Skilled Relaxation Archives

IBMT - sr

Developed from traditional Chinese Medicine by Dr. Yi-Yuan Tang, founding director of the Institute of Neuroinformatics and Laboratory of Body and Mind since 2001, Integrative Body-Mind Training is a specific meditation and relaxation technique based on the Taoist and Confucian concepts of harmony with nature.

Unlike other mind-body disciplines which often take years to produce the desired physiological and psychological changes, IBMT can be learned through training, deep meditation and stress reduction in just five days.

Integrative Body-Mind Training Methods
Training is essential to IBMT, which cannot be successfully assimilated by listening to instructions in a compact disc. The coach’s role is crucial because specific body movements require correct internal responses.

Highly-trained coaches ensure that the techniques are grasped by the students; as well, they watch carefully for facial and body cues that identify students who are struggling, so proper feedback can be provided immediately after each training session. For optimal effectiveness, the right approach must be learned. Moreover, the coach’s role extends beyond merely teaching techniques; the coach works to unfold the potential for greatness within each student.

How can five days of training produce the effects of deep meditation that take years to realize in traditional mind body practices like yoga? Researchers at the University of Oregon performed two experiments involving 86 students at the Dalian University of Technology in Beijing. One group received IBMT training for 20 minutes a day for five days; the other group received general relaxation instructions for the same amount of time over the course of five days.

Data from the experiments showed that IBMT produced a dramatically higher relaxation response that showed as lower levels of stress, depression, anger and fatigue in the experimental group than students in the relaxation control group.

IBMT was shown to produce specific physiological changes – altered blood flow, brain electrical activity, breathing quality and skin conductance – that led to the psychological relaxation of the meditative state.

The “state of ah” is the relaxed, calm surrender that meditative adepts take years to develop. It is a state that results from integration, a connection between brain and body that is revealed through SPECT scans as an increased blood flow to the right anterior cingulate cortex, a region associated with self-regulation of cognition and emotion.

Stress Reduction Through IBMT

Unlike other meditative techniques that focus on thought control, Integrative Body-Mind Training focuses on a state of restful alertness and body mind awareness developed by instructions from a trained IBMT coach. The usual struggle for thought control is replaced by body postures and balanced breathing which eventually help students achieve thought control.

This less stressful approach is validated by physiological tests in the laboratory showing IBMT students achieving lower heart rates, skin conductance responses and deeper chest breathing amplitudes – all telltale signs of less effort, less stress and more relaxation. Tests have also shown that doing IBMT prior to a mental math test produced lower levels of stress hormone cortisol in the body.

Integrative Body-Mind Training, with its short training schedule and obvious effectiveness in producing physical and mental changes, seems well suited to the frenetic pace of modern culture.