Relaxation: the first step to reliefHave you ever sat in a dentist's chair, waiting for the drill to descend, and been told, 'Just relax!'? Or been in a doctor's surgery waiting for an injection or an examination you knew was going to be painful, and been told, 'Just relax!' It sounds so simple 'Just relax'. And it's the one thing you can't do, just like that, especially when you're tense or anxious or worried. It takes a lot of practice. The exasperating thing is that it's such good advice. If you can relax, you won't feel so much pain. Fear makes you tense; tension makes a pain worse; and the worse the pain, the more you are afraid. It's a vicious circle, as you know if you have suffered from it already. So let's start breaking it. Preparations-It's easier to learn how to relax if you have someone to help you. A fellow sufferer is probably the best because you can help one another. It needs to be someone with patience and the time to spare to check you through each stage until the whole thing has become almost second nature to you. But don't give up if you can't find a helper, or if you live alone and friends and family are far away. It's perfectly possible to teach yourself how to relax, as you'll see. It just takes a little bit longer if you're on your own—you have to check on yourself instead of having a friend do it. That necessitates stopping and often means having to go right back to the very beginning: for example, when rearranging cushions, because in getting up to move the cushions you will have tensed your muscles again. A large mirror helps, too, so you can check on your hands and your face, for example. You'll learn to relax quicker with a friend—and it's more fun, too—so I've written the chapter with instructions for two people, but I have also included throughout how you can expect to feel as you progressively relax and these are the clues to follow if you're learning on your own. The best time to start is immediately you have finished a period. This way you should be quite well prepared for the next one, although I ought to warn you at the outset that it often takes two or three months to learn all you need to know about your body and how to get it to relax. Allow yourself at least an hour and wear comfortable clothes. An old bra or no bra at all, rather than a tight one. An old pair of jeans or trousers rather than a pair of skin-tight pants. No girdle or other restricting article of any kind! You need to be warm and easy in whatever you are wearing. If you wear pins or combs or elastic bands in your hair, take them out before you begin. And if you wear jewellery that is knobbly or chunky, remove that too. *6\177\2* Pain Relief/Muscle Relaxers «Buy Lipitor» |