Welcome to Mental Break!
This blog will be a documentation of my journey through the Kaplan University’s Creating Wellness-Psychological & Spiritual Aspect of Healing. The course is an exploration of meditation, mindfulness and transpersonal psychology.
The first stop in the journey is the Autogenic Technique. “Autogenic means self-regulation or self generation”. ("Autogenic relaxation technique," 2012) The goal of autogenic relaxation is to relax parts of your body by just thinking about it. You are able to achieve deep relaxation by relaxing muscles of the body which also allows the mind to relax.
As I listened to the narrator on the school link for the autogenic relaxation technique, I suddenly found myself feeling like I had a one track mind. Initially it was difficult for me to listen to the narrator describe what was to be done and to do it. I found I had to block the narrator out for a minute as I did the exercise. I wasn’t sure I was doing the exercise correctly, as I tried to visualize the blood flow from my abdomen up my chest, across my shoulders and down my arms, but after a few moments I realized that the mental suggestions were working because I was beginning to feel the arm heaviness and warmth as was described. About this same time, I also noticed that I suddenly felt a tingly itchy sensation on my arms and my face and it was difficult to keep still. This secondary feeling broke my concentration a bit. Was this a reaction to the increased blood flow down my arms? I don’t know – maybe. Fortunately the sensation didn’t last too long after my concentration was broken and I was able to finish the exercise.
This was an interesting technique, I liked the idea of being able to relax the body by just thinking about it, but I’m not sure this could be an exercise I can stick with. I was able to locate a website that gave instructions and suggestions for mental phrases to relax other areas of the body. The website is Stress-Relief-Tools.com and the link is below in references.
References:
Autogenic relaxation technique. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.stress-relief-tools.com/autogenic-relaxation.html
Brenda~
ReplyDeleteI too found it hard to listen to the man speaking, although his voice was soothing. I had a hard time thinking about what he was talking about and following along. I am glad that you were able to feel the heaviness and warmth that was talked about.
I did like the web page that you used as a reference, I will be exploring it more to see if I am able to utilize some of the information not only for myself but my clients too.
Stephanie