What is Sunset Relaxation Therapy?
Sunset relaxation Therapy is a highly
effective relaxation
and stress management technique.
How it all began - What can Sunset Relaxation Therapy do for you?
Sunset Relaxation Therapy
Sunset Relaxation Therapy - Relaxation and Stress Management
was created by Marie E. Young RN,C a certified registered
nurse
who's own personal experiences required a post operative
period
of high quality relaxation.
Researching the subject she found one extremely beneficial
thing that
really seemed to help her to relax and recover.
"The natural rhythm of the sea"
"Near the sea, we realize how small our problems really are"
"I moved into a small beach house on the Florida west
coast...
where the water is normally quiet and tranquil, clear
and pristine...
where I could walk almost any distance and only run into
a
few of the island residents along the way... if I ran
into anyone at all.
I took up shell collecting and searching for the small
black sharks teeth
that littered the beaches in the area.. always returning
to the beach house
with another small handful of ocean treasures."
"I often sat on the balcony that overhung the beach...
gazed out across
the wide open spaces... watched the dolphins playing
in the distance...
listened to the gulls play in the air and watch the herons
stalk the beach
for fish. I'd sit for hours and listen to the splash
of gentle waves
on the beach.. and I'd watch in amazement as the
sun slowly slipped
below the clear blue horizon each day. It was as
if "time stood still"...
and it allowed me to totally relax."
"I healed very quickly... and I made a mental note that
I would suggest
such a relaxation therapy to my patients... but to many,
it was really not
a choice. Caught up in their lives... they have
many problems...
and not too much time to really relax."
"And I quickly realized that not everyone lives near a
beach, or even
has time to visit the beach even if they do... let alone
live there and
enjoy the peace and tranquillity as I had done.
And I wondered
how I could capture this feeling and share it with my
patients...
and the many home bound people that I work with every
day that
have no way of ever experiencing such beauty."
"Then one day while sitting on the beach watching the
most amazing
sunset, I spoke with a good friend (Robert Shainline)
who was a
professional photographer. We talked about visualization,
and how
pictures would be one way of taking such a sunset with
me to a patients
home and sharing it with them. The idea expanded,
but soon it was
apparent that a picture was just not enough. It
didn't include the
movement... it didn't include the sounds of nature."
Visualization is difficult enough... especially for the
elderly.
And even though a picture speaks a thousand words...
1000 words were
not going to be enough to even begin to describe the
therapeutic benefits
of this relaxing experiencing.
As the conversation went on, he suggested that maybe the
entire
experience could be reproduced in the way of a full length
movie.
A movie camera and microphone sitting on a tripod for
an hour,
capturing each wave as it came to shore, each sandpiper
as it scurried
up and down with the surf... each cloud that drifted
in
and out of view of the lens.
And so it began. The beginning of Sunset Video.
A full length natural performance.
But it wasn't as easy as setting up a camera and waiting
for the sun to set...
there were suddenly too many distractions. The
beach go'ers passing by,
sometimes standing in front of the camera for long periods
of time looking
for shells and sharks teeth... or wanting to be in the
movie... or wanting to
talk to the cameraman about what he was doing.
The boats passing by with their loud,
annoying outboard motors. Things that you could
easily ignore while
sitting there on the beach... distracted by other things
in other directions.
But it quickly became apparent that it wasn't going to
be quite so easy to
produce a quality movie that could offer the same peace
and tranquillity
as a secluded island beach.
So Robert took it on himself to find such places.
Places so remote that
he would have to camp out on his small boat for days
at a time
to catch the light and the nature at a secluded location...
without
human distractions. Carrying heavy equipment back
and forth up and
down the beach... hoping he would be able to record enough
material to
produce a high quality feature film before the adverse
conditions of sand
and salt air started corroding his high tech equipment.
It's been over 3 years now since he started his quest
to create the
feeling of peace and tranquillity that I was experiencing
at the beach
house. He then edited the miles of footage into
a few very high quality
videos that I now use to do Sunset Relaxation Therapy
for groups
and private patients.
To find out if the tapes would work as well as real thing,
I tested the tapes by talking to groups about stress
and how it
effects their blood pressure. I would then take the groups
blood
pressure, show them one of the films, and then test their
blood
pressure again afterwards. The results were astounding.
An average decrease in systolic blood pressure
of 15 points... with some as high as 50 points... in
only one viewing!
I still watch these tapes myself at home when I want to
relax.
They never get boring... they never get old. I
never get the feeling
that I want to fast forward to another place. They
just play on...
sunset after sunset... seascape after seascape... while
I cook dinner
or read a book, or even while listening to the stereo
at the same time.
Sunset Relaxation Therapy has helped me to relax and
return to good health.
And I believe it can do the same for you.