Relax­ation tech­niques against inner restlessness

Var­i­ous relax­ation tech­niques are effec­tive against fears, ten­sion, ner­vous­ness and inner rest­less­ness. Learn the signs and tech­niques to relax your­self in this arti­cle and find the right one for your unique situation.

Lack of bal­ance between ten­sion and relaxation

Fears, ner­vous­ness and stress in every­day life are bur­dens on the body. If they per­sist, there is often no longer a state of dor­man­cy for a long time. The result is con­stant irri­tabil­i­ty, a bad mood and a lack of atten­tion to oth­ers. These symp­toms should be treat­ed at an ear­ly stage before they “chroni­fy”, ie become per­ma­nent. Espe­cial­ly if they dis­turb sleep.

Can­cer can also make you rest­less and inse­cure. Becom­ing aware of liv­ing with a life-threat­en­ing ill­ness is not easy. It can express itself, for exam­ple, through nau­sea, heart pal­pi­ta­tions, short­ness of breath on the body and thus con­tribute to ten­sion. In addi­tion to many phys­i­cal com­plaints, the diag­no­sis also weighs on the soul. Inner rest­less­ness, ner­vous­ness and fear are side effects that many peo­ple with can­cer expe­ri­ence. And it’s not always the fear of can­cer itself that stirs things up. Patients may also be stressed by the accom­pa­ny­ing exam­i­na­tions, ther­a­pies or dis­cus­sions with the doc­tors. Wait­ing for a result or that the treat­ment is final­ly over. And then there is every­day life that needs to be mastered.

Relax­ation is a neur­al process

The parasym­pa­thet­ic ner­vous sys­tem, i.e. the part of the auto­nom­ic ner­vous sys­tem that can­not be direct­ly influ­enced at will, is respon­si­ble for the devel­op­ment and regen­er­a­tion of the tis­sue. It can be acti­vat­ed through relax­ation tech­niques as it pro­motes the body’s func­tions at rest. The antag­o­nist is the sym­pa­thet­ic. This part of the auto­nom­ic ner­vous sys­tem sends per­for­mance-enhanc­ing impuls­es, cre­ates excite­ment, action, the body and soul are alarmed. The aim is to achieve a reg­u­lat­ed bal­ance between the states of relax­ation and ten­sion. But which method suits whom, every­one has to find out for themselves.

Var­i­ous relax­ation meth­ods help against inner restlessness

• Phys­i­cal activ­i­ty is good against ner­vous­ness, inner rest­less­ness and stress. Whether jog­ging, swim­ming or cycling, reg­u­lar exer­cise has a bal­anc­ing effect.
• Pro­gres­sive mus­cle relax­ation helps to stay ten­sion free by con­scious­ly tens­ing and then relax­ing all the mus­cles in the body. When we are stressed, we often invol­un­tar­i­ly tense mus­cles unnec­es­sar­i­ly. This leads to ten­sion and often to pain. It is rec­om­mend­ed to fol­low instruc­tions, for exam­ple from the AOK (link) or Tech­niker Krankenkasse (link).
• Auto­genic train­ing is a form of self-hyp­no­sis that caus­es the phys­i­cal, veg­e­ta­tive func­tions (e.g. blood cir­cu­la­tion, pulse rate, breath­ing) to switch to a state of rest. The aim is to be able to relax holis­ti­cal­ly. Cer­tain phras­es are repeat­ed to bring the entire body into a state of relax­ation. For exam­ple, a sen­tence reads “My breath­ing is calm.” Or “My leg is very heavy.” There are also audio-visu­al instruc­tions for auto­genic train­ing (link).
• Imag­i­na­tion tech­niques: The var­i­ous meth­ods work with inner images (thought or fan­ta­sy jour­neys). Pos­i­tive emo­tions are strength­ened, ten­sion and rest­less­ness recede into the back­ground. There are pro­fes­sion­al instruc­tions for this in apps (Mind­space or 7Mind), for example.

Some­times med­ica­tion helps too

If you have been feel­ing rest­less for a long time and no relax­ation tech­niques help, talk to your doc­tor. Maybe med­ica­tion will help. How­ev­er, to avoid side effects, your indi­vid­ual sit­u­a­tion should be dis­cussed. If, for exam­ple, you are unable to sleep at night due to inner rest­less­ness, a sleep-induc­ing drug can be use­ful. If the focus is more on fears or wor­ries, a calm­ing or anx­i­olyt­ic drug is more suitable.

Con­clu­sion

Have you been feel­ing rest­less and ner­vous late­ly, or are you under­go­ing can­cer treat­ment? Then this is a com­mon side effect that you should take seri­ous­ly from the first sign. Because there are many dif­fer­ent relax­ation meth­ods and med­ica­tions that can help bring your ner­vous sys­tem into balance.

Sources

S3-Leitlin­ie/­Na­tionale Ver­sorgungsLeitlin­ie: Unipo­lare Depres­sion Lang­fas­sung. 2. Auflage 2015, Ver­sion 3, März 2016, AWMF-Reg­is­ter-Nr.: nvl-005

Rup­precht R, Kell­ner M (Hrsg.): Angst­störun­gen. Klinik, Forschung, Ther­a­pie. Stuttgart W. Kohlham­mer Ver­lag, 2012

Apotheken-Umschau, Rubrik “Gesund Leben”