irritable bowel syndrome patients immediately after, as well as 6 and 12 months after intervention.[2]
There are also a number of other benefits as to how the body readily responds to stress from practicing relaxation techniques:
* Decrease in heart rate
* Able to stay mentally positive
* Slowing one’s breathing rate
* Reducing the need for oxygen
* Increasing blood flow to major muscles
* Reducing muscle tension
* Reducing emotional responses, such as anger and frustration
* Improved concentration & focus
* Greater ability to handle problems
* More efficiency in daily activities
Although health professionals such as complementary and alternative medicine practitioners, doctors and psychotherapists can teach relaxation techniques, we can also learn some of these techniques on our own.
The relaxation response leads to a quieting of the sympathetic nervous system. This relaxation response thus prevent one from being overstress, however it can only be evoked through conscious effort.
Relaxation techniques usually involve refocusing your attention to something calming and increasing awareness of your body. Regular use of the relaxation response helps to offset the effects of fight-or-flight responses (Benson, 1976). It doesn’t matter which techniques one choose, what matters is the need to practice relaxation response regularly to benefit from it.
There are several main types of relaxation techniques, including:
Body-to-mind control is one method which one can