the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

A while back I posted about my experiences with Autogenic Training. This is a related but very much simpler exercise; you can learn it from the brief instructions below. It is not as versatile as AT but doesn't try to be. (AT is a fully general method of harnessing the powers of autosuggestion. The point of the Relaxation Response method is simply to give yourself a brief break from stress by side-tracking the everyday patterns of thought.) I found this interesting so I thought I would pass it along. Some might find it a useful adjunct to martial arts training.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBCsFuoFRp8

I took his Mind Body curriculum in Boston about 15 years ago and I was was actually surprised , initially, of his acceptance of other methods of intervention for chronic illness as opposed to the usual
"drug them up' until they feel better" mantra. The others who came behind him (Jon Zabat=Zinn) with similar methods of rational ways of integrating the mind body continuum have done a great service to affirm the mental sphere of illness or even the patterns (usually abnormal) in how we express those habitual patterns. Even Dear Ornish, with his dietary interventions protocol. with yoga, showed how simple changes have the potential to pave the way for better health and diminish the use of medications.

I agree with Benson, and views similar to his are also widespread in the AT community. Doctors today are too quick to try to nuke a problem with big doses of drugs, or carve someone up when support and noninvasive healing strategies might work.

Anyway, one of the more useful things you can do for your health is to get your stress level down, and Benson's method for that is notably simple and clear. Where AT takes, typically, six to eight weeks to learn the basics, because there are a whole lot of basics, as we see you can start practicing the Relaxation Response the day you first hear of it.

I seem to recall Benson was in China in the 70's and had studied TM. He was aware of Qigong and Acupuncture but, being a Harvard[?] professor could not advocate them, TCM was like kryptonite to the medical profession, so he put together a relaxation technique

Even today, science-based Western methods are more palatable to many in the Western medical community, even though now there are some empirical studies of the effects of taiji, qigong, yoga, TM and so on. So Progressive Relaxation, Clinically Standardized Meditation, Autogenic Training and the Relaxation Response are cooler than the Eastern stuff, at least among doctors who think it isn't all nonsense. Some, doubtless, still feel that the only proper way to relax a patient is to give him pills.

What makes the Western methods science-based is the way in which they are explained. The techniques themselves are often knockoffs of Asian practices.

klonk wrote:What makes the Western methods science-based is the way in which they are explained. The techniques themselves are often knockoffs of Asian practices.

I wouldn't say that but what we know as Western Anatomy did not exist so the imprecise terminology of what is qigong/taijiquan/etc comes off as vague and "insubstantial" and even bullshir to the uninitiated observer so it is poo poed as being silly and useless