Self-Help Techniques

This term refers to techniques such as meditation, imagery, relaxation and breath work, which you can learn and use to help manage stress, anxiety, physical symptoms, emotional states and enhance your feelings of wellbeing.

Breath work

Breath plays a key role in both stress and the relaxation response and affects both our physical body and our emotions. By bringing awareness to the breath, learning simple exercises to take better quality breaths and using
different breathing techniques you can help to manage symptoms and bring the body back in to balance.

Imagery

Imagery is a technique whereby the imagination is used to promote relaxation and healing, alleviate symptoms and/or create changes in a person's life. It is considered to help us form a bridge between our inner and outer worlds, our conscious minds and our unconscious minds. Imagery is also the term used to refer to re-creating a past experience in the mind. Images are thoughts that draw on all the senses - sound, taste, movement, vision, smell and touch.

Imagery can be used for relaxation, enhancing health and accessing inner wisdom. It has been shown in research studies to be useful for relieving anxiety and reducing pain. It can also improve the functioning of the immune system - our body's natural defence system.

Meditation

Meditation is a general term that refers to a wide variety of techniques for calming and slowing down the stream of thoughts or 'chatter', so as to still the mind. It not only conveys some of the same benefits as relaxation but can also help people develop conscious or spiritual awareness. Most techniques do not require any particular belief system or spiritual orientation.

It has many important effects on the body and it's benefits are now being demonstrated in scientific studies. One recent study showed relaxation therapy and meditation to be superior to antidepressants in helping people with depression. Studies have also shown that meditation helps relieve chronic pain, provide support during times of difficult emotions and can lead to an increased ability to manage stressful situations.

Relaxation

Relaxation is a state of deep rest in which the mind and body slow down and return to point of balance (homeostasis) whereby the systems of the body can function more effectively. Various relaxation techniques can be used to help counteract stress.
Relaxation has been shown to reduce physical tension and pain, improve sleep and the ability to cope with stress.