The Importance of Practicing Relaxation

When you are nervous, worried, or depressed your friends will tell you to relax and to “let go.” Excellent advice.  But how is this done?  They are silent on this point because they themselves do not know how to relax when they get into a similar condition. Indra Devi wrote this in her book ‘Forever Young, Forever Healthy’ published in 1953.

There is no end to the kind of tricks tension can play, if allowed to become habitual.  Your mind becomes crowded with anxiety and worry that you are no longer able to see things straight.  Not to mention the effects on the physical body.

Has anything much changed in the intervening years?

Practicing relaxation is important for a myriad of reasons.  Here is a brief list of some of the benefits of taking up a practice:

• Allows the body to completely relax and to rest.

• Calms the mind.

• Slows the rate of breathing.

• Strengthens and supports the immune system.

• Reduces the effects of stress.

• Lowers blood pressure.

• Lowers the heart rate.

• Aids in digestion.

• Helps with weight reduction, as a stressed body holds onto fat cells.

• Reverses the effects of the chemical reactions produced by the sympathetic nervous system when the body needs to fight or flee, by activating the parasympathetic nervous system.

• Helps with insomnia.

• Helps lower cholesterol.

• Improves overall energy.

• Reduces anxiety.

• Improves concentration and ability to focus.

• Can help improve golf games and other athletic sports.

• Increases patience.

• Helps improve relationships.

• Supports meditation practice.

What happens when you want to relax and cannot?

By practicing inducing a relaxed state in the body, it is easier to evoke a calm state when needed.  It slows the wear and tear our bodies undergo by living busy lives.

Just as you practice anything else; playing a musical instrument or playing a sport, cooking to improve your ability and skill in that activity, by practicing relaxation you improve your skill and ability to induce a relaxed state in the midst of a seeming crisis or highly charged situation.

The importance of relaxation should never be underestimated, and every person should, and can, learn the techniques of it.

~esk