Arthritis Alternatives
	Relaxing for Surgery
Return to Home Page           The Mind     Insomnia Why Mind-Body? Meditation Affirmations Relaxation Quickies Expressing Feelings Power of Thoughts Visualization     Food and Diet     Healthy Foods Foods to Avoid Testing for Allergies Mind-Body Eating Resources     Bodywork and Exercise     Yoga Bodywork StairClimber Rebounding Alexander Technique           About the Author           Surgery	Before your surgery make room in your daily schedule for several relaxation activities a day. Select an activity that is instantly calming so you can stop and relax for a few seconds whenever you feel uneasy. Here is a list of possible relaxation activities that you can do for a minute or less: Pay attention to your breath. When people are anxious they tend to breathe shallowly or hold their breath. The act of watching your breathing without trying to control it, automatically deepens your breathing and relaxes you. As you breathe, select a phrase or image to accompany each inhalation and exhalation. For example: Breathe in peace, or love or a beautiful day. (pick just one) Exhale tension, fear, worry, anger. Rolling your eyes a few times can unlock tension in your face.   Picture the people who have agreed to assist you or send you prayers or good wishes. Think about their expression of love and caring for you and think about your gratitude to these people.   Think of a someone you love unconditionally. A child or a pet are frequent choices. It can be someone you know now, or someone from your past. It can even be a character from literature or the movies or history. When you pick the right person you will notice a feeling of pleasure or love at the thought. As you think of this person, allow your heart to open and feel your love flow out from your heart to this person. The act of feeling your love has many health benefits and it is calming.   Remember a moment in time when you were completely at peace. Remember your physical sensations at that moment: touch, smell, feel, sounds, the colors. The activities listed above you can do for a minute every hour or anytime you feel uneasy. In addition, schedule at least twice a day when you will focus on relaxing for at least 15 minutes. Here is a suggested relaxation activity. Get comfortable. Take some deep relaxing sighs. Go through your body and relax each part. Start with your head and work down to your feet, asking each part in its turn, to relax. Pay attention to your face. Ask the muscles of your face to relax. Then your eyes, your jaw, back of your head, neck, shoulders, left arm, right arm, chest, stomach, back, hips, left leg, right leg. Go through your body as often as is needed to feel relaxed. Next, think of people who have agreed to pray for you or send you healing wishes. Think of this as an expression of their love for you. Feel your gratitude. Next, visualize the desired outcome from this surgery. See yourself healed. Use all of your senses. You are up and about, happy and healthy, enjoying activities that are special to you. Do this exercise at bedtime and one other time during the day. You can relax very well by following these directions. Some people prefer to have this on tape or CD so they can just lean back and let someone else remind them of relaxing thoughts. I recommend the relaxation CD that I made for this purpose. Click here for Relaxation and Healing Tapes and CDs If you like affirmations, the surgery tape and CD begin with the same relaxation messages and then adds affirmations appropriate for surgery. Click here for Relaxation and Healing Tapes and CDs with affirmations for surgery