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Institute of Serenity PMB 875, 713 W. Spruce, Deming, NM
Teaching Relaxation, Rest, and Renewal since 2002
The Rationale of
Autogenic Training
You may wonder why and how sitting or lying quietly and repeating mental phrases silently in a state of passive concentration give you instant relief from stress symptoms and bring about the shift into a deep state of relaxation.
You may have come across the word homeostasis.This Greek termrefers the innate capability of a “system” to maintain balance and stabilization.
We need to understand that our body is a “system” and therewith more than the sum of its parts such as muscles, bones, internal organs, and the brain. In any system, all parts work together according to their specific function. This cooperation has the one major goal: the preservation of the system. With the system collapsing, none of the “parts” would be able to continue existing. Preservation requires stabilization as only a stable system is capable of responding effectively to impacts from the outside and of adjusting to changes.
As a simplified analogy, think of a factory that produces bottle caps and their seals. Some workers cut the metal sheets for the lids, others operate the machines that produce the seal and the aluminum lids, others operate the machines that place the seal into the lids, others sit at the assembly lines and pick out the defective ones, and some ensure that a certain amount of lids is in each shipping box, etc. I think you get the picture. If this “system” does not work because the machines fail or too many workers report sick, the factory gets behind, loses orders and eventually cannot pay the workers. In order to prevent this “collapse” and to maintain homeostasis, regulatory processes set in like working overtime, hiring additional people, or purchasing newer equipment.
Each system has its particular regulation processes that ensure its balanced and stable state. Our body’s regulation processes lie in the cooperation of the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous system, both the branches of the autonomous nervous system (ANS).
The ANS regulates the activity of visceral organs like the heart, the lungs, and the digestive tract.
The sympathetic branch is responsible for the activation of the ANS
The parasympathetic branch inhibits the ANS.
Of course, we need both. Let us have a look for example at our heart: When your blood pressure rises – because you have an important presentation the next day, for example, the arousal level of the pressure sensors of your heart rises due to the complex work of your sympathetic nervous system. Consequently, the parasympathetic nervous system gets to work and causes the decrease of the frequency of your heartbeat.
Can you imagine what would happen to your heart, if elevated pressure would not be counteracted by a decrease in how often it has to beat?
The two branches of the ANS work together without needing our instructions. (Thank God!) They do so on a self-regulatory basis in order to keep the system – our system – balanced and stable for dealing with the inevitable inner and outer disturbances. ‘If homeostasis were perfectly maintained for all physiological functions at all times and there was no other input, then there would be no disease and possibly no death” (Wolfgang Linden).
However, in our relentless stressful lives with the myriad of demands and challenges, the sympathetic branch works overtime and the parasympathetic branch cannot catch up with its counteracting task. Our system loses its innate capability of homeostasis thus exposing itself to exhaustion and complete depletion.
Autogenic Training reduces “autonomous arousal,” i.e. it reduces the input of the sympathetic branch of our ANS for the following reasons:
While practicing Autogenic Training you sit or lie in a comfortable position. Without any of the usual muscular tension, the afferent signals from the peripheral nervous system, i.e. the nerve signals from the muscle cells going up to the brain, are reduced. This is contrary to what happens when we are jogging or playing tennis.
Moreover, the signals from the brain are reduced due to the curtailed mental activity while silently repeating the phrases in a state of passive concentration, i.e., in an accepting and permissive attitude.
Additionally, the attention is directed inward thus decreasing external stimuli.
As mentioned, both branches of the ANS work jointly together to ensure that our body is in a state of homeostasis or balance. The adjustment Autogenic Training enables works in either direction. Consequently, Autogenic Training cannot only bring you from an over-aroused state to a calm and functional level, but also from a dysfunctional low level of autonomic function back to a normal functioning level. However, most practitioners apply Autogenic Training for the first reason, to bring their system from an over-aroused level of sympathetic activity down to a healthier level.
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Okay, that was - admittedly - pretty theoretical. Let's move on to more practical stuff. For which conditions is Autogenic Training helpful?
the sum of its parts such as muscles, bones, internal organs, and the brain. In any system, all parts work together according to their specific function. This cooperation has the one major goal: the preservation of the system. With the system collapsing, none of the “parts” would be able to continue existing. Preservation requires stabilization as only a stable system is capable of responding effectively to impacts from the outside and of adjusting to changes. 
