View Full Version : Problems with deep relaxation
Hi there,
I am a recent GAD sufferer and lots of stuff that I have read says that a daily programme of deep relaxation is an essential part of the recovery process.
I tried some deep breathing relaxation/meditation for the first time last night and it had a very profound and strange effect on me - but I couldn't say it was a good one!
I closed my eyes and relaxed and concentrated on my breathing for about 15 mins. However I soon found myself very physically uncomfortable and couldn't get comfortable. My body was soon aching all over. When I stopped I felt very dizzy and sort of vacant, and collapsed on my bed and fell into an exhausted sleep for about an hour. When I awoke I still felt very unsteady and disorientated.
Has anyone else had similar experiences? Has anyone found a good method of relaxation and has anyone had more positive experiences than this with relaxation!
Thanks,
Gareth
*** I think, therefore I'm anxious ***
Hi Gareth
Deep relaxation is a progressive thing. When I'm really stressed I find it hard to relax and have much the same experiences as you.
The more you practise at it, the easier it will become. You have to bear with it.
Funnily you should have posted but I hadn't been doing the exercises and tried doing some last night. I felt very dizzy and my back was achey too. Which just goes to show that I should be taking my own advice and doing the relaxation stuff at least once a day.
Take care
Jules
I think with relaxation I always used to try too hard - kinda defeats the object really and so I sometimes felt worse rather than better.
In Claire Weekes books she says if you are striving for relaxation then you are striving rather than relaxing. You can be relaxing even if you are just reading a book or watchin TV so actually we don't need to try so hard.
Having said that I've recently discovered Glenn Harrold cd's which are smashing and it doesnt matter which one I listen to they are all relaxing so I would thoroughly recommend them when you want to have a little me' time. Read the reviews on Amazon and see what you think.
Love Piglet
"Supposing a tree fell down, Pooh, when we were underneath it?" said Piglet.
"Supposing it didn't," said Pooh after careful thought.
Gareth,
It sounds like either you were not in a comforable position so your body that clearly was trying to relax wasn't able to as it had to use muscles to hold you in that position or you did relax and what you felt was the after effects of the muscles really relaxing and letting go after a long time of tension..
The fact that you slept immediately afterwards suggests that you did relax more than you thought you did.
Meg
www.anxietymanagementltd.com
Watch your thoughts, they become your words...
Watch your words, they become your actions... Watch your actions, they become your habits... Watch your habits, they become your character... Watch your character, it becomes your destiny...
I missed this post when I replied to your other one.
Relaxation can often bring on some odd experiences, which can deter people, but I do believe it is very important.
It's hard to reply without having the knowledge of what you felt like during the time, as these are feelings that we experience individually.
As Meg says though, the muscle aches may be down to not being comfortable. There's a few ways of looking at it though.
It could be that you feel like this quite often but just don't usually notice it beneath the thoughts and feelings that GAD produces. When you eliminate all these factors and you are only left with the tension, it then becomes your main focus and for the first time you really notice just how uncomfortable it actually is. You may notice this over time with relaxation, and it may help to find a balance. A little excitement is great for taking your mind away from this in a fairly positive way. I think balance is important.
Another way of looking at it, is tension release. Now, this is quite a grey area, but is quite commonly recognised within relaxation on a professional level and with Buddhist practitioners. As the tension releases, it can give way to a range of experiences, some uncomfortable, and maybe even involving physical pains. I know I often feel some kind of tension to a degree when relaxing, and some of that I would put into this category. In more extreme cases, I've heard stories of people experiencing physical pain in areas of past injuries, which is said to be the repressed pain making it's way to the surface and finally being released. Although that's very 'freudian' so I'm not going to go into that.
As for unsteady and disorientated, first thing I would do is to check that you arn't breathing too heavilly. Focussing on your breathing for meditation is a good technique for relaxation, but make sure that you're not controlling your breathing too much or forcing yourself to breath more than you should. In fact, you don't need to control it at all, just notice it and watch it, not control it.
Again though, there can be other reasons for this.
Alchohol and relaxation don't mix very well and cause this effect from my experience (I'm only talking small amounts too). It may seem obvious, but many people use alchohol to relax. It's counterproductive.
Another one, is again, tension release. Patricia Carrington goes into this in her book 'the book of meditation'. Patricia founded CSM (Clinically Standardised Meditation) to address issues such as these and iron out any problems that are currently found in methods such as TM (Transcendental Meditation, which has quite a bad reputation, largely being portrayed as a cult).
These issues are also well known to buddhist practitioners, and without going into the reasons, too much meditation can cause effects such as derealisation. It is recommended in Patricia's book that you begin with only ten minutes twice daily. If this brings on any undesirable effects, then shorten it more. You can then slowly build up to twenty minutes, which is ample time. Then after that, you can keep increasing it, but you are advised to do so very slowly, you should be doing no more than 30 mins after 1 year.
Many people will disagree with methods of imposing time limits on meditation, and since it is such a grey area there are many different views on it. I guess you just need to find a balance for yourself.
What I wouldn't want to do, is to put anyone off from doing this. I know all of this scared me a little when I first read about it. But the positive effects of it are too much to ignore. Unless you're go way overboard, then you'll have little problems.
It's also quite common to have varying experiences through meditation due to factors that are less known (probably going back into 'freudian' territory again!). Memories can appear from the past, you may have feelings (happiness, sadness, joy) for no apparant reason, but none of this is considered to be a problem. Just carry on concentrating on your breathing. From a buddhi
Hi Gareth
Here is my experience : I am having hypnosis sessions at the mo, and from one session , I have a recorded cd, which is to use at home. The last two times I listened to it, I ended up more anxious and feeling rather strange...I think its because I try too hard, I tend to focus and concentrate on my breathing and relaxing my body...This is where its wrong...we shouldn't have to concentrate to relax, we should just let go ( its just my opinion).
So I thought , next time I am gonna listen to it , I gonna imagine I am a vegetable lying on the bed, lol. You don't have to "listen" to hypnosis or relaxation tapes/cds while they r playing...the subconscious does it for you.
Hope that makes sense.
Take care.
Florence.
**Don't believe everything you think .**
Thanks everyone for your replies.
I think it is fair to say that my body wasn't in the right position. The meditation book that I have states that my back needed to be fully straight and I found this hard to maintain. It also wanted me to concentrate on the sensation of breath coming in and out of my nostrils - I think I maybe overdid it and probably was "forcing" my breath a little rather than just breathing naturally.
A first step for me may even be to re-learn how to breathe properly. I am sure that I shallow breathe, and maybe this is something I should work on.
Mico - I agree that perhaps the way I felt during/after relaxing is very much like the way I feel much of the time. I think I am more uptight and tense at normal times of the day than I think. I am sleeping better now but it seems to be out of exhaustion rather than relaxation.
I also agree about repressed pain coming to the surface. I believe that the mind and body are completely linked and that emotion will be felt in the body. I want to release some pent-up emotion from things that happened in my childhood, and this is one of the reasons for going for meditation rather than ordinary relaxation.
I think the key may be slow and steady though. I have always had a problem with relaxing properly, so will need to take small steps with this one I think.
Thanks everyone.
*** I think, therefore I'm anxious ***
Gareth
To start with lying down is much easier .. It now sounds like all those pains were simply muscles in your back straining to maintain an unfamiliar position .
Yes its just observing the breath not controlling it - it does take time and practice .
Hope tonights relaxation session is better
Meg
www.anxietymanagementltd.com
Watch your thoughts, they become your words...
Watch your words, they become your actions... Watch your actions, they become your habits... Watch your habits, they become your character... Watch your character, it becomes your destiny...
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A first step for me may even be to re-learn how to breathe properly. I am sure that I shallow breathe, and maybe this is something I should work on.
<div align="right">Originally posted by Gareth - 16 June 2005 : 09:32:37</div id="right">
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I've been here long enough, but I can't remember if there is actually some breathing tips on this site [:I]
But, for relaxation, you should ideally be breathing into your abdomin rather than your chest. Again though, try not to think about it too much and don't force it.
I also agree with Meg that relaxation is a whole lot easier when lying down. In fact, for me, I find it difficult to get completely comfortable any other way.
However, certain practices of meditation are very strict about posture and consider it to be an important part of the meditation (there are reasons behind it). Whether you wish to follow that is entirely up to you. If you really do want to follow a strict practice of meditation (you do sound quite positive about it) then it would be worth considering trying something such as Yoga or Tai-Chi to develop your posture further.
mico
hello gareth,
wow you already ahd so much good advice, but anyway here is my 2 pence worth.
it could be something to do with your breeathing technique.when you deep breath you should exhale longer than you inhale. this is to prevent you taking in too much oxygen and threfore amking your blood over staurated with oxygen, and therefore feelings of dizziness. taking alonger exhale helps to balance out the carbon disoxide levels in realtion to your oxygen levels. there is sort of correct number of seconds that differatiate your inhale from your exhale, but i cant remember excatly waht it is so recommend you check that out.
i do deep breathign combined with stretching exercies before i go to bed which i find helpful. i also burn lavender oil and play soothing music at the same time. the oil and the music is then making it a special relaxing environment, and just helps get me in a deep relaxation mood.
i hope the deep realxation starts to work for you soon.
when i 1st got ill i was given a relaxation tape, you lie on the ground somewhere comfortable, and go through a number of muscle releese exercises. i say exercsie, but it is more just a tension-relaxation awareness exercise. i never ever got to the end of the tape cos i always fell asleep before the end!!! maybe you could try it too
take good care, oshun
Its just a ratio to counting so some people use in for 4 out for 6, in for count of 7 out for 11. It all depends on how quickly you count too !
The basic rule is slow down your breathing as much as possible.
I always found it really hard to do when panicky - so settled for breathe in for 4, hold for 4, out for 4, hold for 4 - box breathing which amounted to the same thing and got rid of the pins and needles etc
Yes there are Mico - under 'coping'.
Meg
www.anxietymanagementltd.com
Watch your thoughts, they become your words...
Watch your words, they become your actions... Watch your actions, they become your habits... Watch your habits, they become your character... Watch your character, it becomes your destiny...
Hey Gareth, I've had great success with hypnosis cds, they keep me relaxed for at least a couple of hours after using them, and the more I use them I seem to be able to sustain the effect for longer. Sometimes I get so relaxed that I simply fall asleep during or after. Or simply have no recollection of the 30 minutes passed, but wake up when Im told to.
The ones I bought were a few of these: http://hypnos.co.uk/diviniti/
If you do order them, have a listen to the tracks before you try it out, just so you know what to expect. Some of it is a bit new-agey, but if youre just willing to go with it, it seems to work even if you don't subscribe to that brand of thinking.
I originally got them in a search for relief from what I thought was wrong with me, but they seem work great for anxiety.
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I'm not insane.. really
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