British Autogenic Society

5: The AT Process
As clients practise AT over a period of weeks and months, and make it a part of their lifestyle, they report a number of changes in the direction of greater health, balance, emotional stability and freedom from anxiety and stress. These reports are confirmed by a number of objective studies into the physiological changes accompanying regular use of AT. Central to the changes brought about by AT is passive concentration, the detached but alert state of mind in which AT exercises are carried out.

Stress and modern life
As the pace of everyday life increases, day-to-day experience can often become a struggle to achieve goals, meet deadlines, organise our time, and perform satisfactorily for colleagues and family. Whilst these activities have their place, focusing on them exclusively can lead to anxiety, frustration, feelings of failure, and a feeling that life is being driven by events beyond our control. We can become oblivious to warning signs from our bodies and subconscious minds, and also to the emotional needs of friends and family. The wider meanings of life can be lost.

Fight and flight
The 'fight and flight' response is an ancient physiological reaction to a perceived threat or challenge, such as the sighting of a potential prey or predator. Pupils dilate, heartbeat increases, adrenaline is secreted, the bronchi of the lungs dilate, gastric movement decreases, muscle strength is increased. The system is primed for physical exertion, and energy is diverted from non-urgent tasks such as digesting food.

The exertion will typically be short-lived, the crisis or challenge will pass, and the system will eventually switch to the 'rest and digest' state. Pupils will contract, heartbeat will reduce, the digestive process will be stimulated.

It is easy to see how such a system suited our hunter-gatherer ancestors. In modern life, however, we are constantly exposed to challenges that do not lead to a burst of physical activity, and that do not diminish in a short time.

Stresses such as living with the threat of impending redundancy, or waiting for the results of medical tests, may continue for weeks or months without respite. The perceived threat to the mind-body system of a row in the board room or in the home does not lead naturally to running away or fighting - at least not in any socially acceptable way - so we are left to simmer. The advice to 'go for a brisk walk to calm you down' in these situations therefore has some biological wisdom behind it.

Our human grasp of language and logic gives us the ability to predict threats which are quite abstract, to imagine the outcome of those predictions, and to react to our imaginings as if it were real. A pet cat or dog awaiting the result of a critical x-ray or blood test has none of the anticipatory fear that a human in the same situation would experience. In this sense, we, as humans, are the victims of our own ability to imagine and to think.

Hence the need for a tool such as AT, which enables us to move into a 'rest and digest' state at will.

The coping effects of AT
Practising AT and passive concentration regularly encourages a shift to a different mode of perception, to a witnessing self that observes without judging or striving. This will be a novel experience to many AT clients, and will require careful explanation and support from the therapist.

There are no right or wrong results during the practice of AT, and that carrying out the exercises with the right posture and mental attitude is all that is required.

Regular users of AT report:
• a freedom from anxiety

• a greater resilience to emotional and physical upsets

• a calm centre within themselves and a returning sense of being in control of their lives

• greater spontaneity in their relationships

• a freedom from unwanted habits

There may also be an increase in creativity and openness to intuition. They may become more aware of and open to emotions, feelings and memories, including disturbing memories which may have been repressed for some time.

Again, the role of the therapist is crucial in helping the client to manage and work through any 'unfinished business' that may surface during AT.

This expanded access to feelings, memories, intuition, and creativity suggests an opening of communication across the Corpus Callosum, the connecting bridge between the two brain hemispheres. Analysis of central nervous-system activity during AT has indeed shown an increased balancing of the left and right hemispheres, together with an increase in Alpha wave activity and an upward shift into the Theta region.

Physiological tests also support reports of reduced stress by users of AT, with measured drops in blood pressure and cortisol (the 'stress hormone').

top of page previous article next article