Today's lifestyles are often filled with stressful situations. In the morning we try to get to work on time and many of us get stuck in traffic and end up rushing through the doors to make it. An average workday is stressful, which in fact is a good thing since a little pressure keeps us motivated. However, the pressure can last for the whole 8-10 hours period without sufficient time or an effective method to relax. Smoking a cigarette or going for a short walk can break the cycle of stress, but we all feel that the stress tends to return quickly.
The stress continues throughout the day
At the end of the workday, we feel tired, but we still need to get home, which means repeating the morning commute and fighting the same traffic. But at home, we do not usually get a chance to rest, since we need to pick up kids or tidy up our apartment. By the time we are finished with our daily obligations, it is time to go to sleep and we feel tired and exhausted. Some go to bed while others stay up late in order to have at least an hour or two just for themselves. Luckily sleep breaks the stress cycle if we sleep for at least 7 hours.
The stress cycle
The next morning we repeat the same routine and we feel tired and exhausted and stress is present again at least until the weekend. So what is wrong here? The problem is our bodies were not built for this type of stress. We were built to manage extremely stressful situations, which last for several minutes at most. When the danger back in nature was eliminated (running from a predator) our bodies' equilibrium returned to a baseline in a matter of several minutes.
The normal stress we experience today is much lower, but constant throughout the day and can last for 16 hours until we finally go to bed. This can last for the whole week, the whole month, and the whole year for 40 years until we get to our retirement. All this time we did not break the stress cycle properly and this can quickly lead to health complications.
Stress affects our health
Stress weakens our immune system and leaves us susceptible to many health complications which can be as innocent as a cold or as serious as cancer. Symptoms of stress resemble symptoms of anxiety or depression and stress can in fact cause these disorders. Stress can cause hypertension and problems with cholesterol, which together can cause cardiovascular complications. Stress makes us edgy and can also affect our relationships with our partners, our coworkers, and everybody around us. Stress in fact worsens almost every medical problem and therefore the need for relaxation is evident.
Not everybody shares the lifestyle described above, but everybody has experienced excess stress, and most people do not manage stress as they should. The problem is we actually do not experience true relaxation if we do not use relaxation methods or do sports. The nature of today's stress calls for deep relaxation because we have constant stress day in and day out and watching TV or lying down do not relax us in the way that we need. So why take an autogenic training course? The answer is simple: our lifestyle demands it.