Relaxation and Meditation

Peace of mind heals.

That idea is as ancient as civilization itself—and as modern as the scientific evidence that is proving it’s true.

“Relaxation and meditation can have a very powerful effect on the body,” says Steven Fahrion, Ph.D., director of research at the Life Sciences Institute of Mind-Body Health in Topeka, Kansas. “It can help you cope with all kinds of stress-related problems, including migraines, peptic ulcers and anxiety. So I think that people who develop and retain peace of mind do experience mental and physical healing.”

In fact, researchers have found that relaxation and meditation techniques can boost immunity, short-circuit anger, curb smoking and relieve insomnia, back pain, high blood pressure, motion sickness, impotence, premenstrual syndrome, menopause and irritable bowel syndrome. With professional care, these techniques can also help control diabetes, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, panic attacks, phobias and depression.

“I think everyone can benefit from learning how to relax. Learning to neutralize the effects of stress is one of the most important aspects of preventive medicine,” says Andrew Weil, M.D., teacher of alternative medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson, founding director of the university’s Center for Integrative Medicine and a physician emphasizing natural and preventive medicine.

Surviving the Rat Race

Relaxing or meditating probably isn’t the first thing that pops into your mind when you’re stuck in traffic, scrambling to meet a deadline or confronted by an angry spouse.

In those situations, your muscles tense, your breathing becomes shallow, your heart races, your blood vessels constrict, your blood pressure rises, you start to sweat, and your digestive tract cramps up. Unlike our primitive ancestors, we may not be able to “fight or flee”—the two most natural responses to stress—when we’re in a modern stressful situation, such as a traffic jam. So we remain chronically tense.

But calming yourself is what you should do, says Robert S. Eliot, M.D., director of the Institute of Stress Medicine in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and author of From Stress to Strength: How to Lighten Your Load and Save Your Life. “If you can’t fight and you can’t flee, then you need to learn how to flow,” he says.

That’s because excessive amounts of stress can adversely affect almost every part of your body. Chronic stress, for example, can elevate blood pressure, total blood cholesterol and blood platelet counts, all of which can lead to atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and heart attack. Stress has been linked to many other ailments ranging from the common cold to colon cancer. In fact, eight of ten people seen by primary care physicians have some stress-related symptoms. Overall, stress-related ailments cost American business and industry more than $100 billion annually in lost productivity and absenteeism, Dr. Eliot says.

“Consistently evoking the stress response with images of danger in the past or stress in the future is tantamount to setting off a false fire alarm in your body,” says Neil Fiore, Ph.D., a psychologist in Berkeley, California, and author of The Road Back to Health: Coping with the Emotional Aspects of Cancer. “You’re calling out the fire trucks when there really isn’t anywhere for them to go.”

Pop Your Mind out of Gear

For many of us, dousing the fires sparked by stress means pushing hard on a long, fast run, sinking a 25-foot putt or climbing a mountain.

But while those activities can relieve stress, they can also generate competition and frustration, which can make it harder to relax.

“Sports and recreational activities give some people a legitimate outlet for the stress that they can’t relieve on the job or at home,” Dr. Fiore says. “But for other people, these pursuits raise their blood pressure and perpetuate the view that their lives are ongoing battles in a hostile, competitive world.”

To help you really calm yourself, Dr. Fiore and other experts recommend that you let your mind slip into idle several times a day, so for at least a few minutes you’re not regretting yesterday or fretting about tomorrow. Instead, you’re focused on the present moment without feeling compelled to make judgments about your life.

“It’s like being an actor in an emotional drama, who can step offstage, take a seat in the audience and watch another part of himself performing in the chase scene,” Dr. Fiore says.

More importantly, these mental rest stops can evoke the relaxation response, a physiological state that has been shown to lessen feelings of stress and anxiety. The relaxation response reduces muscle tension, lowers heart rate, blood pressure, metabolism and breathing and sparks tranquil feelings, says Eileen Stuart, R.N., director of cardiovascular programs at the Mind-Body Medical Institute, a behavioral medicine clinic at Deaconess Hospital in Boston.

Although the relaxation response is often associated with a simple form of meditation described by Herbert Benson, M.D., president of the Mind-Body Medical Institute, it may easily be conjured by other relaxation and meditation techniques, Stuart says.

The relaxation response blunts the release of adrenaline, catecholamines and other stress hormones that trigger the fight-or-flight response, Stuart says. That’s important, because an overdose of stress hormones can suppress the immune system and elevate blood cholesterol levels.

The relaxation response also performs another vital task.

“This type of deep relaxation is associated with healing in many different ways,” Dr. Fahrion says. “When you get very deeply relaxed, for example, the body releases growth hormones that help repair and restore damaged tissue.”

Getting Started

Proponents say there are literally dozens of ways to produce the relaxation response. Some, such as meditation, are centuries old. Others, such as progressive relaxation and biofeedback, have been developed in the past 70 years.

“All of these techniques can work for you,” Dr. Fiore says. “It’s matter of discovering which ones you are most comfortable with.”

In fact, the more techniques you know, the better off you may be, says Martha Davis, Ph.D., a psychologist at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Santa Clara, California, and co-author of the relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook. “Using a combination of techniques, such as deep breathing followed by progressive relaxation, can increase the power of the relaxation effect. Each technique takes you down a notch and puts you into a deeper, longer-lasting state of relaxation,” Dr. Davis says.

Before you begin, however, it’s important to remember that these techniques won’t prevent stress from occasionally disrupting your life.

“I don’t think there is any way to eliminate stress,” Dr. Weil says. “The challenge is to find ways to handle it better, so it doesn’t damage your body.”

Here’s a glimpse at a few of the more common relaxation and meditation techniques that can help you cope with stress.

Just Take a Deep Breath

Deep breathing is one of the simplest ways to relax, and it is an integral part of many of the other relaxation and meditation techniques.

“If I was to have one prescription for relaxation, it would be a breathing exercise,” says Janet Messer, Ph.D., a psychologist in Eugene, Oregon. “When you slow down your breathing and focus your attention in your lower belly, it has really profound physiological and psychological effects.”

Deep abdominal breathing relaxes tight chest muscles and opens up blood vessels, so your heart can pump more efficiently, Dr. Eliot says. It also helps you think clearly, so you can stay calmer in a stressful situation.

In addition, researchers at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit found that menopausal women who practiced deep breathing had 50 percent fewer hot flashes than women who didn’t.

“The wonderful thing about deep breathing is that it’s always there,” Dr. Messer says. “You can do it on the subway, sitting at your desk or if the boss is starting to get on your nerves.”

To do it, sit in a chair with your back straight, suggests Dr. Messer. Slowly breathe in and feel your lungs filling from the bottom to the top. Focus your attention in your belly; let it expand as you breathe. It should feel like your diaphragm, a muscular membrane separating your lungs from your abdomen, is being pulled down, as if it were attached to a string in your belly. Then slowly exhale, emptying your lungs from top to bottom. Feel your diaphragm relax into its natural position. Do this twice a day for five minutes.

To enhance the effect, Dr. Eliot suggests that as you inhale, think to yourself “Cool, clear mind,” and as you exhale, “Calm, relaxed body.”

Mind If I Meditate?

Meditation isn’t just for gurus anymore.

“Many people envision a meditator as someone who sits in a cave all day or as a wise man sitting on the mountaintop. But actually, a walker can do it as he strolls down the street, or a stockbroker can do it as he’s reading stock quotes. So meditation isn’t just sitting down and twisting yourself up like a pretzel,” says Sundar Ramaswami, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist at F. S. Dubois Community Mental Health Center in Stamford, Connecticut, and a proponent and practitioner of meditation for more than 20 years.

Meditation is described by proponents as a type of intense inward concentration that allows you to focus on your senses, step back from your thoughts and feelings and perceive each moment as a unique event.

“I’ve always defined meditation as a form of mental martial arts. Normally, we’re reactive to our thoughts; they attack us and we kick back. In meditation, we learn to sidestep out of the way. We learn how to keep ourselves centered so that we’re no longer at the mercy of our own thoughts,” says Joan Borysenko, Ph.D., a Boulder, Colorado, psychologist and author of Minding the Body, Mending the Mind.

Probably the best-known type of meditation is transcendental meditation (TM), an effortless technique introduced and taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. During a seven-step course, practitioners of TM learn how to use a special, meaningless sound called a mantra.

But TM is just one of many meditation techniques. Generally, these techniques can be classified into two large categories.

Concentrative meditation uses a picture, a word (mantra), an object (such as a candle flame) or a sensation (such as breathing) to focus the mind, Dr. Ramaswami says. If your mind begins to drift, you refocus your attention on the object.

Mindfulness meditation is more complex. Instead of focusing on a single sensation or object, you allow thoughts, feelings and images to float through your mind.

“In mindfulness, you are a dispassionate observer,” Dr. Ramaswami says. “You note your thoughts, desires and sensations in the same way that a postal worker might notice stamps. You let these thoughts go in and out of your mind without expressing positive or negative feelings about them.”

Some forms of meditation use a combination of concentrative and mindfulness techniques. In fact, you may already be practicing meditation without realizing it.

Everybody’s Doing It

“Everybody gets into a state of meditation several times a day without really calling it that,” Dr. Borysenko says. “Just imagine a time when you were caught up in the moment. It could have been when you were digging in the garden, playing with a child or watching a sunset. For that moment, past and future faded away, and you were living in the present. That’s a form of meditation.”

Although it is often perceived as spiritually oriented, meditation can be used simply for relaxation and to improve your health, Dr. Borysenko says.

Studies have shown, for example, that meditation can reduce anxiety and soothe anger. Other studies have shown that it can reduce the severity of asthma, migraines and chronic pain.

Meditation can also help corral premenstrual syndrome, according to Harvard Medical School researchers. In a study of 46 women, the researchers found that meditation, twice daily for 15 to 20 minutes at a time, slashed premenstrual symptoms by 58 percent. That was double the improvement reported by women who read twice daily and nearly 3½ times better than women who merely kept track of their symptoms.

In a study at Maharishi International University in Fairfield, Iowa, of 29 men ages 18 to 32, researchers concluded that practicing TM twice a day can lower blood levels of cortisol, an important stress hormone that in excessive amounts can inhibit immunity, raise blood pressure and cause other damaging effects.

To try a simple mindfulness meditation, find a quiet spot and sit in a comfortable position. Take several slow, deep breaths. As you breathe out, ask yourself “Who am I?” Note the associations—“I’m a mother,” “I’m a husband,” “I’m a businessperson,” “I’m tired,” “I’m angry”—that pop into your head without judging them, Dr. Ramaswami says. If you think “I’m a homeowner,” for example, and begin worrying about making the mortgage payment, refocus your mind on the question “Who am I?”

Dr. Ramaswami suggests practicing this meditation for 20 minutes twice a day at first. Then as you become more proficient and more aware of your body’s sensations, you may find you can meditate less and still get the same effect. “This meditation will help you quickly get to the heart of your innermost thoughts,” Dr. Ramaswami adds.

Feel the Heat

Your mind speaks, your body listens.

That’s the premise of autogenics, a technique that has much in common with yoga, imagery and meditation.

Autogenics, which means “self-generation,” was developed in the 1930s by Johannes Schultz, M.D., a German neurologist and psychiatrist. Dr. Schultz—who compared the feelings generated by autogenics to taking a long, relaxing bath—wanted people to be able to generate deep relaxation in a versatile and practical way. In essence, the idea is to sit in a comfortable position and give your body a series of instructions such as “My hands are warm.......my hands are heavy.”

Proponents believe doing that stimulates blood flow and deep relaxation. Autogenics, for example, was found to be effective in reducing the number and severity of migraines and tension headaches in a study of 34 men and women at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

“An autogenic exercise is a good way for the average person to learn to speak to himself in a language that his body can cooperate with, without a lot of mumbo jumbo,” Dr. Fiore says.

You need to find a quiet room, sit or lie in a comfortable position, close your eyes and take a few deep breaths, says Martin Shaffer, Ph.D., executive director of the Stress Management Institute in San Francisco and author of Life after Stress. As you exhale, repeat the following instructions to yourself.

“My hands and arms are warm and heavy” (five times).

“My feet and legs are warm and heavy” (five times).

“My abdomen is calm and comfortable” (five times).

“My breathing is deep and even” (ten times).

“My heartbeat is slightly calm and regular” (ten times).

“My forehead is cool” (five times).

“When I open my eyes, I will remain relaxed and refreshed” (three times).

Then take a moment to move your arms, hands, legs and feet around a bit. Rotate your head, open your eyes, and if you’re lying down, sit up.

While doing this exercise, note what is happening to your body, but don’t consciously try to analyze it. Avoid criticizing yourself if you have distracting thoughts. If your mind wanders, simply bring it back to your instructions as soon as possible.

Dr. Shaffer suggests doing two-minute sessions of this exercise ten times a day. Be patient, experts say, because in some cases, it may take weeks for autogenics to be effective.

Tune In to Your Body’s Signals

Biofeedback can help relieve a variety of conditions, including stuttering, muscle spasms, tooth grinding and epilepsy. Mental health professionals say it also works well in conjunction with other relaxation techniques.

In most cases, however, using biofeedback requires professional care. During traditional biofeedback, electrodes are attached to your body. These instruments monitor various body functions, such as temperature, muscle tension, brain wave activity and heart rate. Even a slight change in any one of these can be instantly detected by a biofeedback machine and transformed into a signal you can see or hear. With this enhanced feedback, you can learn how to regulate these bodily functions so that you feel more relaxed.

Although portable biofeedback devices are available, experts say you should still seek professional advice, since some guidance may be necessary to help you use these devices.

But there is at least one cheap and easy form of biofeedback that you can practice at home. It’s called thermal biofeedback, and all it requires are a thermometer, your hands and about 15 minutes of your time, Dr. Fahrion says.

“Many people haven’t heard of it, although it has been used in hospitals and clinics to treat stress-related disorders such as high blood pressure for more than 20 years,” Dr. Fahrion says. “Most people can learn to do it in a single session.”

Developed at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, thermal biofeedback is based on the premise that when a person is under stress, the body restricts blood flow to the extremities, such as the hands and feet, so they are colder than the rest of the body. But if you warm your hands, blood flow increases, stress hormones diminish, muscles relax, and you’ll feel less tense, proponents say.

“I’ve seen people under stress whose hands are 63°F even after an hour in a warm room,” Dr. Fahrion says. “By warming your hands, you’re actually changing your chemistry into a more relaxed state.”

To try it, sit in a comfortable chair and wrap your hands around a thermometer so that your fingertips are touching (see the illustration on page 604). Rest your hands in your lap and focus your mind on any sensation that you feel in your fingers. Do you feel a tingling or pulsing in your fingertips? That’s a sign that your hands are warming. Take an occasional glance at the thermometer with the intention to warm, but don’t strive to raise your hand temperature. That will occur naturally. If you get distracted, refocus your attention on your hands.

The goal is to raise your finger temperature to 97°F and hold it there for about ten minutes. As you become more accustomed to the sensations in your hands, you should be able to do this exercise without using the thermometer, Dr. Fahrion says.

Use Tension to Relieve Tension

When you feel under stress, your muscles naturally contract and create tension. So what can relieve that? Believe it or not, more tension, say proponents of a technique called progressive relaxation.

By systematically tightening and releasing muscles, progressive relaxation can prevent stress from overwhelming you, proponents say.

“Progressive relaxation is extremely useful, particularly if my muscles feel tense and seem incapable of relaxing,” Dr. Fiore says.

Tensing taut muscles might seem strange, but Dr. Fiore says that the additional exercise actually increases blood flow to the muscles and helps them unwind faster than if you try to relax them.

Developed in the 1920s by Edmund Jacobson, a Chicago physician, progressive relaxation is considered an excellent technique for beginners because it is practical and doesn’t depend on imagination. Research suggests that it can help alleviate insomnia, headaches and digestive ailments such as irritable bowel syndrome. Experts say that it can also help relieve muscle spasms, back pain and high blood pressure.

There are many methods of progressive relaxation, but Dr. Davis suggests this approach: Clench your right fist as tightly as you can. Keep it clenched for about ten seconds, then release the tension immediately and completely, as though you were turning off a switch. All of the tension should drain out of your body. Feel the looseness in your right hand and notice how much more relaxed it feels than when you tensed it. Do the same thing with your left hand; then clench both fists at the same time. Bend your elbows and tense your arms. Release and let your arms hang at your sides. Continue this process by tensing and relaxing your shoulders and neck, then wrinkling and relaxing your forehead and brows. Then squeeze your eyes and clench your jaw before moving on to tense and then relax your stomach, lower back, buttocks, thighs, calves and feet.

Flex Your Muscles

Like flossing your teeth, rotating your tires or starting a diet, stretching is something you always vow to do.......tomorrow. But it isn’t something that you should put off, researchers say, because stretching can soothe the stressed-out beast within.

“Gentle stretching fosters relaxation,” says Charles Carlson, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. “Physiologically, if you gently stretch the muscle, it will relax. Stretching also gives you something to focus your attention on, which enables you to quiet your mind.”

Gentle stretching is particularly good for people who have chronic muscle pain, such as in the neck or shoulders, and have difficulty doing muscle-tensing exercises such as progressive relaxation.

“Asking a person who has a painful muscle to tense it only creates more pain,” Dr. Carlson says. “Our approach minimizes muscle tension.”

Stretching should always be done slowly and without pain, Dr. Carlson says. Avoid overstretching or bouncing your muscles. While you’re doing a stretching sequence, think about how your tension feels, so you’ll come to know when you need to stretch to release it. In any case, do a stretching sequence at least once a day. For instructions on how to do such a sequence, see the illustrations that begin on page 602.