HOW CAN RELAXATION HELP?

"During and following relaxation, individuals typically report experiencing less rapid thinking and an increased ability to focus thoughts and maintain concentration.

The quality of thought is also reported to be calm and restful in nature. Herbert Benson, MD, an accomplished researcher of the healthy effects of relaxation, describes the thinking state of relaxation as a "passive attitude," perceived as a peaceful willingness to just let thoughts flow in a natural, non-directed or non-controlled manner.

Relaxation produces a particular pattern of bioelectrical brain activity as recorded in the electroencephalogram (EEG). The EEG of non-relaxed individuals shows relatively low voltage high frequency brain activity that is not synchronized.

When deeply relaxed, the dominant frequency of brain nerve firings slows, portions of the brain appear to fire in a synchronized fashion, and a high voltage slow
frequency pattern can be recorded.

When relaxed, there are two changes in muscular activity.

First, relaxed people are very still. If they move at all, they do so slowly and gently.

Second, muscle tone is greatly diminished when people relax. Muscle tone is the background level of muscle tightness in between overt muscle movements. Many of us get sore, aching muscles in our lower backs and shoulders or develop muscle tension headaches when muscle tone is too high for too long.

The third system that changes with relaxation is the autonomic nervous system. This is the part of the nervous system outside of our brain and spinal cord that controls digestion, blood circulation, and other our basic biological processes.

This "automatic" nervous system controls parts of our body that we do not normally have to attend to, like when our heart beats or the level of activity of our gastrointestinal system.

This autonomic nervous system has two branches, the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system.

The sympathetic and parasympathetic systems activate different parts of the body in different ways, but they tend to act like the two sides of an old-fashioned scale -- when the sympathetic system is activated, the parasympathetic system is less activated and vice-versa.

Generally, the sympathetic nervous system is activated when you are challenged, stressed, or faced with a dangerous situation. When we are anxious, frightened, or in pain, we know that our heart beats more forcefully and races, our palms sweat, and we suddenly feel very awake and alert. By contrast, we tend to be more parasympathetically activated when out of danger and environmental demands are low.

Under parasympathetic activation, the organs take care of functions such as digesting meals, converting blood sugars for long-term storage, and moving nutrients to cells while moving waste away.

Breathing is an interesting physiological process as it is controlled voluntarily and by the autonomic nervous system, such as when we sleep, lose consciousness, or do not need to voluntarily regulate our breathing for activities such as speaking.

Research studies suggest that many parts of the autonomic nervous system tend to follow the activity of breathing. Under sympathetic activation, breathing tends to
be rapid, shallow, and less rhythmic.

During relaxation and parasympathetic activation, breathing is slow, deep, and has a regular rhythm. Because one can voluntarily change breathing patterns and because the autonomic nervous system tends to mimic what is going on with breathing, a relaxed breathing pattern can be a successful way to gain control over automatic physiological processes.

These three systems, the brain/cognition, the muscles, and the autonomic nervous system, are integrated by brain centers including:
the limbic system (governing emotions),
the hypothalamus (controlling basic biological/behavioral processes),
and the reticular activating system (regulating arousal).

The three systems tend to work in a coordinated fashion. When an individual changes the pattern of responding in one system, this affects the other systems.

KEY ELEMENTS IN LEARNING TO RELAX:
Like any skilled act, relaxation skills are developed through practice. For a patient to show any lasting benefit from relaxation training, research has indicated that a minimum of four training/therapy sessions is critical.

Regular practice of relaxation appears to be critical in learning how to become deeply relaxed and producing health benefits from relaxation.

Researchers have repeatedly found that any systematic program of relaxation appears to produce positive changes in physiologic and psychological states for most people."

Edited from:
USING RELAXATION:
COPING WITH FUNCTIONAL GASTROINTESTINAL DISORDERS
Kenneth R. Jones, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor of Medicine/Clinical Psychologist
Steve Heymen, MS
Instructor of Medicine/Certified Biofeedback Therapist