Here are the handouts and other materials for the fifth Autogenic training session.  Start this exercise once you have worked through the first four lessons.  Take your time.  If you have conscientiously worked your way through to this fifth session, you're doing really well.  Congratulations.  Don't feel you have to finish each new exercise in a week.  Take longer if you want to - these are skills that can last a lifetime, so enjoy developing them really thoroughly.  Session five introduces focussing on the breath, extending our ability to apply these skills during other activities, better understanding of emotions, and the use of therapeutic writing.

Here are half a dozen studies that one could loosely put under the broad umbrella of positive psychology.  Zorba the Greek said "Take what you want and pay for it, says God." and Niemiec et al's study, on the effects of achieving different kinds of goal, supports this statement (for all six research studies mentioned in this blog post see below for abstracts and links).  Quoting Niemiec et al's somewhat awkward language: "The relation of aspiration attainment to psychological health was found to differ as a function of the content of the goals. Attainment of the intrinsic aspirations for personal growth, close relationships, community involvement, and physical health related positively to basic psychological need satisfaction and psychological health.

“ Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. ” - George Santayana

Here are materials for the third session of the Autogenic Training classes that I've taught for many years.  Please read the introductory remarks and take time to work through the first and second Autogenic Training exercises before starting on this third Limb Warmth focus.  Once working with the Warmth exercises, use "Autogenics 3a: Warmth, Arms, 13 minutes" for several days before moving on to "Autogenics 3b: Warmth, Arms & Legs, 12 minutes" for a few more days. 

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How many things, both just and unjust, are sanctioned by custom!

” - Terence

I usually encourage people to practise the first Autogenic Limb Heaviness exercises twice daily for at least a week before getting them to consider moving on to this Neck & Shoulders exercise.  There are several important points that I try to get across in this second lesson.  One is that better stress management and life skills are abilities that pretty much everyone would benefit from.  The handout "Psychological & physical difficulties are so common that they are normal" highlights two important facts - "The first is that if you are having difficulties you are not alone - the majority of us have health problems of one kind or another.  The second is that there is a huge need to do something about this situation.  The challenge we face i

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I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.

” - E. B. White

Here are handouts and Autogenic relaxation exercises from the first "lesson" of an eight session Autogenic Training (AT) class.  This first "class" concentrates on relaxation of the voluntary muscles of the arms & legs.  It is probably sensible to stay with this focus for at least a week or two before moving on to the next exercise in the sequence.  Subsequent lessons teach relaxation of several further body systems.  Please read the introductory post on Autogenics before starting any of these exercises.  If you're hoping to learn AT to help with physical or psychological symptoms, it may be sensible to talk to a health professional first to check on diagnosis and other treatment options.  While you're learning these skills, don't practise them if you're driving or operating other dangerous machinery.

“ Fear is the mind-killer ... I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. ” - Bene Gesserit "Litany against Fear" from Dune by Frank Herbert

Here are handouts and Autogenic relaxation exercises from the first "lesson" of an eight session Autogenic Training (AT) class.  This first "class" concentrates on relaxation of the voluntary muscles of the arms & legs.  It is probably sensible to stay with this focus for at least a week or two before moving on to the next exercise in the sequence.  Subsequent lessons teach relaxation of several further body systems.  Please read the introductory post on Autogenics before starting any of these exercises.  If you're hoping to learn AT to help with physical or psychological symptoms, it may be sensible to talk to a health professional first to check on diagnosis and other treatment options.  While you're learning these skills, don't practise them if you're driving or operating other dangerous machinery.