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The Holistic Mystic: |
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The Practice
of Profound Relaxation
by Lonny Brown, Ph.D. |
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Among the greatest threats to health and well-being in human society today is the unprecedented level of unabated stress we all experience. The unfortunate direct and indirect debilitating consequences of chronic stress have reached epidemic proportions. It is linked to depression, domestic violence, divorce, heart disease, stroke, migraine headaches, backache, obesity, diabetes, asthma, and many more common symtoms.
Typical but dysfunctional coping responses to chronic stress include food, alcohol and drug abuse, and addiction to prescription medications. Happily, there are more natural, safe, and cost-free alternatives: stress-relieving self-relaxation techniques. These modalities have only positive side-effects, and are universally beneficial. Once learned, they can be done nearly anywhere, anytime, for a lifetime. For stress-related disorders – which comprise 80% of all modern health problems – deep self-relaxation can be both therapeutic and preventive.
Help from Within
Everyone who's ever taken a hot bath knows the wonderful feeling of relaxing the body. But this physical level is just the beginning of the deep relaxation process. Really complete (“profound”) relaxation includes the muscles, nerves, brain and mind, and effects one’s whole being.
Happily, the most profound form of relaxation is becoming widely available just when we need it more than ever. An increasing number of people into yoga, meditation, contemplative prayer, biofeedback, hypnosis, and other intentional inner-directed self-development practices, are discovering the mental/emotion/spiritual dimensions of relaxation. These holistic auto-regulatory, self-healing methods naturally calm the body, quiet the mind, and balance one’s energies. Dr. Herbert Benson named this system-wide shift The Relaxation Response. It beneficially affects all symptoms of stress, including muscle tension, blood pressure, stress-hormone production, shallow breathing, etc. This relaxation response is the physiological component of meditation. It not only feels wonderful, but a growing body of clinical evidence shows it to be therapeutic, preventive, performance-enhancing, and life-extending.
The Ultimate Antidote
As mentioned, profound relaxation includes the muscles and limbs, but also goes to the very deepest levels of body and being. Blood vessels dilate, circulation and energy are optimized, the breath is freed, the senses quieted, the brain and central nervous system balanced, and the mind stilled. This is literally relaxation to the core, achieved through a series of concentric withdrawals of all effort and holding.
Metabolically, profound relaxation goes beyond even the sleep-state. Because it is done intentionally and consciously, brain and body are quieted simultaneously, and the mind gets to enjoy the results. It is like coasting with one's whole metabolism in neutral, floating suspended in time and space with a deep, abiding sense of peace. In energy anatomy, this occurs when the internal psychic centers (charkas), are all simultaneously “open.”
Medically, practicing profound relaxation can significantly improve hypertension, headaches, asthma, pain control, immunity, back ache, digestive disorders, type-A risk behaviors, and addictions, and sleep problems. On the mental / emotional / psychological levels, regular deep relaxation can help in overcoming anxiety and phobias, focusing attention and enhancing concentration, correcting certain behavioral disorders, and improving self-esteem. Spiritually, deep relaxation can help us move beyond body and ego identity to more transcendent experiences of wholeness, unity, and the timeless and infinite dimensions of existence.
True relaxation is an opportunity to experience ourselves as human beings, as opposed to human doings. Action is replaced with attention. Although the breath flows, the heart beats, and the body automatically performs a thousand subtle functions, the experience is one of total non-effort, because the mind is at rest. Consciousness is withdrawn from the external senses[1] but fully aware of itself. One’s center of knowing effortlessly resides within free-floating internal space, in absolute stillness.
Get Started
As impressive as this all sounds, deep relaxation is available to nearly everyone. You don’t have to study esoteric cosmologies, pay a lot of money, or travel to remote places to experience it. It merely requires practice. The "techniques" are so simple and universally available (via TV, tapes, books, and classes) that the salient question is not how do you relax, but when. The best answer is soon and often. With the new year upon us, why not start now? As soon as you can - and as regularly as possible - sit down, take a deep breath, close your eyes, evoke positive energy, clear the mind, begin relaxing your body, and don't stop. It's that easy and that difficult. Good luck!
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Lonny Brown,
Ph.D.
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Lonny J. Brown, Ph.D. is the author of "Self-Actuated Healing" (Naturegraph, Publ.), and "Enlightenment In Our Time," (BookLocker.com/
LonnyBrown).
His writings on holistic health have appeared on AOL's Alternative Medicine Forum and in Alternative Health Practitioner, Yoga Journal, and many other progressive publications.
Dr. Brown teaches holistic health, mind/body healing, and stress reduction courses at hospitals, schools and businesses throughout the US. His Web site also features essays, tapes, books, and links to a variety of integrative health sources.
Lonny J. Brown, Ph.D. is also the author of " ENLIGHTENMENT ONLINE - The Newsletter for Spiritual Cyberspace.
holistic.com/lonny
lonny@holistic.com
lonnybrown@aol.com
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