost continuously anxious and find it difficult to concentrate, have trouble sleeping and become irritable and restless. Women are roughly twice as likely as men to suffer from an anxiety disorder.

Relaxation training comes in a variety of flavours, but the five methods which have much in common

Cognitive behaviour therapy

Cognitive behavioural therapy is an approach that looks at both behavioural therapy and cognitive therapy. It looks at why people think and behave the way they do and then provides them knowledge and choice.

In simple terms, (C) cognition is the way we perceive and think, (B) behaviour is the way we react and behave and (T) therapy or change is the method for changing the perception and behaviour.
Common CBT techniques include:
Exploring a client's irrational thoughts and replacing them with rational healthy ones
Stopping unhelpful irrational thoughts altogether
Gradual exposure to situations and social skills training
Assertiveness training
Cognitive behavioural therapy is often the main model and approach for therapists dealing with the following issues with their clients:
Anxiety and panic attacks
Depression
Eating disorders, predominately bulimia nervosa
Phobias
The above areas and issues respond well to CBT as it is widely accepted that perception is the key to lasting change and unnatural or irrational perceptions are the root of these conditions occurring.

Meditation

Meditation has been cited again and again as an incredible benefit that regulates emotion (including stress) as well as improves verbal reasoning, attention span, and can even improve your writing.

Here’s how meditation can help you in your writing:

It opens the door to inspiration and valuable ideas by unburdening your mind.
It unlocks your most original, true-to-yourself thoughts to provide a fresh and honest perspective.
It helps you objectively analyze problems and personal obstacles that can be shared with your audience.
It improves your memory, which can help you call up engaging anecdotes and insights.
It regulates emotions and helps you become more self-aware, which can help prevent writer’s block.
It makes you a better listener when interacting with your audience.
Ultimately, meditation helps you tap into your creativity and unlock your greatest ideas by fostering a post-meditative state that is reflective (gives thought), creative (breeds innovation), and productive (creates value).

Meditation isn’t easy – at first. Don’t feel bad if you can’t sit still for more than 3 minutes when you initially begin. It takes practice. Allow meditation to become a part of your routine and you will build momentum.

Autogenic training
Goes back to the 1930s and is another technique for progressively relaxing the muscles. To help you do this it has a mantra which you repeat to yourself as you go around major muscle groups: “my right arm is very heavy” and so on. A second stage involves inducing a feeling of warmth in the muscles. Once they feel ‘heavy’ from the first stage, you follow another mantra about warmth: “my right arm is very warm” and so on.

Further stages involve calming the heart and the abdomen and cooling the brow in much the same way.

Once again, you’ll notice that this is all about the mind following a calm body. As before practitioners recommend daily practice so that you can relax more and more quickly. With practice the simple intention to start the training will be enough to cause the body to become relaxed and warm.

Applied relaxation
Applied relaxation is one of the relaxation techniques for anxiety that you can practice just about anywhere with ease. It builds mostly on progressive relaxation and involves learning how to relax your muscle groups in turn.

The next stage involves cutting off the previous phase and focusing on relaxing the muscles. The next step involves associating a certain cue with a very relaxed state of mind. To get the most out of this technique, you need to practice it in real-world situations that provoke anxiety.

Progressive relaxation
Progressive relaxation exercised are based upon an awareness of tensions within various parts of your body and an awareness of how these same parts of your body feel when they are relaxed.

Once you are able to recognize the difference between tension and relaxation it is then a matter of slowly learning how to focus your attention on relaxation of any tense areas to bring about both fast and effective relief.

Although we often think that we know what it feels like when we are tense or when we are relaxed, few of us have ever really taken the time to consider in detail just what these states feel like and would find it very difficult to describe our feelings.

Here is an exercise that is designed to help you to learn to sense both tension and relaxation within various areas of your body.
Relaxation Techniques for Anxiety,Relaxation Techniques for Anxiety,Relaxation Techniques for Anxiety,Relaxation Techniques for Anxiety,Relaxation Techniques for Anxiety,Relaxation Techniques for Anxiety,Relaxation Techniques for Anxiety,Relaxation Techniques for Anxiety
Relaxation Techniques for Anxiety,Relaxation Techniques for Anxiety,Relaxation Techniques for Anxiety,Relaxation Techniques for Anxiety,Relaxation Techniques for Anxiety,Relaxation Techniques for Anxiety,Relaxation Techniques for Anxiety,Relaxation Techniques for Anxiety,Relaxation Techniques for Anxiety,Relaxation Techniques for Anxiety,Relaxation Techniques for Anxiety,Relaxation Techniques for Anxiety