The CBT4T Online Programme
- CBT4T Online with ONE appointment - £190 or 3 x £65
- CBT4T Online with TWO appointments - £285 or 3 x £95
- CBT4T Online with THREE appointments - £380 or 3 x £130
Physiological Relaxation
Here is a recording of a physiological relaxation exercise.
Sometimes, when we have been stressed over a long time period, tension throughout the body has become "normal". It can be difficult to recognise feeling relaxed at all! By using physiological relaxation - tensing and relaxing alternately - helps to release physical tension and begin to recognise the difference between "normal" (tense) and relaxed:
Once you know the process and pace, you won't need the recording. Recommendation: Use the exercise 2-3 times each day alongside 2-3 of the 6 daily breathing exercises, perhaps with some relaxing music of your own playing in the background or, play sea waves sounds in YouTube
There are many relaxation apps readily available and free. After 2-3 weeks of using the breathing exercise and physiological relaxation, add to them by finding a couple of longer relaxation - or meditation* - exercises that you like and use them at intervals during each week.
*Meditation is NOT THE SAME AS RELAXATION. Meditation involves the PRE-FRONTAL CORTEX (Executive function) and therefore necessitates top>down brain activity. When there is high arousal (high Sympathetic Nervous System activity), top>down brain action is at best only possible at a reduced level, even for previously experienced meditators.
When top>down brain action is impaired, trying to force the prefrontal cortex to work against high arousal as meditation necessitates, the likely outcome is more arousal (stress) in the form of frustration and worse. This is a fundamental reason behind why so many stressed and anxious individuals who attempt to use meditative techniques and exercises give up on them, and as a consequence of such experiences, their assumptions and beliefs are simply that "meditation is too difficult", and even "meditation is a waste of time".
Meditation does not come easy even to a relatively well balanced nervous system!