[Music]
[Narrator:] After the day's work and worries are done, what is more fun for a man than to come
home to a quiet house with happy children and a loving spouse?
[Child's voice:] "Gimme my book, it's my book!
[Child 2's voice:] But I just want to see something.
[Child's voice:] But it's my book!
Crybaby, crybaby! It's my book anyway.
[Woman:] Quiet, both of you. We'll discuss it in the morning. Good night.
[Child 2:] Good night mother, good night father. [Door slams]
[Narrator:] Some attempts at relaxing prove quite taxing. No joking, the effort may be most provoking.
[Music]
[Woman:] Now, you just drink this and you'll be fast asleep in no time.
[Music]
[Door slams]
Darling, are you all right? You weren't supposed to gulp it, just sip it.
After all, how can a drink relax you if it isn't nice and warm?
[Door opens and shuts]
[Man:] Relax? Impossible!
[Woman:] Trouble is, you've been reading the wrong book.
You know, I was as tense as you before I learned to relax.
Now let me see...here's what you need. "How to Relax." Just start reading it. See if it doesn't make you feel better.
[Music]
[Narrator:] Some people find relaxing very taxing. Forever in a hurry, all they do is worry worry worry.
[Music]
Are you tense, anxious, worried, always tired but can't fall asleep?
Are you afraid you're losing your grip? You may not know it but that's good. Yes, good. Because this book can help you.
Yes it can. No matter who you are you'll feel better and live better when you learn to relax
You can start right now by thinking of some of the things that make you tense. Go ahead, think.
Without much trouble any of us can mention dozens of things that fill us with tension.
[Wind, train whistle, clanking sounds, phone ringing]
[Squeaky staccato voice on phone line, words unintelligible]
[Narrator:] Although the feverish male is sure nobody else
can have his troubles, we know his wife doesn't pass her days just blowing bubbles.
[Phone rings]
[Children:] I'll get it, I'll get it.
[Music]
[Narrator:] Chapter 1, Understanding your Tensions. To understand how tension affects you,
make believe a mosquito is buzzing around the back of your hand. Hear it, see it, right there over your knuckles.
Now get ready to swat that mosquito as soon as it lights. Go on, get set, raise your hand...
Slowly, not too high, now wait, the buzzing's coming closer. Watch closely, it hasn't lit yet,
but it will and it will sting. Hear it buzz?Are you set to squash it, eager to whack it
to kingdom come? Is your hand quivering, your teeth clenched, your eyes staring, your brow wrinkled?
Don't move. Wait 'til it alights...but suppose it doesn't alight? Suppose it never alights?
Suppose you stayed like this for hours, forever, with only that awful buzz buzz buzzing?
Wouldn't you be worried, anxious, fearful, tense, irritated, exhausted?
There, that's how tension works .
Mentally and physically you're so keyed up you're a wreck, but look, the mosquito's flying away.
It's vanished. Gone forever, you can forget it, you can relax. Now doesn't that feel good?
That's what relaxation does for you, unwinds you from the top of your head to the toes of your feet.
Wouldn't you like to feel this way all the time? Once you discover how to relax your mind and your muscles,
you'll never be plagued by fatigue. You'll just be pleasantly tired. Worries won't give you headaches,
problems won't drive you crazy, you'll fall asleep as easily as when you were you a baby...
[Music]
[Man:] What, huh?
[Woman:] You were fast asleep, darling.
[Man:] Sleep, I can't. I'm wide awake.
[Woman:] Yes you can, here, listen to this.
True relaxation comes from conquering both nervous and physical tensions by calming both mind and muscles. Did you hear that, dear?
[Man:] Sure.
[Woman:] What did I say?
[Man:] Nervous tension comes from the mind, physical tension from the muscles.
[Woman:] Although mind and muscle affect each other, tension begins in the mind, in the way we approach our daily problems at work and at home.
Mental tension starts when a person stews about things, like a pressure cooker. Well, think of that, a pressure cooker.
[Man:] All right, I'm thinking of it! I'm a pressure cooker!
[Woman:] Picture how you increase the pressure on yourself by stewing in worry and fear, anger, and despair.
To get relief you must reduce the pressure, let the world take care of its own worries.,
You'll help yourself most by concentrating on your own affairs.
But when you tackle your problems, remember that mighty few of them will prove so critical that you have to solve them perfectly.
Under such reduced pressures, you'll begin enjoying yourself wherever you are, untroubled by life's daily problems.
Beginning to feel better?
[Man:] Mmmhmm.
[Woman:] And this is only the beginning.
Once you get rid of nervous tension, then relaxing your muscles is a cinch.
Look, whenever you notice any muscles anywhere getting tight and tense, relax them.
Your frown, your lips, your jaw, you can relax no matter where you are.
Here's what I do, and it works.
If I find my hands are as tense as yours, I relax them. I shake my hands from the wrists,
flip them, flop them until they feel as loose as a scarecrow's.
The same thing with my arms and shoulders. Even in the middle of a job, you can ease your tensions
by stopping and rolling your shoulders and neck muscles, like a prizefighter warming up before the bear.
Try it. [Bell clangs.] There's nothing like a good physical workout to relax your muscles and soothe your nerves [Man grunts],
provided you don't overdo it. The important thing is not to go at it too hard.
Just change your pace. Go from standing to sitting. From the activity of a jack in the box
to the limp relaxation of a rag doll. Whenever you feel yourself tensing up, take time to go limp all over...
from the soles to the scalp. Try it now. Curl your toes slightly, then let them loose.
Now tighten the leg muscles, knees, thighs, the stomach muscles...then let them go soft and mushy again and again.
Now the fingers, arms, shoulders, neck. Let your jaw drop, take a slow, deep breath...
No, not with your chest, with your abdomen... there.
Yawn as deeply as you can and stretch wider like a cat.
Chew on air slowly, fully...notice how wonderful you're beginning to feel, like you are floating away into dreams.
[Narrator:] As for everything else, the Greeks had a word for this mental and physical state of bliss.
Ataraxia was the term they chose to use for the opposite of anxiety, fatigue, and blues.
Ataraxia means peace of mind and that, even more than money, is what most of us want to find.
[Music]
[Narrator:] Today, medical science recognizes that some folks aren't helped by relaxing exercises.
In cases of difficult tension and nervous apprehension, doctors are now prescribing an ataraxic medicine.
[Music]
[Narrator:] It makes those who fear they're about to quit feel like they're ready to begin
bidding their darkened spirits goodbye for the calming peace of a cloudless sky.
Of all the states throughout this nation, the happiest by far is the state of relaxation
There will be fewer breakdowns and insomniacs when more of us have learned to be relaxed
We'll be free to relish the joys of life, no longer tense over daily worries and strife.
[Music]
Who was it said that we begin to grow wise when we learn not to chase too hard the things we prize?
No one ever paid too high a price to gain his goal who kept a relaxed mind and an untroubled soul.
[Music]
[Woman:] When your mind and muscles are relaxed,your body pleasantly tired rather than
nervously exhausted, you're not only free of worries, you are no longer troubled by insomnia.
A relaxing bath, a warm drink, and a good dull book are enough to make you
[yawns] turn out the light.
For those of us who succeed in changing our attitudes have learned the secret of mastering our moods.
[Music]