December 4, 2010

December has arrived in New York City; the weather is growing colder and the days shorter. With the upcoming winter holidays fast approaching, keeping your stress level in check may require effort. Reiki can help you relax, and SPARK offers free weekly reiki sessions at the Greater Chinatown Community Association. However, if you feel stressed and are unable to get away from home or work, taking 10-20 minutes once per day to relax on your own could yield considerable benefits.

Studies in the late 1960’s at Harvard Medical School by Herbert Benson, M.D., showed a physical state of deep rest that counteracted the body’s stress response. The results of the relaxed state were changes to the stress response such as decreased heart rate, blood pressure, rate of breathing, and muscle tension. Dr. Benson termed the state “the Relaxation Response” and noted in his research that this response can be elicited by a variety of meditative techniques, such as diaphragmatic breathing, repetitive prayer, chi gong, tai chi, yoga, progressive muscle relaxation, jogging, and even knitting.

Today, Dr. Benson is Director Emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind-Body Medicine at Harvard’s Massachusetts General Hospital. A joint study released in 2008 between the Benson-Henry Institute and the Genomics Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center showed that practicing relaxation could change the activation patterns of genes associated with the body’s response to stress. In other words, taking the time to relax can impact your genetics by shifting how certain genes, inflammation for example, are activated or suppressed. Jeffery Dusek, PhD, co-lead author of the study noted, “Changes in the activation of these same genes have previously been seen in conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder; but the relaxation-response-associated changes were the opposite of stress-associated changes and were much more pronounced in the long-term practitioners.”

As for your daily stress, on the Massachusetts General Hospital’s website, Dr. Benson offers the following steps for achieving the benefits of the Relaxation Response:
1. Sit quietly in a comfortable position and close your eyes
2. Relax all of your muscles, working up from the feet to the muscles in the face
3. Breathe easily and naturally. As you exhale repeat a chosen word, phrase or prayer.
4. Ignore distracting thoughts
5. Continue for 10-20 minutes. Do not set an alarm to stop. When finished, sit quietly for another few minutes.

Dave Gorczynski is president of SPARK, a non-profit organization that has provided free energy work sessions and workshops across New York City since 2002. He writes a regular column about energy work and meditation for the Compact News in New York City's Chinatown. E-mail him at dave@sparkenergy.org.