YOUR BODY ISN'T MADE TO DILL WITH THE STESSES

Articles In This Section:

· GETTING RELAXED WITH YOGA

· YOUR BODY ISN'T MADE TO DILL WITH THE STESSES

· OBSERVING DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MAN AND BEAST

· YOU AND TENSION

· BEST YOGA POSITION FOR DEEP RELAXATION

· MASTERING THE BASICS OF YOGA

· yOUR BODY KNOWING WHAT YOU CAN HANDLE

Unlike modern machinery, the human body was never made to cope with the stresses and strains of our civilization, with the tempo at which we live. From the moment an alarm wakes us in the morning, we begin a race with time. In order to get to work, we cover miles by car, train, bus or subway. We grab lunch in a hurry. All day long we are up against noise and pressure. And evenings are not much better, what with radio, TV, the telephone, do-it-yourself chores around the house. Moreover, the whole world around us has shrunk and is moving at an infinitely faster pace in this atomic age when planes and rockets have linked the continents and space travel is the reality of tomorrow.

At the same time an alarming barrage of illnesses termed psychogenic and psychosomatic—that is, originating in the psyche or mind—is bedeviling twentieth-century man. To mention only a few, ulcers and colitis—notorious disturbances of nervous origin and both relatively rare a generation ago— are becoming more and more frequent. Heart disease is taking an ever heavier toll of relatively young people, especially those working at high-power jobs and living on their nerves.

This is by no means coincidental. There is a direct correlation between the ills of our world and the ills of our body. Even those of us who have little taste for living at breakneck speed cannot completely escape the effects of the speed-up, for no man is an island and the bell tolls for all of us. So we fall heir to the minor ills of the age—nervous fatigue, nervous indigestion, sleep that leaves us un-refreshed, strain, irritability—all of them fertile soil for trouble later on. Yet the doctors, who understand so well where all this may lead and who can explain in principle the dangers of tensions, can suggest no better remedy than for you to "change your ways." How you are to accomplish this is, to use the popular phrase, your own problem.

Before we go on to a discussion of the actual techniques of Deep Relaxation, let us consider for a moment what relaxation is not. In the first place, it is not play. Nor is it a change of pace or of occupation. Play and change are fine, of course. They do help, they are a step in the right direction. But they are not the real thing.

Thus the tired businessman out for a day of golf, the home gardener, the knitter, the Sunday painter, are all people who indulge in pleasant hobbies in order to get away from other routines, but they are merely substituting one form of activity for another. The same holds true for the avid reader, the Hi- Fi enthusiast, the TV fan. Each finds a degree of respite in doing what he enjoys, but each remains occupied. The mind keeps ticking away, the muscles remain at work. Even listening to music with the eyes closed requires a certain expenditure of energy! Very definitely, recreation cannot be considered true, complete relaxation.