Critical For Wellness: Prolonged Physiologic Relaxation

Your body needs recovery and rejuvenation time but cannot truly engage in this without deep relaxation. Here's why that is so important.

In our modern world, we have gotten so accustomed to our constantly plugged in, constantly on-the-move lifestyle that our bodies are living in a state of chronic stress. This has become so commonplace that most of the time we have intellectually acclimated to this as normal. In this state, when people say they feel "normal", if you actually measure various body indicators of stress for them (such as blood pressure and heart rate variability), it becomes clear that their body is reacting as though they are stressed.

Our bodies are engaging the sympathetic arm of the autonomic nervous system (often referred to as the fight-flight-freeze response or stress response) over which we have no conscious control. From an evolutionary perspective, a little bit of stress over the short-term can be productive and even beneficial at times. It increases blood flow to the brain and can often help us perform short-term tasks better. However, modern stress tends to be more pervasive, persistent and insidious because it stems primarily from psychological rather than physical threats and thereby often becomes unrelenting, leaving our bodies in an almost constant state of stress.

According to the American Institute of Stress, psychological stress is linked to the 6 leading causes of death (heart disease, accidents, cancer, liver disease, lung disease and suicide). It has also been shown that stress is associated with a greater risk for depression and infectious disease. According to the World Health Organization, stress is considered to be America’s number one health problem. Research has provided a potential mechanism of action here, specifically that chronic psychological stress is associated with the body losing its ability to regulate the inflammatory response with, in turn, can promote disease development and progression (1).

When the body is in the throes of the stress response, there are little to no available resources for the body to use for repair and rejuvenation. However, the relaxation response is the counterbalance to the stress response and therefore can be leveraged therapeutically. Research has shown that the relaxation response can have many physiological effects including lowering blood pressure, improving heart rate, improving breathing and therefore tissue oxygenation, and improvement in brain wave coherence, among other measures (2). The scientific literature suggests that the mechanism of action behind the relaxation response may rely on the enhanced expression of genes associated with energy metabolism, mitochondrial function, insulin secretion and telomere maintenance while reducing the expression of genes linked to inflammatory response and stress-related pathways (3-6).

When designing the experience at the Wellness Journey Club, these data were carefully considered. Taking these data into consideration, every aspect of the Club shares the foundation of inducing the relaxation response. It should be noted that creating a relaxing environment to enhance wellness is not a new concept: many resorts and spas have taken this approach with their design. However, The Wellness Journey Club does this in a new and innovative way by expanding this concept to a broader setting and at multiple levels. This includes the physical environment, the way interactions are managed and everything in between. By way of example, you may be able to relate to a time where you went to a spa for a massage and once you got on the table, you were still in such a strong stress response that your mind kept racing and pressuring you to relax by saying things like “OK relax! Now’s the time to relax! Why aren’t you relaxed yet? Relax!” Finally, more than halfway through the massage, you were finally feeling fully relaxed but, by then, it was time to leave and go right back into the loud, bustling world around you full of stressors.

Now consider this same situation here: since the Club is an comprehensive environment, there are many areas that are calming by design and this allows the guest to stay in a state of relaxation for a more prolonged period. After a massage, for example, you could decide to spend some time in the Sound Spa to relax further using specific tones to gently guide the body into physiologic relaxation, or perhaps you would decide to spend some time basking in the serenity of the Nature Sanctuary, or even head over to the zen-like environment of the Japanese tea house for relaxation over a hot cup of tea. If you time it right, you could even go to one of the Club’s daily, in-house events geared to quiet moments (for example an engaging, guided visualization event or an interactive breathing event). Overall, the Club design enables a longer period of rest and relaxation and allows guests to stay longer on the premises to partake in other products or services, if they would like.

We Are Here To Support You

The Wellness Journey Club is here to help you navigate through your questions about complementary and alternative options. We have created a new wellness model integrating the best parts of many modalities. Our goal is to make alternative options and complementary options accessible to everyone in an educated, fun way.

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References

1. Cohen S, Janicki-Deverts D, Doyle WJ, et al. Chronic stress, glucocorticoid receptor resistance, inflammation, and disease risk. PNAS. 2012 April; 109 (16) 5995-5999. doi: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1118355109

2. Bhasin MK, Dusek JA, Chang BH, et al. Relaxation response induces temporal transcriptome changes in energy metabolism, insulin secretion and inflammatory pathways. PLoS ONE. 2013; 8(5): e62817. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=doi%3A10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0062817

3. Epel ES, Blackburn EH, Lin J, et al. Accelerated telomere shortening in response to life stress. Proc Natl Acad Sci U.S.A. 2004; 101: 17312—17315. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15574496

4. Epel, ES. Telomeres in a life-span perspective: a new ‘‘psychobiomarker’’? Curr Dir Psychol Sci. 2009; 18 (1): 6—10. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01596.x

5. Jacobs TL, Epel ES, Lin J, et al. Intensive meditation training, immune cell telomerase activity, and psychological mediators. Psychoneuroendoc. 2011; 36: 664-681. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=10.1016%2Fj.psyneuen.2010.09.010

6. Ornish E, Lin J, Daubenmier J, et al. Increased telomerase activity and comprehensive lifestyle changes. Lancet Oncol. 2008; 9: 1048—1057. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18799354