It is widely acknowledged that meditation is the most powerful stress relief tool available today. However not all meditation techniques are made equal.

How Osho Active Meditations are different
Osho Active Meditation is a modern and revolutionary approach to meditation which tackles stress in a different way. Contrary to all the other meditation techniques, Osho Active Meditation does not work by aiming to induce directly a state of relaxation: the approach is to lead you to relaxation as a consequence of extreme tension. This process mimics the natural biological and physiological human mechanism. It is based on a profound scientific understanding of how the human body/mind system has evolved to function in response to environmental stimuli. Meditation techniques which attempt to induce relaxation directly fail to play according to human physiology.

Stress is not your enemy
Stress per se is not the problem; it is not the vilified devil to avoid at all costs. Stress is a wonderful mechanism evolved to protect us and empower us to face challenging circumstances. There would be no life and no growth without adaptation to an ever changing environment. Life is a perpetual search for equilibrium amidst the constant homeostasis’ disruption in response to the environment.

Modern stress is psychological stress
The problem we face today is the impossibility to act upon the stress-response. The vast majority of modern stress is psychological stress. However, the body does not know the difference between a real threat (a tiger attack) and a fake threat (worry about a job interview). The hormonal cascade initiated by stress is exactly the same. But there is a fundamental difference: whilst in the first instance the body prepares for action and acts on it; in the second situation all that chemicals released in the body have no chance of expression. These chemicals turn into toxins and are stored within the muscles and tissues with deleterious health consequences. In our modern world we are not allowed to express emotions and without an outlet, the neuro-chemical-endocrine mechanism turns into a deadly poison for our system.

The new strategy to address modern stress
What we need today is not trying to suppress the stress response. Rather we need to purify the body from accumulated toxins caused by unexpressed emotions and physiological stress responses. This is crucial to re-establish a good baseline for a healthy stress response. A new strategy is needed to address stress. If the sympathetic nervous system is over-reactive and the parasympathetic is not functioning properly, it makes logical sense to try and stimulate the parasympathetic. But experience shows that when you are stressed, just by “trying” to relax, it does not work. Osho Active Meditations’ approach is to create physical and emotional tension, exploit the law of the sympathetic activation to the maximum, so that the parasympathetic kicks in naturally and spontaneously.

The power of Dynamic Meditation
This is one the fundamental reasons why Dynamic Meditation is so effective. People experience relaxation after just one single session. And the key to make the most out of this powerful method is intensity. Osho kept repeating over and over: “be total”, “put your total energy into it”. This makes absolute sense from a physiological and stress-response point of view. It is healthy and natural to use the body whit totality and intensity when emotionally aroused. When oxygen uptake increases, heart rate increases to pump more blood and bring more energy to the muscles that get ready for action. Adrenalin and other hormones are released to empower the body for action. Then act, go for it, exploit this wonderful stress mechanism. The problem is not lack of relaxation and parasympathetic activation. The problem is lack of action during sympathetic activation.

Express, enjoy, relax
With Osho Active Meditation you learn how to enjoy the stress-response as a wonderful mechanism. You have the freedom to express emotions and energy through body movements and vocalisations. And naturally your system switches back to relaxation as a consequence.

Life is expression, express it!

By Chetna & Swaram, www.loveosho.com, Contributor of //LIVE SIMPLY//