Autogenic Training: How Mental Relaxation Helps with Stress and Depression
Autogenic training is a scientifically proven method of autosuggestion (influencing one's own thoughts) in which targeted mental imagery guides your body into a state of deep relaxation. In this article, learn how this gentle technique can help you reduce stress, fall asleep better at night, and support you as a helpful tool in coping with depression.
Autogenic Training: Key Takeaways
- The method: Autogenic training is a scientifically proven relaxation technique based on autosuggestion. Through targeted mental formulas, you can independently guide your body into a state of deep calm.
- Physical effects: By shifting the autonomic nervous system, it lowers your heart rate, reduces muscle tension, and promotes physical recovery.
- The 6 basic exercises: Traditional autogenic training builds on exercises focused on heaviness, warmth, heart rate, breathing, the solar plexus, and a cool forehead.
- Common applications: It effectively aids in stress reduction, inner restlessness, sleep initiation issues, and psychosomatic complaints like headaches or muscle tightness.
- Limitations in depression: As a standalone relaxation technique, it provides noticeable relief; however, it is generally not sufficient as the sole therapy for deeply rooted depressive symptoms.
- Digital support: When relaxation techniques alone are not enough, the digital health application deprexis provides comprehensive cognitive behavioral therapy exercises, fully covered on prescription.
What Is Autogenic Training?
Autogenic training is one of the most widely recognized methods for physical and mental relaxation, using targeted imagination to achieve a relaxed state. Developed in 1932 by German psychiatrist Johannes H. Schultz, autogenic training is based on the concept of self-hypnosis. It shares several similarities with other relaxation techniques, such as progressive muscle relaxation (though progressive muscle relaxation has been significantly more thoroughly researched in scientific literature) or meditation.
What Happens During Autogenic Training?
The practitioner mentally repeats specific phrases and formulas to guide themselves into a state of self-hypnosis. These phrases can focus on various bodily functions, for example: "My heart rate is steady and calm" or "My muscles are relaxing."The goal is to calm the nervous system, influence various bodily functions (such as breathing, digestion, and heart rate), and achieve a state of complete mental and physical relaxation. Once reached, this state of deep relaxation can have a positive effect on overall health and well-being.
When Is Autogenic Training Helpful?
Autogenic training is far more than just a quick break during a busy day. By intentionally shifting your autonomic nervous system, which controls vital, involuntary bodily functions such as heart rate, breathing, and digestion, this method helps you independently release both physical and mental tension. It is used both preventatively in everyday life and as a supportive tool for various health challenges:
- Stress Reduction & Daily Worries: Helps quickly lower acute tension, inner restlessness, and nervousness while building personal resilience.
- Sleep Disturbances & Difficulty Falling Asleep: Makes it easier to quiet nighttime overthinking and gently transition into sleep.
- Physical & Psychosomatic Complaints: Can ease functional issues such as muscle tension, gastrointestinal discomfort, tension headaches, or mildly elevated blood pressure.
- Focus & Cognitive Performance: Helps restore concentration before exams, presentations, or demanding tasks at work.
- Mental Strain & Depression: Serves as a supportive building block to cushion states of exhaustion, experience physical calm, and noticeably boost overall well-being.
- Chronic Conditions & Pain: Can exert a positive influence on chronic illness and chronic pain by improving overall physical comfort and resilience.
The Six Core Exercises of Autogenic Training
Autogenic training builds its structure step-by-step. The classic basic stage consists of six coordinated exercises that progressively guide your entire body into a state of deep relaxation:
The Heaviness Exercise ("My arm is heavy"):
- Significance & Effect: Focuses on the relaxation of the skeletal muscles. It leads to a noticeable loosening of the entire musculoskeletal system and releases muscle tension.
The Warmth Exercise ("My arm is warm"):
- Significance & Effect: Targets vascular relaxation. Through expanded blood circulation, you feel a pleasant increase in blood flow and a cozy warmth throughout the body.
The Heart Exercise ("My heart rate is calm and regular"):
- Significance & Effect: Directs attention to your heartbeat. It harmonizes the heart rate and calms the cardiovascular system during times of inner restlessness or stress.
The Breathing Exercise ("It breathes me"):
- Significance & Effect: Focuses on the natural flow of your breath without actively controlling it. It deepens breathing and strengthens the feeling of letting go.
The Solar Plexus Exercise ("My abdomen is pleasantly warm"):
- Significance & Effect: Directs focus to the neural center in the upper abdomen (solar plexus). It relaxes the abdominal organs, promotes digestion, and calms the nervous system from the inside out.
The Cool Forehead Exercise ("My forehead is pleasantly cool"):
- Significance & Effect: Forms the refreshing conclusion to physical relaxation. It provides a clear mind, reduces mental fatigue, and often relieves stress-related pressure in the head area.
Autogenic Training: Your Step-by-Step Guide
For autogenic training to unfold its full relaxing effect, proper posture, regular repetition, and the right preparation are essential.
Here is how to start your practice session:
- The Right Environment & Position: Find a quiet space where you will be undisturbed for 10 to 15 minutes. Sit comfortably in a chair (for example, in the relaxed "coachman's posture" with your forearms resting on your thighs) or lie flat on your back.
- The Calm Formula: Close your eyes and mentally repeat to yourself several times, calmly and without pressure: "I am completely calm and relaxed."
- The Heaviness Exercise (Muscle Relaxation): Direct your focus to your dominant arm. Repeat in your mind several times: "My right (or left) arm is very heavy." Feel the tension leaving your muscles.
- The Warmth Exercise (Vascular Relaxation): Shift your focus further and mentally tell yourself: "My right (or left) arm is pleasantly warm." The imagery of warmth promotes blood circulation.
- The Cancellation Step (Important During the Day): If you end the exercise during the day, you must reactivate your circulation. Clench your fists firmly, stretch your arms out quickly, take a deep breath, and open your eyes. (Note: If you use autogenic training directly before going to bed, simply skip this cancellation step and glide directly into sleep.)
An Important Note: Don't worry if you don't feel the warmth in your arms right away. It takes practice, and it is completely normal if it doesn't work on the very first attempt.
Autogenic Training for Depression: Opportunities, Limitations, and the Right Timing
Depression manifests not only through low mood and a lack of motivation, but is almost always accompanied by immense, persistent physical and mental tension. Those affected often find themselves in a state of emotional chronic stress while their thoughts spin endlessly. This is precisely where autogenic training can make a valuable contribution, provided it is used at the right time (for example, as a daily ritual to start or end the day in a more relaxed state) and within the appropriate context (such as in combination with cognitive behavioral therapy). However, for severe depression, autogenic training alone is not sufficient as a standalone treatment.
How Autogenic Training Can Support Depressive Symptoms
- Interrupting Rumination Loops: By deliberately directing your attention to physical sensations such as heaviness or warmth, your focus is shifted away from repetitive, negative thoughts. This creates noticeable moments of mental relief.
- Physical Regeneration: The technique lowers the activity level of the sympathetic nervous system and activates the parasympathetic nervous system (the body's rest-and-digest system). As a result, accompanying physical symptoms such as a racing heart, inner restlessness, and sleep disturbances can be eased.
- Restoring a Sense of Agency: Depression often brings a feeling of helplessness. Experiencing firsthand that you can positively influence your own physical state through mental techniques strengthens your confidence in your ability to take action.
When the Relaxation of Autogenic Training Is Not Enough
As helpful as autogenic training is as a body-oriented relaxation technique, it is not a standalone therapy for depression. During deep depressive phases or periods of severe lack of motivation, trying to relax purely through willpower and mental focus can actually overwhelm individuals or trigger frustration.
For this reason, autogenic training is primarily used in medical practice as a supportive component within a holistic treatment plan, for instance, in combination with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which directly addresses the underlying thought patterns and behaviors.
Digital Support for Depression: When Autogenic Training Is Not Enough
When you realize that techniques like autogenic training offer brief moments of calm, but low mood, exhaustion, and repetitive thoughts continue to hold a tight grip on your daily life, a broader foundation is often needed. This is precisely where the digital health application deprexis can effectively support you.
To help you regain motivation in everyday life, deprexis provides you with an individualized program, exercises for managing low moods, and practical guidance on self-care.
deprexis is available free of charge on prescription, as the costs are fully covered by your health insurance. This means your doctor or therapist can prescribe deprexis, providing you with an activation code for the program. As soon as you receive your code, you can easily redeem it on our website and start your digital therapy right away.
Conclusion – Autogenic Training Is a Helpful Tool, But Has Its Limits
Autogenic training is an effective and easy-to-learn method for giving your body targeted rest, reducing stress, and noticeably easing inner restlessness. As a self-directed practice, mental autosuggestion helps you cultivate greater composure and can restore a valuable sense of agency during challenging periods.
However, when pure relaxation techniques reach their limits in the face of deep-rooted depressive symptoms or persistent exhaustion, you do not have to navigate this path alone. With the DiGA deprexis, you have access to a scientifically backed, digital support system that goes far beyond simple relaxation, equipping you with proven behavioral therapy tools for your daily life. The combination of physical relief and structured mental strategies offers a strong foundation to help you step-by-step regain stability and well-being.
