This article describes the relaxation technique autogenic training, also known as autosuggestion. Originally, Autogenic Training was used in psychotherapy to obtain an improvement in the psychological and physical quality of life. From this point of view, Autogenic Training is also considered as concentrative self-relaxation. The mind and body work together in an attempt to establish calm and relaxation through the techniques of Autogenic Training.
Functional disorders of the body and mind
In Autogenic Training, the mind and body work together to try to establish calm and relaxation through techniques. Like any science, medicine classifies the many diseases into smaller and larger groups. For example, doctors group diseases that are caused by microorganisms, bacteria or viruses and are transmissible as infectious diseases. Another group includes, for example, tumors, another injuries and so on. In contrast to these organic diseases are the so-called functional disorders. The difference compared to the organic diseases is that in the latter the smallest building blocks, the cells, are affected, whereas in the functional ailments the activity, the function, is usually still impaired without any significant change in the cell structure. The cause of the functional disorders lies in a temporarily defectively regulated activity of the individual organs. This regulation is carried out by the nervous system with its control instances and the several hundred kilometers long nerve tracts. The highest regulating instance is the brain. Here, both the stimuli from the outside world through the sensory organs and temperature, pain and position sensations from the body sphere are received, analyzed and converted into suitable impulses. The very fine interaction of the individual organs and organ parts with the environment can be disturbed. This condition manifests itself in phenomena such as insomnia, feelings of anxiety in the chest or heart area, circulatory disturbances and others, possibly also in predominantly psychological complaints, such as fear of blushing, fear of crossing the street, fear in confined spaces, brooding or depressed mood.
Autogenic training as a psychotherapeutic treatment.
These diseases can be treated with psychotherapeutic methods, among others. One of these types of treatment is autogenic training. Based on the knowledge that functional disorders are caused by conflict situations in the central nervous system, it is important to help the nervous system and the whole organism to regain a purposeful regulatory activity. Even in healthy people the power decreases during the day. Through sleep, however, it is completely regenerated again. For a figurative comparison, one can think here of the current drain from a battery and its subsequent recharging, without this comparison correctly reflecting the actual processes. If a person suffers from sleep disorders, the reabtention of his nervous system is only poorly refreshed. However, if a person only occasionally falls asleep badly or wakes up at night, this is no big deal. However, it is different in the case of long-lasting sleep disorders. In many of these cases, autogenic training can help. It serves both to give the exhausted nervous system the rest it lacks and to create a healthy alternation of tense activity and relaxing, restful rest to prevent exhaustion.
How it works
So what is this method based on? It is based on the experience gained during hypnosis. In hypnosis, the doctor puts the patient in a sleep-like state by soothing words. The muscles relax, the arms and legs are felt heavier than usual, the blood circulation is even and increased, which is felt as a pleasant warmth. Since hypnosis is a sleep-like state, one also observes a calmer and slower breathing sequence under its effect. The heart beats more calmly. During sleep, most areas of the brain are at rest. Thus, environmental stimuli no longer penetrate the deep sleeper. Only the vital centers, which serve for the maintenance of the respiration, the cycle, the heart activity, continue to work with “economy flame circuit”.The fact that it is possible to bring about these sleep-like changes in hypnosis by soothing words of the physician is explained by the unity of all life processes of an organism. For explanation two examples:
When we hungrily study the menu in a restaurant, it often happens that saliva increasingly runs in our mouths. The written words excite the same cells in our brain as the food itself, resulting in the increased salivation. The same process can be triggered by pure imagination. When we think very intensely about biting into a lemon, we experience salivation as a result. Intense imagination thus triggers physical phenomena. Whereas in hypnosis the doctor suggests the ideas to the patient, in autogenic training the practitioner is doctor and patient in one person. He himself creates the corresponding ideas, so that they become pictorial for him and he experiences them at the same time. The goal of autogenic training, as already described, is the recovery of the nervous system. The way to achieve this is through physical relaxation. As a treatment method, autogenic training belongs in the hands of an experienced doctor and psychotherapist, who will only use it when a thorough examination has shown that the patient is suitable for it. We would therefore strongly advise against “trying it yourself” without medical guidance and supervision. Doubters of the effectiveness of this method of treatment almost always argue that it can only be an imaginary experience, in which in reality nothing changes in the body. However, exact scientific research has clearly proven that a real physical switch occurs, which can be seen, among other things, in the decrease of muscle action currents. Even more clearly the switching becomes with the warmth experience by the Vorsellung that the right arm and later the whole body are warm, whereby a stronger blood circulation takes place, which can be recognized clearly in the rise of the skin temperature. Because of the important objection, however, another phenomenon should be mentioned, which probably everyone could already observe in himself, the experience of fear. If someone has the feeling of intense fear, the body reacts at the same time with constriction of the blood vessels. The skin becomes pale, the pupils dilate, the hands begin to tremble more or less strongly, the pores secrete increased sweat. If the person succeeds in overcoming the fear, the physical manifestations disappear after a while. On the other hand, if the physical phenomena can be subdued or suppressed, the fear also disappears, or at least it is considerably weakened. The time period in which the autogenic training exercises are learned varies greatly. It depends on the type and duration of the functional disorders that are to be eliminated. Above all, it depends on the individuality of the person and the intensity of the practice. Autogenic training, as the name suggests, is a training. In principle, all functional disorders are suitable for treatment with this method. These include the sleep disorders mentioned at the beginning, cardiac disorders (e.g. cardiac neurosis, psychosomatic cardiac arrhythmias and heart palpitations as well as palpitations), breathing difficulties, headaches, circulatory disorders but also anxiety states (e.g. anxiety disorder, panic attacks) and concentration disorders, as far as they do not need to be treated by other psychotherapeutic or medical procedures. The autogenic training serves not only to eliminate already appeared disturbances, it bends just as well as means of the prophylaxis exhaustion conditions (e.g. Burnout syndrome) before. In addition, it offers healthy people the opportunity to increase their general physical and mental performance through well-dosed relaxation breaks.
