Overview of the Relaxation Training
The Yoga Style of fighting against negative thoughts is to push them away by focusing on a distraction. In American culture, the main distractions we use are things like focusing of work, exercise, friendships, or reading a book (i.e. engaging in something). These distractions are actually preferable because they are productive and you can do them all day long; whereas, with a meditation technique, you can't do it all day long because you would get bored after twenty minutes.
The advantage of meditation techniques is that they are quick and portable. So, they are meant to be done in the spaces - when you wake up in the morning, when you are between tasks, when you are going to sleep - and you don't do them for very long. For example, one of the techniques is to make fists with your hands. During the day, when you get anxious, you would focus on your fists, but just for 20-30 seconds. Once you are pretty sure you have pushed the anxious thoughts aside, you then switch to an American-style of distraction (i.e. engage in something). So you start out Buddhist, but then you go American, because America rocks.
For each technique, I’ll show you a long version first, but then I’ll teach you how do a quicker version that can be done in front of people without them noticing. The quick version is actually what you'll be using throughout the week.