Relaxation (psychology)

In psychology, relaxation is the emotional state of low tension, in which there is an absence of arousal, particularly from negative sources such as anger, anxiety, or fear.

Relaxation is a form of mild ecstasy coming from the frontal lobe of the brain in which the backward cortex sends signals to the frontal cortex via a mild sedative.^{[citation needed]} Relaxation can be achieved through meditation, autogenics, breathing exercises, progressive muscle relaxation and other means.

Relaxation helps improve coping with stress. Stress is the leading cause of mental and physical problems,^{[citation needed]} therefore feeling relaxed is often beneficial for a person's health. When a person is highly stressed, the sympathetic nervous system is activated because one is in a fight-or-flight response mode; over time, this could have negative effects on a human body.

The idea of relaxation in psychology was popularized by Dr. Edmund Jacobson in his published book Progressive Relaxation (1929). It was a technical book intended for doctors and scientists. His book describes tensing and relaxing specific muscles at a time to achieve overall relaxation in the body. Jacobson then published another book called You Must Relax published in 1934 that was geared towards the general public. According to Jacobson, his research started in 1908 at Harvard University, and later moving on to Cornell and University of Chicago. His research was aimed at improving the general human well-being.^{[citation needed]}

In 1932, Johannes Schultz and Wolfgang Luthe developed a method of relaxation that emphasized using the power of suggestion, called autogenic training.^{[citation needed]}

In 1975, Herbert Benson and Mirium Z. Klipper published a book called The Relaxation Response, which gives instructions on tying meditation techniques into daily activities the average person could do.

Although stress levels vary across society, the fact remains that stress can be detrimental to one's health. In order to combat this stress, there have been a variety of methods developed that have been proven to reduce stress and its consequences in everyday life. The majority of techniques can be classified into either physical, mental or therapeutic techniques.

Breathing techniques are one of the easiest ways to reduce stress. They require little effort and can be done anywhere at any time. Proper breathing techniques that incorporate deep abdominal breathing have been shown to reduce the physical symptoms of depression, anxiety and hypertension as well as everyday emotional symptoms of anger and nervousness. A study found cyclic sighing to be effective in reducing anxiety, negative mood and stress, and more so than equivalent-duration mindfulness meditation. These 5-min breathwork exercises consist of deep breaths followed by extended, relatively longer exhales.