Master your Zen: Embrace Autogenic Training and release your stress

Autogenic training is an effective and holistic relaxation technique, a method that enables deep relaxation and removal of the consequences of everyday stress.

The speed of living of today's "modern" man brings him to a state of constant restlessness and tension. Stress is a daily companion of all workplaces and affects relationships and health. Long-term impact of negative stress can cause serious health problems for each one of us. Autogenic training is a good tool and defense against stress, which today is successfully used in psychotherapy. It can be said that autogenic training is a mental exercise that has a quick effect, and is intended to quickly calm the agitated mind. Some also call this technique as – Meditation in the Western World.

The founder of autogenic training is the German neurologist and psychiatrist Prof. Johannes Heinrich Schultz (1884 – 1970). At the beginning of his career he worked with hypnosis when he founded the Hypnotherapy Institute in Breslau. There, studying how the human body reacts while under hypnosis, he determined that each feeling creates a certain effect on the body. For example, when the body becomes very heavy, it is related to the relaxation of the muscles, while the feeling of heat is related to the expansion of the blood vessels, and thus better blood circulation. In doing so, he introduced exercises into the regular practice, through which the patient could enter a state of deep relaxation, similar to trance or hypnosis, and thus stimulate the body's ability to help itself or activate the self-healing process. . Today, scientific research shows that autogenic training is a powerful tool in the fight against many stress-related diseases.

We can also say that autogenic training acts as a band-aid. When we put a Band-Aid on a wound, we allow the body to heal itself. That's how autogenic training works. It effectively supports the physical body and mind, in a way that allows the body to do its own work, hence the name autogenic training. Or scientifically speaking, it is a question of passive muscle relaxation, which in turn affects the calming of the heart rate and breathing, while the blood flow increases, without side effects. But autogenic training is first of all training, which means that it should be practiced systematically and regularly. It is very important to introduce this technique as your daily practice regularly to get long term results.

Through the instructions that are given, autosuggestion is created, which achieves psychophysical relaxation. It takes very little instruction, patience and concentration to perform this technique successfully. Thus, with the help of concentration and repetition of the instructions of the leader, a feeling of heaviness in the limbs, a feeling of heat, stabilizes the heartbeat, calms the breathing and the abdominal organs.

The session consists of six exercises, which are performed slowly and during the training attention is paid to the changes caused by the repetition.

The main advantages of applying autogenic training are:

• It helps the practitioner move from a state of stress and anxiety to a state of relaxation.
• Reduces or eliminates anxiety and panic attacks.
• It improves self-esteem, self-image and boosts self-esteem.
• It strongly improves the quality of sleep.
• It reduces the degree (in mild to moderate) depression, sadness, resentment and jealousy.
• A tool in the process of self-actualization and gives a sense of control over life.
• It improves concentration and focus so that interns are more efficient in performing their work tasks.
• Relieves headaches, colds and other ailments, strengthens the immune system.

More and more in our modern society there is a need for man to learn to relax and maintain inner peace and tranquility. This technique is simple and useful for everyone, because it allows achieving complete physical relaxation of the body and mind in a short time.

By regularly practicing autogenic training, each person protects himself from the consequences of modern civilization, alleviates his stress factors, and preserves his energy.

Love and Light

Biljana Pesheva

about the author: Biljana is the founder of the brand Healthy Life Skills  & Healthy Yoga  where he holds seminars, retreats, active vacations, trainings and classes to reduce stress and tension in the modern man using a comprehensive (holistic) approach in working with individuals and groups.