Relaxation

What is relaxation ?

Relaxation is an important part of taking good care of yourself. It's a common enough word, yet very few of us have had much experience with relaxation. The relaxation mean something different from exercising or just zoning out, different from socializing or pursuing some distraction like TV or a computer game or a book. We need those kinds of things, but they're not what we're talking about here. relaxation is a focused, intentional period of time during which one is mindful and alert, and yet one's muscles are relaxed. It's not necessarily as easy as it might sound. But when you get good at it, it probably restores energy and boosts mood and performance levels better than any of these other activities.

More of our energy is spent in keeping the muscles in continual readiness for work than in the actual useful work done. In order to regulate and balance the work of the body and mind, it is best to learn to economize the energy produced by our body. This may be done by learning to relax.

Methods Of Relaxation

Three methods are used :

• Physical relaxation
• Mental relaxation
• Spiritual relaxation.

Some Relaxation Exercise

• Before you start, do a few gentle stretching exercises to relieve muscular tension.
• Choose a quiet place where you won't be interrupted.
• Make yourself comfortable, either sitting or lying down.
• Don't try to relax, simply let go of the tension in your muscles and allow them to become relaxed.
• Each part of your body, starting with your feet and working your way up to your face and head.
• Stay like this for about 20 minutes, then take some deep breaths and open your eyes, but stay sitting or lying for a few moments before you get up.

Relaxation useful in positive mental imagery

• developing self confidence
• developing pre-competition and competition strategies which teach athletes to cope with new situations before they actually encounter them
• helping the athlete to focus his attention or concentrate on a particular skill he is trying to learn or develop. This can take place both in or away from the training session
• the competition situation