relaxation response

(noun)

A collective term referring to how meditation induces a host of biochemical and physical changes in the body that include changes in metabolism, heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, and brain chemistry; coined by Dr. Herbert Benson in 1975.

Examples of relaxation response in the following topics:

  • Tools for Managing Situational Anxiety

    • Herbert Benson described a series of physical responses you can use to calm the body down as the fear response ratchets the body up.
    • The key to triggering the relaxation response involves activating the following elements:
    • Deep breathing is one of the keys to activating the relaxation response.
    • Take a few deep breaths to trigger the relaxation response to help calm your nerves before presenting.
    • Use relaxation and warm-up techniques to mitigate the effects of anxiety

  • Appearance: Dress and Posture

    • Considering the effect that dress and posture have on the response to a speech is important for public speaking.
    • Showing the palms of the hands can be a signal of open posture, especially if the hand is relaxed.

  • Tools for Managing Trait Anxiety

    • This process and practice of meditation requires an individual to follow verbal instructions that teach how to relax the entire body, clear the mind, concentrate on breathing, and focus one's awareness and attention.
    • For example, if an individual were having trouble falling asleep, an effective drug-free solution would be to listen to a guided meditation for deep relaxation and sleep.

  • Best Practices in Public Speaking

    • If you feel anxious at the thought of public speaking, trying relaxation exercises such as deep breathing or even meditation may help you clear out negative thoughts.

  • Responsibilities in Group Work

    • When all member assume their expected responsibilities, working in groups can be enjoyable and effective.
    • When participating in group work, every member of the team has a responsibility to the group and the project.
    • That way, members know exactly what they are responsible for.
    • To strive to embody all of these characteristics is the responsibility of all group members, regardless of their assigned role.
    • However, when all group members take on their expected responsibilities, group work can become much more enjoyable and effective.

  • Impromptu Speeches

  • Education

    • A totally uneventful presentation can be relaxing but I kind of like to keep it edgy, learn something from the process.

  • Make Adjustments

    • Observe and process audience responses to further adjust while speaking.
    • If the speaker's computer is also Wi-Fi-enabled, then he or she can display the responses on a screen while speaking and adapt the message accordingly.
    • Cell phones using SMS response systems are another way for the speaker to collect information and adapt during the speech.
    • Cell phone-enabled response systems, such as SMS Response System, are able to take text inputs from the audience and receive multiple responses to questions per SMS.
    • An audience response system for use during a speech.

  • Cultural Differences in Approaching Criticism

    • Is the speaker responsible for conveying a message, or the audience?
    • The affective style is receiver-orientated and places more responsibility on the listener.
    • If you do not understand the material, where does the responsibility lie?
    • However, when posing this question to a group of Chinese students, you may encounter a different sense of responsibility.
    • Each person is viewed as responsible for his or her own success or failure in life.

  • Interview Followup

    • You want to summarize or describe the responses and associate them with the source or group of sources, who were the sample of people who responded.
    • If you used an online synchronous or asynchronous interview method, you will already have a transcript or archive of the content, but will need to reliably summarize the responses to your interview questions.
    • Since you can chat interview with a number of people about your topic, you may eventually want to summarize and analyze the data for patterns in the responses.
    • If you asked closed questions, you can tabulate the frequency of responses in the different categories.
    • However, if you asked more open-ended questions, you will find it useful to code the content of the interviews with some system so that you can group the responses into meaningful categories in order to summarize the results.