Sophrology is being spoken of as the new Mindfulness...but What is Sophrology?

Sophrology was developed in Spain in 1960 by neuropsychiatrist Prof Alfonso Caycedo. He spent decades exploring yoga, Tibetan Buddhist meditation, hypnosis and Japanese Zen to find the best way to enable people to work on their levels of consciousness. His resulting philosophy sits at the crossroads between western relaxation and eastern meditation. He called the technique “learning to live”.

Sophrology is a self-development technique which uses mental and physical exercises to try to achieve an alert mind in a relaxed body. It combines meditation, breathing and relaxation techniques with gentle movement and visualisation. It uses similar techniques and with mindfulness, and can be practiced anywhere that you wish.

The new mindfulness?

There are now more than 1000 apps that you can download to help you practice mindfulness/ After being a buzzword in the media for helping people to learn to let go of stress and anxiety the latest technique to emerge is called sophrology.

Where do they already practice Sophrology?

In Switzerland and France, sophrology is already widely taught at schools and university as a way to acquire life and stress-management skills. Celebrity fans include the founder of the Huffington Post Arianna Huffington and French tennis player Stéphane Robert who uses the technique to help him use abdominal breathing to create calm and help him with his concentration. Even the French rugby team have reportedly used sophrology while training for the last World Cup.

The practice has already been used across Europer for over 57 years and so it seems that time is right for it to spread more into the UK.

Like Mindfulness, meditation or hypnosis you can find that the more you practice the more you can get from it.

Dominique Antiglio is the founder of BeSophro, which teaches the practice. She is releasing her first book, The Life-Changing Power of Sophrology, in April.

she says..“If you’re feeling stressed, anxious, have difficulty sleeping or are burnt out, just one session of sophrology can help you feel calmer, more in control, relaxed and more able to let go,The more you practise, the more results you get.”

How do you practice Sophrology?

Here is a quick exercise that you can use for yourself to practice sophorology.

Find somewhere quiet where you can allow yourself to become involved with the exercise without being disturbed.

Now simply close your eyes, breathe in, and hold your breath for a few seconds while tensing up all the muscles in your body. Then, as you exhale, release all the muscles and let go, allowing the body and mind to slow down. Just spend a few minutes repeating and enjoying the time for yourself.