Learn to Relax: Proven Techniques for Reducing Stress, Tension, and Anxiety -And Promoting Peak Performance - Softcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

C. EUGENE WALKER, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and consultant. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Oklahoma Medical School and the author or editor of over twenty books.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

Effective techniques and step–by–step exercises for mental and physical relaxationDr. C. Eugene Walker s relaxation techniques have helped thousands of people find relief from tension and stress. In this updated edition of his bestselling Learn to Relax, Walker explains how creative problem–solving and decision–making can keep you from feeling overwhelmed and improve your ability to cope with everyday worries.

Inside, you ll find specific techniques many of them new that have proven successful in conquering anxiety. Also new to this edition are over 40 stress management exercises to help you better understand the concepts and apply them to your own needs whether your periods of stress are brief and mild or you suffer from more severe, long–lasting bouts of anxiety. Fast, simple, and effective, Learn to Relax lets you beat stress and gain control of your life. Praise for the First Edition: "A very clear and well–written book on anxiety that briefly and authoritatively presents many techniques that can be helpful to almost any reader." Albert Ellis, PhD, bestselling author of How to Make Yourself Happy: And Remarkably Less Disturbable

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

What Is Anxiety?

BECAUSE ANXIETY IS such a simple word and common experience for all people, it may come as a surprise that psychologists do not really know exactly what it is. In fact, some psychologists have argued that the term itself is so vague and so general that it is useless for precise communication. While this may seem like nonsense (psychology is sometimes called "the science of making common sense unintelligible") there are problems in clearly defining what we mean by anxiety.

The reason is that the word is used to cover a large number of situations. For example, you may say to me that you are anxious; this may be a subjective feeling that you are reporting. I may have guessed you were feeling that way, depending on your outward behavior. If I ask further, I may find that your mind seems to be racing and is full of worries, fears, and ideas that keep recurring. You may also experience various physical sensations, but they may not seem to be especially prominent; the anxiety seems to be centered in your head.

A closely related situation that we would also label anxiety is mental blocking. For example, if you are very tense about an exam, you may study diligently and know the material thoroughly before the test. When the test is presented, however, you may find, to your consternation, that your mind is blank; nothing that was studied can be remembered. As soon as the exam hour is over, however, the memory magicall returns. An understanding instructor may allow you to complete the exam, even though the time is up. One way of coping with the mental block is to quit trying for a while. You might get a drink of water, take a short walk, sharpen a pencil, or do something of that sort. Often a person in such a situation is trying too hard. Breaking the mental set lets you get a fresh start and get over the blocking.

On other occasions, you might say that your mind or head is clear, but that you are experiencing physical sensations or problems that you call anxiety. These sensations may include one or more of the following, as well as a host of others: muscular tightness, nausea, stiff neck, general or localized body pain, respiratory problems, rapid or irregular heartbeat, dry mouth, hot flashes, chills, sweating (especially on the hands), excessive urination, diarrhea, loss of appetite, and sleep disturbances.

On the other hand, you might deny subjective feelings of anxiety or worry, have no mental blocking, and also claim that none of the physical symptoms just have no mental blocking, and also claim that none of the physical symptoms just mentioned are present. I might still find that you are anxious, however, if I note such behaviors as changes in normal speech patterns, stuttering, stammering, distinctive facial expressions, tics or twitches, physical awkwardness, making mental errors, or having accidents. When I was a graduate student of psychology at Purdue University, my peers and I lived under a great deal of tension and anxiety about our studies and our futures. All graduate students feel such pressure. A standing joke with us was to walk up to a fellow student and ask if he was anxious. The correct response to this question was to give an exaggerated startle response, then purse the lips and calmly say, "Nope."

If you have one or any combination of the previous signs, you might say that you are anxious, or others might consider you to be anxious. To complicate matters further, at different times in your life, perhaps in response to different situations, you might show different patterns of these signs. We would label them all anxiety. To complicate matters still further, studies of all these components indicate that different people experience different patterns and combinations of the above in the same situation. They would all say, however, that they were anxious. So the word does cover a multitude of experiences, some of which are subjective feelings; some, mental reactions; some, physical reactions; and some, changes in behavior.

Anxiety seems to be everywhere and in everyone. Excessive anxiety is considered to be one of the major symptoms of emotional disturbance, and some have speculated that the nature of humans may be to be chronically, mildly disturbed, at least in civilized society as we know it today. Some biologists and anthropologists argue that this is the case because in our evolutionary history, the survival of the beast known as homo sapiens depended on a combination of physical aggressiveness and mental foresight. This beast, however, now finds itself in a society that permits its powers of foresight to run wild (even feeds and exaggerates them with communications media) but forbids the use of physical force or aggression to solve problems.

The famous physiologist Walter B. Cannon demonstrated that the nervous system of humans prepares them physically for fight or flight in the face of danger. Today, unfortunately, neither of these options is very effective. If we are physically aggressive, we are likely to be arrested. If we attempt to flee our obligations, we will be located and returned to the situation. Thus, homo sapiens may be like cornered animals that experience a chronic state of anxiety and fear in a complex world. In the later chapters of this book, however, we will see that such a pessimistic prospect is not inevitable.