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Relaxation

As well as the intrinsic benefits of relaxation (such as lowering blood pressure), relaxation can also be a key to achievement. For example, when we are in a state of relaxation, we can use our imagination to visualise all sorts of positive things that we want to achieve. An example is the sports athlete visualising themselves running around a track really fast and with ease (this is how many top sportsmen and women achieve winning performances - they call it being in ‘The Zone’). Another example is a business person visualising themselves meeting their targets with ease, or a person with ill-health visualising themselves feeling really well, and their body repairing itself easily.

Sometimes people think that they are so busy that they don’t have time to relax. Yet the ones who learn to relax are often the busiest people and the highest achievers. Sports performers are some of the most results-focused people in the world and they know how crucial it is for them to relax and to use that relaxation as a key to achievement and success.

The  word ‘relax’ comes from the Latin word ‘relaxāre’, meaning ‘to loosen’. And relaxation is about loosening muscles, allowing tensions and stresses to go, enabling your mind to calm.

A calm and relaxed mind can think calmer, concentrate more easily and focus on objectives easier, which is why many sports people use the techniques of Hypnotherapy.

Relaxing is natural, it’s free, it has no negative side-effects and it’s right there inside you, just waiting for you to turn that key. Whatever your age, whatever your stage of life or your health status, relaxation is waiting for you to tap into to.

I believe that the ability to relax is in all of us, and it can be learned. Some of us can learn it very quickly, and some may   take a little longer. Often I may have a client who has literally ‘forgotten’ what it feels like to relax (or rather the imprint of what it feels like to deeply relax needs rekindling).  We learn many things just by the experience of doing them - things as basic and fundamental as walking, talking, writing and using a knife and fork, and I believe that relaxation is no different. We can literally learn to relax, just by the experience of doing it!.

Benefits for people in ill health
Many health issues are now linked to stress and problems relaxing. Being able to relax is like a key to enable all sorts of positive changes. I see many people who are in ill-health (with problems ranging from Parkinsons Disease through to Hypertension and Cancer) and while Hypnotherapy may or may not benefit their symptoms, being taught to properly relax may be of great benefit to them in helping them to cope with their illness.