But the modern person is very familiar with the meaning of the word "stress". You probably experienced his "beneficial" effect. Fatigue and irritability have become a familiar condition for us. Our consciousness is overwhelmed with negative impressions, which are given by certain television programs and films, newspapers and magazines, communication with people as tense and anxious as we are. Our mind is not able to digest the flows of very different information, and it falls into depression and despondency, the clarity of thought disappears, creative energy and inspiration evaporate.
We suffer from this and feel drained physically and spiritually, we lose sleep and can not relax and forget about the difficulties of life. We direct our efforts to discard this negative state, resorting to the help of stimulating means, trying in every possible way to entertain and distract. Sometimes we manage to reach the goal, and we can feel happy ... for some short time. We calm down, there is satisfaction with life. But soon all this passes, bored, and the search for happiness, tranquility and satisfaction begin again. We are again chasing new impressions, sensations and opportunities. We admit mistakes, analyze, predict and dream. Stress and suffer. Life passes in a continuous whirlwind.
How can we find a way to regain self-reliance, a sense of self-control and restore inner harmony? This requires learning to relax. Let's try to stop, catch our breath and relax. Turn off the monitor and close your eyes. Let's listen, what sounds surround us, we will feel, with what smells the space around us is filled, we will listen to the sensations. Let's see if for a long time we can just sit like this and enjoy our immovable position and doing nothing?
You can be sure, it will not last long. At first, most likely, only a minute, and then we will want to change the situation, and in the head will appear a whole string of the most diverse thoughts. If we sit for a while and watch our thoughts, we will be amazed at how many of them and how far they can lead us. If we had accidentally heard so many rambling inner "conversations" from someone else, we would most likely have decided that this person is a little out of himself. And such a stream of thoughts spins in our head incessantly, even in a dream, not letting us forget about the difficulties of life, manifesting itself in the form of dreams. In addition, in our thoughts, we are always in the future, dreaming and planning something, or we are in the past, remembering and analyzing something. Now our mind skips, constantly chattering with itself, literally stealing our life from us, preventing us from enjoying what gives us every moment. In addition to the fact that our brain never rests, it is always tense, and this can not but affect our health, because everything that we experience inside is reflected from the outside (as they say, all diseases from nerves).
And, alas, no psychoanalyst is able to break this vicious circle. This is only by ourselves: we must learn to relax. By the way, it is established that people who are able to relax, do not practically turn to doctors, unlike the rest.
Well, it's time to move on to constructive action. Since it is not so easy to reach the state of internal equilibrium as it turned out, we will move in this direction smoothly, but persistently, otherwise we will not achieve success. To begin with, we'll have a little free time out of our busy life schedule (30 minutes a day is enough), even if we are sure that we have almost no free time. Just imagine that this time is meant to rid us of the unhealthy and harmful state of the psyche and help to achieve an upbeat and joyful mood, and then free time will be found immediately. Agree that if we sit at the computer, on the couch at the TV or at the phone only half an hour less, no catastrophe will happen.
For relaxation practice, any time of the day is suitable, it is important that this is regular enough, and not from time to time. So gradually a pleasant habit will develop, without which we will begin to experience discomfort, as if we could not brush our teeth after eating. In a couple of months of relaxation practice we will see that life improves in all directions. Friends and relatives will be interested, it's not on vacation whether we visited.
But let's not run ahead. So, we found time, now, in order to plunge into pleasant moments of relaxation, you do not need to invent any special devices. Only a little quiet, quiet space, a small rug and a section of flat surface. It is necessary to occupy a comfortable position on the back. The head should be placed in the middle of the neck so that the back surface of the neck is stretched, and the chin is below the forehead. Legs need to be relaxed, feet "collapse" in the sides, opening the crotch area. Hands let lie freely along the body with the palms up. Dissolve them so that the axillary cavities are slightly opened, and the shoulders relax. Let's leave all our everyday worries behind the threshold of the room, forget about our plans and switch to feeling here and now, we will try to bring our body, breathing and consciousness to rest. We close our eyes and feel the space that surrounds us, and then turn our attention to how the body is located on the rug, as far as this position is comfortable for us. Feel where our body comes into contact with the rug or floor. It is completely still. This is important, because the immobility of the body gives rise to the immobility of the mind. Although, of course, if there is an irresistible desire, for example, to scratch your nose, you should not restrain yourself and strain in this way. Making a minimum of movements, remove the obstacle and continue the practice of relaxation further.
Mentally we will go through all body, we will look into its various parts (legs, arms, trunk, face) and we will try to eliminate all tense places. Initially, our minds will sometimes slip away from the object of observation, but this should not embarrass us. We calmly and purposefully return it to our body and continue our observation. So gradually our body will completely relax and eventually learn to reach this state much faster, as if dissolving in space.
When we feel that the body is absolutely relaxed, we will shift all our attention inwards, realize our inner space and listen to our sensations. We will try to perceive all the subtle movements in the body: perhaps we will feel how the stomach, intestines, and other internal organs work. Perhaps we will feel the movement of blood through the vessels, your pulse, the work of the heart, your breathing. Just for a while we will watch ourselves. Watch the movements in the body, relax and forget about the difficulties of life. Then we will concentrate our attention on breathing. Feel his movement in the nostrils, in the throat, in the chest, in the abdomen. Just watch the flow of air. For how and where our breath is born, how and where our exhalation is born.
We will try to keep our attention on these slow and smooth fluctuations, from time to time returning our consciousness to the object of observation. We will try not to fall asleep, although at first with us this can happen, when our minds go out, it clears up again. Let us not lament, we will continue to practice regularly, and gradually we will learn to remain in a state of deep, calm, unbiased observation of ourselves, accepting ourselves as we are, gaining control over our feelings and thoughts.
In time, we will notice that the world is filled with colors. Lethargy and laziness, pain and sadness will increasingly give way to joy and optimism. We will pay more attention to what we do, we will live more real, spend less and less time in dreams about an imaginary future or remembering the past. As we progress in our studies, we will notice that we stop reacting to situations and people who grieve and hurt us earlier. The equipment will continue to break down, the workload at home and the house will not be less, but we will find that all this touches significantly less than before, when we were offended, angry, anxious and stressed. We will stop straining on trifles, and it will be much more pleasant to communicate with us. Of course, these signs of success will not manifest immediately, but we will not regret that we went on this long and interesting journey to study ourselves.
Everyone needs to learn to relax and forget the difficulties of life. The ability to completely relax your body, giving him the opportunity to fully relax and recover - a vital skill for every person. However, this skill is especially important for the well-being of pregnant women, after all, a full-time rest is needed for a future mother as much as vitamins and physical exercises. In addition, the ability to relax helps both during the bearing of the baby, and during childbirth, and when the child is born. Having properly relaxed, any mom will be able to restore strength in a short time and feel like after a good full sleep. The most important thing is to relax completely!