If there is any secret to the state of “relaxation,” it’s the ability to keep your head when everyone around you is losing theirs. It’s the ability to remain calm, feel secure and safe, regardless of pressures, whether real or imagined.

To put it in layman’s terms, relaxation begins with “calm nerves.” Most people seeing doctors because of heart anomalies, such as palpitations, irregular beats and racing pulses, are told by their physicians, “it’s your nerves, you must learn how to relax.”
Nerves are part of the chain reaction with which the balanced chemistry of our bodies affects our powers of relaxation. These are broken down into three basic nerve systems.

The first, the Central Nervous System, controlled by your conscious, tells you to eat when hungry, cover up when cold and when to laugh when something’s funny. The second, the Peripheral Nerve System, deals solely with all of the senses. And third, the one concerned with bodily functions and processes that determine degrees of relaxation—the Autonomic Nervous System.

The Autonomic deals mostly with the automatic functions, the ones that just seem to occur by themselves, for instance: breathing, heart beats, digestion, metabolism, perspiration and many other secretions of the body’s organs and glands. Though these are not controlled by any conscious effort of our own—they are very much influenced by our emotions.

Tension, fear, worry, upset, anger, depression, or any number of other emotions change your body function, and your autonomic nervous system reacts to influence the condition of your body. The inability to relax allows for negative emotions to take charge. They tend to have negative effects on autonomic functions and can lead to readily observable conditions, such as tacycardia, indigestion, constipation, tension headaches, tremors and a host of other problems.

Negative emotions also cause changes inside that aren’t so apparent, but may be even more disastrous because they are not as easy for physicians to diagnose. Over periods of time, along with the stresses of aging and the accumulation of toxins from the air we breathe and the foods we eat—these negative emotions can eventually lead to diseases and illness.           .

With just these surprisingly simple mental and physical exercises, you can develop your ability to relax. (1) While standing, allow yourself to wilt like a daisy. Let your arms droop, relax your posture, and let your body flop into a sitting position in a soft chair. (2) Release the tension in your tummy. Make yourself aware that you have been keeping the muscles in your tummy in a tightened condition and make a conscious effort to release them. (3) Start at your toes, and relax every muscle you come across as you mentally travel up your body until you reach your face and scalp.

Learn how to forget things. Things from the past, concerning blames, shames and regrets keep you from being relaxed mentally. Once you let them go, peace of mind in a new world of tranquility will open up to you.