What
comes to mind when you think of relaxation programs for stress relief?
Do you think of things like meditation or yoga? Or how about those
ubiquitous relaxation CDs with panpipes and babbling brooks?
Hordes
of people obviously find these useful but they are all more or less
examples of passive relaxation. The goal is to empty yourself of
thought and attain stillness of body and mind. It feels wonderful when
you arrive.
Restless minds and itchy fingers...
But
there are many people who simply "cannot sit still in a quiet room
alone", to paraphrase Pascal's famous quote. Such people cannot
meditate more than one minute before their minds start to drift. For
them, listening to a babbling brook is about as relaxing as Chinese
water torture.
These are
so-called "type A" personalities and the only time they are at rest is
when sleeping – and even that is often fraught with
difficulty. This is
a real pity because these are the very people who most need genuine
relaxation. Chronic stress is a factor in and sometimes an outright
cause of high blood pressure and numerous other dangerous health
conditions.
A
breath of fresh air?
That's
why a new method called slow breathing with music is so compelling. The
method was developed as an easy, new way to apply therapeutic
breathing, a breakthrough in natural blood pressure treatment.
Therapeutic, or slow, breathing is clinically proven to lower high
blood pressure using just 15 minutes a day.
A
great feature of therapeutic breathing is that it can never reduce
blood pressure below normal, healthy levels. This would seem to make
the method great not only for lower blood pressure but also for stress
relief as it is sublimely relaxing when done in the right way.
Ironically,
the expensive and complicated biofeedback devices developed for
therapeutic breathing neglect this very same important aspect:
relaxation. For this reason, the method has met with mixed results
among consumers.
The new
method of slow breathing with music, however, puts relaxation first.
But this is relaxation unlike most any other. The system is a simple
audio program that combines a naturalistic, guided breathing soundtrack
with relaxing music. Listeners simply synchronize their breathing with
the soundtrack and relax to the soothing, beautiful music. Only very
special types of music are suitable and these include gentle pieces of
classical and ambient.
Unlike
other types of guided breathing using counting or spoken instruction
that quickly become tedious, slow breathing with this unique soundtrack
is almost effortless and allows users to relax fully with the music. At
the same time, it requires just enough attention to focus and occupy
the mind.
Relaxation kung fu!
The
even greater difference is that relaxation produced through this
technique is not passive. Breathing in this way involves the entire
body, relaxing muscles and tissues deep into the diaphragm. What
develops is a rhythmic harmonizing of the body together with breathing
and circulation.
It's the
ultimate in relaxation, similar to that which can be experienced in the
"moving meditation" of Tai Chi and other soft martial arts. It's a
focused form of all-body relaxation that is simply not possible to
achieve through listening alone or through other passive ways of
relaxing.
Of course,
martial arts take years of arduous training to master but slow
breathing produces maximum benefits in just 15 minutes a day. So
whether you need lower blood pressure or just want to relieve stress
and anxiety or improve your sleep – but you don't have the
patience for
conventional "relaxation programs" – this may be just the
thing. Slow
breathing with music gives the chop to passive relaxation tapes and
gently kicks you into genuine, deep relaxation that you can sink your
teeth into!
