How to Relax | Bryan Russell | TEDxKeene
Summary
TLDRThis script discusses the impact of stress and the importance of relaxation in our lives. The speaker, a yoga instructor with 12 years of experience, introduces the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, explaining their roles in stress and relaxation. They emphasize the need to actively stimulate relaxation, not just reduce stress, and demonstrate simple breathing techniques to activate the parasympathetic response. The session aims to help participants connect with their inner selves, increase cognitive ability, and find solutions from a calm, connected state.
Takeaways
- π§ Yoga and relaxation techniques are taught to reduce stress and promote well-being.
- π€ The concept of relaxation is more than just the absence of stress; it involves actively increasing relaxation.
- π There are two systems in the body that influence our state of relaxation or stress: the sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous systems.
- πββοΈ The sympathetic nervous system is activated during stress, increasing heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood pressure, while decreasing digestive, immune, and cognitive functions.
- π½οΈ The parasympathetic nervous system is activated when we feel safe and comfortable, promoting a relaxed state and enhancing digestive, immune, and cognitive functions.
- π€ We can influence the autonomic nervous system by choosing activities that either stimulate relaxation or energize us.
- πΆ Music and other activities like warm baths, mindfulness, and yoga can stimulate the relaxation response.
- π¨ Chronic stress is linked to a significant number of doctor's visits, indicating the importance of managing stress for health.
- π¬ Breathing techniques are presented as a simple yet powerful way to stimulate the relaxation response and connect with our deeper selves.
- π Breathing with the belly and extending the exhale can help activate the parasympathetic nervous system and promote relaxation.
- π§ Quieting the mind through relaxation techniques can enhance cognitive abilities and emotional connection, leading to better decision-making and problem-solving.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the speaker's teaching?
-The speaker's main focus is on teaching relaxation techniques, primarily through yoga, to help people manage stress and stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system.
What is the significance of the 200-hour yoga certification course mentioned in the script?
-The 200-hour yoga certification course is a comprehensive program that the speaker uses to teach future yoga teachers the essence of relaxation and stress management techniques.
Why does defining relaxation as the absence of stress limit our ability to relax?
-Defining relaxation as the absence of stress limits our ability because it implies a passive approach rather than actively engaging in activities that increase relaxation, similar to how defining health as the absence of illness limits our understanding of overall well-being.
What are the two systems in the body that are responsible for our stress and relaxation responses?
-The two systems are the sympathetic nervous system, often referred to as 'fight or flight', and the parasympathetic nervous system, often referred to as 'rest and digest' or 'relaxation'.
How does the sympathetic nervous system affect the body during stress?
-The sympathetic nervous system increases heart rate, respiratory rate, and blood pressure, preparing the body for action. It also diverts energy away from digestive, immune, and cognitive functions.
What happens to the body when the parasympathetic nervous system is stimulated?
-When the parasympathetic nervous system is stimulated, the heart rate and blood pressure decrease, while digestive, immune, and cognitive functions increase, promoting a state of relaxation and safety.
Why is it important to be able to stimulate the relaxation response?
-Stimulating the relaxation response is important for maintaining health and well-being, as chronic stress can lead to various health issues, with 75 to 90% of doctor's visits being for stress-related reasons.
What are some activities that can stimulate the relaxation response according to the script?
-Activities that can stimulate the relaxation response include listening to relaxing music, taking a warm bath, mindfulness meditation, journaling, guided imagery, practicing yoga, getting a massage, taking a walk, and drinking herbal tea.
What are the two simple breathing techniques shared by the speaker to stimulate the relaxation response?
-The two breathing techniques are: 1) Breathing with the belly to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, and 2) The extended exhale, where exhaling is done for a longer count than inhaling to further stimulate relaxation.
How does the state of being energized affect cognitive ability and decision-making?
-Being in an energized state decreases cognitive ability and increases primal reactions, leading to reactivity and instinctual survival reactions that can escalate situations and result in regrettable choices.
What is the core teaching of yoga as mentioned in the script?
-The core teaching of yoga is that quieting the mind allows us to act from a place more connected to our heart, enhancing cognitive ability and fostering a state of love, connection, and solution-oriented thinking.
Outlines
π§ Understanding Stress and Relaxation
The speaker introduces the topic of stress and relaxation, highlighting their experience teaching yoga for twelve years, particularly to aspiring yoga teachers. They emphasize the importance of not just reducing stress but actively increasing relaxation. The speaker explains the two opposing systems in the body: the sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous systems, which are responsible for energized and relaxed states, respectively. They point out that while we can't directly control these systems, we can influence them through our activities. The speaker invites the audience to participate in an experiment to feel the shift towards an energized state, illustrating how our choices can stimulate different responses.
πΆ Stimulating the Relaxation Response
This paragraph focuses on methods to stimulate the relaxation response, such as listening to relaxing music, taking warm baths, practicing mindfulness, and engaging in activities like yoga and massage. The speaker then introduces two simple breathing techniques designed to enhance relaxation. The first involves belly breathing, which is said to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting a sense of calm. The audience is guided through this breathing exercise, which involves placing hands on the belly and inhaling to expand it, then exhaling to contract it. The second technique emphasizes an extended exhale over inhale, which is meant to further stimulate the relaxation response. The speaker leads the audience through this exercise, encouraging them to inhale for a count of three and exhale for a count of six, aiming to shift their state towards relaxation.
π§ The Impact of Stress on Cognitive Abilities
The speaker discusses the impact of stress on cognitive abilities and decision-making. They explain that when in an energized state due to stress, the brain's capacity for rational thought is diminished, leading to primal reactions that can exacerbate situations. The speaker contrasts this with the benefits of a relaxed state, where cognitive functions are enhanced, allowing for clearer thinking and more creative problem-solving. They stress the importance of shifting from a sympathetic stress state to a parasympathetic relaxed state to regain cognitive abilities and make better decisions. The speaker concludes by acknowledging the audience's participation in the breathing exercises and the potential for these techniques to help in managing stress and enhancing cognitive clarity.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Stress
π‘Relaxation
π‘Yoga
π‘Autonomic Nervous System
π‘Sympathetic Nervous System
π‘Parasympathetic Nervous System
π‘Breathing Techniques
π‘Energized State
π‘Cognitive Functions
π‘Mindfulness
π‘Reactivity
Highlights
Life is full of stressors, and understanding how to relax is crucial.
The speaker has been teaching yoga for twelve years, focusing on relaxation techniques.
The essence of relaxation is not just the absence of stress, but actively increasing relaxation.
There are two systems in the body: the sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous systems.
The sympathetic nervous system is activated during stress, increasing heart rate and blood pressure.
The parasympathetic nervous system is activated during relaxation, improving digestion, immunity, and cognition.
We can influence our autonomic nervous system by choosing activities that stimulate relaxation or energy.
An experiment is conducted to demonstrate how to stimulate the energized state.
Daily stressors like waking up to an alarm clock or work deadlines can trigger the energized response.
Chronic stress is unhealthy, with 75 to 90% of doctor's visits being stress-related.
Relaxation techniques such as listening to relaxing music can stimulate the relaxation response.
Breathing techniques are introduced as a way to stimulate the relaxation response.
Breathing with the belly, rather than the chest, stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system.
The extended exhale technique is explained, where exhaling is longer than inhaling to stimulate relaxation.
Yoga's core teaching is that quieting the mind allows for more heart connection and increased cognitive ability.
Stress can compromise self-control and lead to instinctual reactions, which can exacerbate problems.
Shifting from a stress state to a relaxed state can help regain cognitive ability and find calm solutions.
Transcripts
life is full of things that create
stress can you think of some things in
your life that create stress come on
raise your hands and this is why I'm
here to talk to things talk to you about
things that create relaxation I've been
teaching people to relax for the past
twelve years through teaching yoga and
most of my teaching is to people
becoming studying to become yoga
teachers as you complete our 200 hour
yoga certification course and what I'm
going to share with you in the next 200
breaths is the essence of what I teach
in the 200 hour course so although it
may seem like the path to relaxation is
by lowering stress I'd like to you to be
open to the possibility that the path to
relaxation is by doing things that
increase relaxation in a similar way
that defining health is the absence of
illness limits our ability to become
healthy or defining happiness is the
absence of sadness limits our ability to
find happiness if we define relaxation
as the absence of stress we limit our
ability to bring relaxation into our
lives there's more to being healthy than
simply not being sick there's more to
being happy than not being sad and
there's more to relaxing and simply
lowering stress so instead of one system
stress system that goes up and down
there's actually two systems that go up
and down in tandem we know these as a
sympathetic nervous system in the
parasympathetic nervous system
sympathetic nervous system often
referred to as fight or flight and this
is other accuser term energized and this
is stimulated when we find ourselves in
a stressful situation when we're moving
towards a energized state our heart rate
goes up respiratory rate goes up and
blood pressure goes up to prepare the
body for acts
perhaps what we're not as familiar with
though is that in order to do this the
body diverts energy away from our
digestive immune and cognitive functions
which all decrease the other system the
parasympathetic nervous system often
referred to as rest or digest
I like these term relaxation and this is
stimulated when we feel safe and
comfortable when we're moving towards a
relaxed state the heart rate goes down
and blood pressure goes down while the
digestive immune and cognitive functions
all increase so we can stimulate this
relaxed state we can stimulate this
energized Inked we can stimulate the
parasympathetic nervous system we can
stimulate the sympathetic nervous system
we're not taught this in school I know I
was not taught this I was taught that
the autonomic nervous system was
autonomous that it could not be
controlled well it may be literally true
we cannot tell our heart rate to go down
cannot tell my heartbeat to go faster
but I can't influence and direct the
autonomic nervous system by choosing
activities that stimulate this
relaxation state or choosing activities
that stimulate this energized state we
do it all the time whether we're aware
of it or not so let's do an experiment
and see if we can stimulate this energy
State
[Music]
can you feel this shift towards an
energized state right so if I'm able to
make a choice and stimulate your
energized response imagine the choices
you can make to stimulate your energized
response what are some other things that
create stress in our life that stimulate
this energized response what are some
things that may keep you up at night or
the other things that create stress in
your life perhaps it's small things like
waking up to an alarm clock or feeling a
sense of rush or urgency as you get
ready and drive to work perhaps it's an
extra project or - or deadline that's
coming perhaps it's some relationship
challenges that you have that are
causing some stress in your life it's
great that we can have this energized
response in the body because otherwise
we'd never get anything done but it's
not healthy to be stimulated all the
time with chronic stress in fact it's
very very unhealthy
statistics show that 75 to 90% of
doctor's visits are for stress-related
reasons so that's 90% of the times that
we go to the doctor because we're in a
stress State were stimulated and would
cause these challenges with our health
so we need some ways to stimulate this
relaxation response and bring relaxation
into our body
[Music]
that's better right relaxing music will
often stimulate this relaxation response
there's many other things that can
stimulate this relaxation response in
the body taking a warm bath mindfulness
meditation journaling guided imagery
practicing yoga getting massage taking a
walk breathing the fresh air
drinking herbal tea hopefully well we
all have a few things in our life that
can stimulate this relaxation response
what I'd like to share with you now are
two simple breathing techniques that
stimulate this relaxation response
I call them breathing techniques but
really they're relaxation techniques how
perhaps we could even call them
connection techniques because they allow
us to connect with the deeper part of
ourselves in those times when we start
to get pulled away from stress by stress
so if you will we could all stand up
we're just going to be up for one or two
minutes breathing maybe 12 breaths
together it's so simple and yet so
powerful of of all the things that I
teach in the 200 hour course this these
two minutes are the most important thing
that I share with people and that's why
I wanted to share with you with you
today so the first thing we're going to
do is breathe with our belly the idea is
when we breathe with our belly it
stimulates this relaxation response it
stimulates the parasympathetic nervous
system when we breathe and we breathe
with our and our chest moves it
stimulates the energized response so we
can bring our hands on our belly one or
both hands just going to take five
breaths we can inhale the belly out and
exhale the billion inhale push the belly
out and exhale the belly in
a couple more times inhale belly ow and
exhale belly in inhale belly ow exhale
belly in one more time on your own
so again when we breathe in our really
moves it stimulates relaxation response
the other way we can stimulate the
relaxation was response with our breath
is by exhaling so every exhale we
stimulate this parasympathetic nervous
system in every inhale we stimulate the
energized response so we're going to do
what I call the extended exhale and
exhale for a longer period of time than
the inhale the same amount of air is
coming in and out otherwise we wouldn't
be able to do it very long but we're
going to exhale more slowly so we're
going to exhale for a longer period of
time so going to inhale for a count of 3
and exhale for a count of 6 so standing
tall heart open shoulders back you can
have the hand on your belly or not
either way can close the eyes if you'd
like I'm just going to inhale 1 2 3 and
exhale 1 2 3 4 5 6
inhale 1 2 3 exhale 1 2 3 4 5 6 inhale 1
2 3 exhale 1 2 3 4 5 6 inhale 1 2 3
exhale 1 2 3 4 5 6 and one more on your
own
just take a moment and check in with
your state are we moving towards a
relaxation state or moving moving
towards an energized state we can all
sit down thank you so much for taking a
moment to share the breath with each of
us today
the core teaching of yoga is that when
we quiet the mind we can act from a
place more connected to our heart not
only are we more connected to the heart
but the cognitive ability of the brain
increases when we're in this quiet state
it's like the mind is not concerned with
the concern of survival and we can see
connections instead of divisions and
solutions instead of problems and love
instead of fear doing this simple
relaxation technique can bring us one
step closer towards quieting the mind
when we find ourselves moving in the
other direction moving towards an
energized state remember it decreases a
cognitive ability and it increases our
primal reactions and in most of our
modern-day stress situations this is
where we get into trouble the part of
the brain responsible for self-control
is compromised our instincts go
unchecked and the rational thought
process nearly ceases we go into a state
of total reactivity where the primal
part of the brain will do just about
anything to change a situation and this
is where I believe we find ourselves at
some of the most important tipping
points in our lives we find ourselves in
challenging situations with the least
support from our brains when we need the
most creative and thoughtful solutions
we actually get the opposite we get our
instinctual survival reactions and these
reactions will often make the situation
even worse I'm sure each of you can
think of some moments in your life when
you were in this state and said things
you did not mean
and made choices you later regretted
it's in these moments when we need a way
to change our state from a sympathetic
stress state to a parasympathetic
relaxed state because when we shift
towards a relaxed state we regain the
cognitive ability of the brain and we
regain the connection to our heart and
instead of escalating the situation we
can de-escalate the situation as we find
solutions from a place of calm from a
place of connection thank you
[Applause]
you
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