Stress Prevention...the Next Step is Yours
As the availability of affordable healthcare continues to be a concern
for many people, preventing health problems before they start becomes
a worthwhile goal. Most of us know the obvious actions to take
to ensure our safety and well-being, e.g., driving with seat belts,
exercising regularly, eating healthy. We know that regular exercise
keeps our hearts healthy and strong, maintains our muscle strength
and helps with balance and coordination. What many people don't
know is that a program to maintain optimal functioning of your
body and mind should also include regular relaxation practice.
Regular relaxation can help prevent illness by addressing areas
that physical exercise misses giving the negative affects of stress a chance to take hold.
Focused relaxation training can reverse the negative effects of stress
and more importantly, it can also help prevent those negative effects.
Relaxation not only returns the body to it's optimal level of functioning
but promotes many positive physiological changes which occur during
relaxation. Some of these effects result in less muscle tension,
help in normalizing blood pressure, decrease chronic headaches,
slower heart rate and improved digestion.
Imagine the benefits to your well-being by combining regular relaxation
training and exercise. This is exactly what many oriental disciplines
have done. Disciplines such as Yoga and T'ai Chi are famous for
combining relaxation and exercise and their health benefits are
widely known. T'ai Chi has been shown to improve balance and coordination
in the elderly. Qigong (related to Acupuncture), a Chinese discipline
combining breathing and movement, has been used in China for centuries
to treat and prevent many forms of severe physical illness, including cancer
and heart disease. Qigong is an aspect of T'ai Chi that makes it
so useful for maintaining and promoting the physical and mental well-being
of it's practitioners.
As healthcare professionals and practitioners of T'ai Chi, our work has
been centered around making the information we have acquired available
to people who are interested in living well. Many chronic disorders
people suffer from can be eliminated with the educational classes
and biofeedback products we have made available on LifeMatters.
Consider obtaining more information by reading the T'ai
Chi, T'ai
Chi and Recovery from Stress and How
to Find a T'ai Chi Teacher articles.
While our
discipline and knowledge is of T'ai Chi, we have great respect
for and encourage the practice of meditation in any of it's
many forms. There are very good meditation practices associated
with every religious and spiritual tradition. But even if
you do not practice these disciplines you can learn deep relaxation
with guidance and practice. Regular relaxation practice can
be learned and enhanced with biofeedback instruments such
as the Resperate,
emWave PC , Healing Rhythms, emWave
portable stress reliever, StressEraser
and GSR2's
which promote general relaxation and provide stress relief throughout the entire body.
Even children can be adversely affected by stress. Sometimes parents misinterpret stress related behaviors for misbehavior. There is a great program to help parents deal with stress in children called Kiddie QR that can help you identify the
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