MetroMeditation.Org
How to Release Stress and Rejuvenate on the Metro

You are already riding the Metro. How can you best use this time?

You can practice one of the popular stress release management techniques. You have a choice of a variety of techniques, many of them free. Many people would like to meditate, but can't find the time. The Metro ride provides a perfect opportunity.

One of the easiest to learn is Dr. Herbert Benson's Relaxation Response. He trains medical professionals how to teach the Relaxation Response to their patients, at his seminar at the Harvard Medical School Department of Continuing Education. Dr. Benson was the first to publish a study in a scientific journal on Transcendental Meditation, and is one of the most cited scientists in the medical profession. He isolate the major steps so that it can be learned for free, from a book or web site. The Relaxation Response is an automatic biological process we all have the ability to utilize, and the physiological opposite of the Fight or Flight Response. RelaxationResponse.org

Transcendental Stress Management, another inexpensive variation of TM, has been found so valuable that over 10 judges in St. Louis, including the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri, require it as a condition of release for many that come before them. It has cut down recidivism and drug abuse more than any other rehabilitation program they have tried. EnlightenedSentencing.org

Transcendental Meditation
Meditator

The most important thing an employee can bring to work in the morning is a relaxed and clear mind. Employees who arrive tired and stressed from driving in the traffic, make costly mistakes on the job. Coffee may only make them more jittery, causing more mistakes. But those who arrive refreshed do their work peacefully, efficiently, and productively.

DC is a stressful city. Metro is already doing much to prevent the stress of driving to work. Here's a way to do even more.

Dr. Herbert Benson's Steps to Elicit the Relaxation Response, as he teaches medical professionals at his Harvard Medical School seminars.

1. Sit quietly in a comfortable position.

2. Close your eyes.

3. Deeply relax all your muscles,
beginning at your feet and progressing up to your face.
Keep them relaxed.

4. Breathe through your nose.
Become aware of your breathing.
As you breathe out, say the word, "one"*,
silently to yourself. For example,
breathe in ... out, "one",- in .. out, "one", etc.
Breathe easily and naturally.

5. Continue for 10 to 20 minutes.
You may open your eyes to check the time, but do not use an alarm.
When you finish, sit quietly for several minutes,
at first with your eyes closed and later with your eyes opened.
Do not stand up for a few minutes.

6. Do not worry about whether you are successful
in achieving a deep level of relaxation.
Maintain a passive attitude and permit relaxation to occur at its own pace.
When distracting thoughts occur,
try to ignore them by not dwelling upon them
and return to repeating "one."

With practice, the response should come with little effort.
Practice the technique once or twice daily,
but not within two hours after any meal,
since the digestive processes seem to interfere with
the elicitation of the Relaxation Response.

* or any soothing, mellifluous sound, preferably with no meaning.
or association, to avoid stimulation of unnecessary thoughts

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