Meditation and autogenic training are similar, but they are different.
How are they similar?
They are similar in purpose, as they help to relieve stress, restore strength and form the desired internal state.
They are similar in methods, as both approaches use trance immersion, relaxation techniques, self-hypnosis, and visualization techniques.
And yet, meditation and autogenic training are very different things. What is the difference between them?
Meditation is an older spiritual practice, created in the Eastern tradition, carrying its postures and, to a sufficient extent, religious ideology. In classical meditation, relaxation is a secondary, service task, and the main task is concentration on spiritual texts and images.
At the same time, what is called meditation today is no longer directly related to spiritual practices. Everything high, descending into the masses, loses its depth and becomes a household appliance. Meditations in modern practical psychology, let’s call them everyday meditations, no longer require special postures — it is quite comfortable to sit or lie down. Today, meditation is a complex of relaxing music, a soft voice with positive suggestions, and pleasant inner pictures. Eastern trends from such meditations are more and more eroding, today it is one of the great relaxation practices along with massage and one of the effective mood enhancers, compared to shopping, it is much less expensive.
Autogenic training is a European invention, more adapted to the life of a modern European and without any religious overtones. The technique was proposed by the German psychotherapist Johann Schulz in 1932 and quickly gained recognition among clinical psychologists and psychotherapists. The main feature of AT is a clear sequence of formulas leading to the deepest possible relaxation: 1) the whole body is relaxed; 2) pleasant heaviness in the whole body; 3) pleasant warmth throughout the body; 4) breathing is even and calm, I breathe easily.
Auto-training is not just used, it is mastered. If at first it takes 5-10 minutes for each stage of autogenic immersion (relaxation, heaviness, warmth, breathing), then over time it takes up to 5 minutes to go through all the stages, and a person acquires the ability to dive into deep relaxation (and, if desired, fall asleep) at any even under stressful conditions.
Usually AT is built according to the scheme in three stages: 1) autogenous immersion; 2) specialized suggestions and visualizations for personal tasks; 3) energetic exit into wakefulness and life.
So. If before specialized self-suggestions and visualizations for personal tasks, a special stage of deep immersion is carried out — rather, it is AT. If self-suggestion and visualization for personal tasks are given almost immediately, without deep dives, this is meditation. If the sequence “relax, heaviness, warmth, breath” is used for deep relaxation, this is definitely AT. If some other options are used for deep relaxation, this is not AT, but some other technique.
Features and limitations
Auto-training and meditation are excellent ways to restore disturbed calm, but only with a weak or moderate level of anxiety, anxiety or anger: against the backdrop of a raging vegetative system, meditation texts help little. Nevertheless, with low levels of anxiety, auto-training and meditation procedures are one of the most reliable and proven methods that give a fairly deep calming effect.