What is The Relaxation Response?
The relaxation response is the opposite of the flight or fight response that occurs naturally in your body during times of stress. In instances of sudden, intense stress, the relaxation response immediately comes on after danger has passed to counter the tension of an adrenaline rush. This is not the case, however, with sustained, daily stress.
In instances where we are subjected to daily, constant, non-life-threatening pressures, the relaxation response does not kick in, even though the same hyperawareness, blood pressure, muscle tensions, and heart rate results. This is why chronic stress is very detrimental to our health, and why we must counter it on our own by creating the relaxation response whenever possible.
How Does It Help Us Deal with Stress?
Not only does it help with tense and sore muscles and keep stress from damaging our bodies, using the relaxation response can actually repair cells and tissues which have already been negatively affected.
Chronic mental or emotional pressure elicits the same response in your body as does emergency situations, in which you may come to physical harm. The difference is, an emergency situation is momentary and the fight or flight response leaves with it.
With chronic stress, your body is in a less intense version of this strained state all the time. You stop process food, repairing cells, and fighting illness, as your body prepares, constantly, to deal with danger.
This results in constant high blood pressure, increased heart rate, poor digestion, and faster aging. Stress causes fat to build around the abdomen and settle around the heart, making us prime candidates for heart attacks and obesity.
None of this is permanent, however. By reducing the number of stress-responding chemicals in the body, namely adrenaline and cortisol, the relaxation response helps your body begin to heal. It boosts serotonin levels, causing you to feel happier, which in turn, helps you feel relaxed and safe.
How Do We Access the Relaxation Response?
To handle chronic stress, there are two things we must do daily. The first is to get exercise. Twenty minutes a day of mild to moderate exercise – even walking – helps the body renew itself and rid itself of stress.
This is not enough, however. To undo damage from chronic tension, it is necessary to engage in relaxation meditations, such as mental body scans and other restorative or healing mental exercises.
Only when the mind and body relax intentionally and our mental powers are used to create a state of security and tranquility does chronic stress actually give way to the relaxation response. This reaction is your body telling itself that the danger has passed and it is okay to let go and begin healing, digesting, and fighting illness once more.
Who Needs the Relaxation Response?
You need the relaxation response if you experience constant external pressure from work, friends, family or other relationships. If you have a fast-paced job, too much to do each day, or simply feel like you need to check out, you are in desperate need of meditation.
The truth is, even those who don't feel over-stressed can benefit from accessing the relaxation response, no matter how well they are. It increases feelings of contentment and happiness and trains the mind to be more positive.
What Are the Benefits?
While it will never smooth away wrinkles, it can prevent more from appearing, and keep hair from graying as quickly. Most importantly, the release of tension in the body and mind lowers blood pressure and can help us lose weight.
Meditation actually boosts the immune system and helps fight free-radicles which cause aging and disease. It can encourage cell and tissue renewal and absorbance of nutrients, and it decreases negative emotions, such as depression or anger.
When it comes to staying mentally, physically and emotionally healthy, combatting the ill effects of stress is absolutely essential. Your first step is to make sure you get some exercise every day, but you also must meditate to elicit the relaxation response, which is the only way to offset damages from stress. Your enjoyment of life really does depend on it, so don't put it off.
When you feel the least able to make time for meditation is when you need it the most.
Walking meditation is a great way to relieve stress and exercise without straining yourself too much.
