In short: Autogenic training is a gentle relaxation method in which you silently repeat a few short phrases until your body learns to let go by itself. It works on the mind as much as on the body: when your body is calm, your thoughts slow down and soften, and with practice you find a little space between what happens to you and how you respond. Later on, short personal phrases can support the changes you’d like to make. It’s best learned with a qualified teacher.
An email arrives late in the afternoon. You read it once, and your stomach drops. Within a few seconds your mind has written the whole story: what they meant, what will happen next, what you should have done differently. Three hours later you’re still replaying it while you cook dinner, and you can feel it in your shoulders, your jaw and your breath.
We often think of mindset as something that happens only in the head. In my experience, as a yoga teacher and as an autogenic training teacher, the way you think and the way your body feels are part of one single conversation. Change one, and the other listens. That’s the side of autogenic training I’d like to share with you here.
What is autogenic training?
Autogenic training was developed by the German psychiatrist J. H. Schultz in the early twentieth century. He was fascinated by the power of self-suggestion, and by the idea that anyone could learn to invite deep relaxation on their own, simply by turning their attention inwards in a particular way.
In practice, you sit or lie comfortably, close your eyes, and silently repeat short phrases about heaviness, warmth, a calm heartbeat, an easy breath, a warm belly and a cool forehead. You don’t force anything. You say the phrase, and you notice. I describe the exercises, what a session feels like and how to begin in Autogenic training: more than just a relaxation technique.
What does relaxation have to do with your mindset?
A great deal. When you’re stressed for a long time, your body stays in a kind of alert mode: tight shoulders, a short breath, a stomach in knots. Your mind reads those signals and draws its own conclusions: something must be wrong. So it starts looking for problems, and it usually finds some. Worry feeds tension, and tension feeds worry.
Autogenic training gently breaks that circle from the body’s side. As the muscles let go and the breath settles, the mind receives a different message: we’re safe. Thoughts don’t disappear, but they lose their urgency. You can look at them instead of being swept along by them. If you’d like to recognise when your body has been in alert mode for too long, I wrote about the signs in Uncover hidden stress.
How can a calm body change the way you think?
Here’s what many people notice when they practise regularly.
A pause before reacting. The email still arrives, but there’s a breath between reading it and answering it. In that breath, you can choose.
More options. A calm mind sees more than one way forward. A tense mind tends to see only the worst one.
A kinder inner voice. It’s hard to be gentle with yourself when every muscle is braced. As the body softens, so does the way you speak to yourself. I wrote about this in Why self-compassion is key to a fulfilling life.
This is what I mean by a calmer mindset: enough calm to see clearly, and to respond in the way you’d really like to. No forced positive thinking, no pretending everything is fine.
What are intention phrases in autogenic training?
Once the basic exercises feel familiar, autogenic training offers a next step. At the end of a session, while you’re deeply relaxed, you add a short personal phrase of your own: an intention. In that quiet, open state, a simple sentence can settle in more deeply than it would in a busy day.
A good intention phrase is usually:
Short, so it’s easy to repeat.
Positive, saying what you’d like rather than what you don’t want. “I stay calm” works better than “I don’t panic”, because the mind tends to hear the word “panic”.
In the present, as if it’s already true.
Believable for you, so a part of you can say yes to it.
A few examples: “I am calm and clear.” “I eat calmly and with pleasure.” “Whatever happens, I breathe.” “I meet difficult people with serenity.”
Finding the right words for you takes care, and this is lovely work to do with a teacher. The phrase that helps one person may not fit another at all.
Can autogenic training help with the changes I want to make?
It can be a wonderful support. So many of the changes people want, eating more calmly, sleeping better, worrying less, are hard to make from a tense, tired body. When the nervous system is calmer, new habits find more room. I see this especially with evening eating, which so often comes from an exhausted, overloaded day rather than from hunger, as I explain in How to overcome emotional eating, and it often grows stronger in the darker months, as I describe in Comfort eating in autumn.
It doesn’t make change effortless, but it helps you take the practical steps from a steadier place. If you often feel stuck between wanting to change and actually doing it, you may like Why change is hard, and how to make healthy habits stick.
Is autogenic training safe for everyone?
For most people it’s very gentle, but a few precautions matter:
Learn it with a qualified teacher, who will adapt it to your health and make sure you come out of each session properly.
If you have a heart condition, a mental health condition, epilepsy, or you’re pregnant, talk to your doctor before you start.
Never practise while driving or doing anything that needs your attention.
What helps?
1. Learn the basics first
The intention phrases only work well once the relaxation itself comes easily. Take your time with heaviness and warmth before you think about anything else.
2. Choose one phrase and stay with it
When you’re ready for an intention, choose one, ideally with your teacher, and keep it for weeks. Changing it every day is like planting a seed and digging it up to check on it.
3. Bring the calm into your day
Before a difficult call or meeting, take one slow breath and say silently: “I am completely calm.” It’s the resting phrase of autogenic training, and with practice it becomes a little door back to that quiet place.
What doesn’t help?
Forcing positive thinking. Covering a real feeling with a cheerful sentence rarely works. Calm first, words second.
Expecting quick results. The changes are quiet, and they grow with practice.
Using it instead of medical care. It’s a beautiful complement, never a replacement.
Try this for one week
Each evening, write down one moment from the day when your mind started racing. Then add what your body was doing: jaw, shoulders, breath, stomach.
And whenever you notice that moment as it happens, take one slow breath, with a long out-breath, and say silently: “I am completely calm.” At the end of the week, read your notes. You’ll probably see how closely your body and your thoughts travel together, and that’s the first step towards changing both. For a gentle way to settle in the evening, you’ll find more ideas in Let’s talk about sleep.
Frequently asked questions
Can autogenic training change the way I think?
Many people find that as their body learns to relax, their thoughts become calmer and less urgent, and they react to stressful moments with a little more space. It works gently and grows with regular practice.
What is an intention phrase in autogenic training?
It’s a short, positive sentence of your own, such as “I eat calmly and with pleasure”, that you repeat at the end of a session while you’re deeply relaxed. It’s a next step once the basic exercises are familiar.
Can I make up my own phrases?
Yes, that’s the idea, but it helps to find them with a teacher. The best phrases are short, positive, in the present and believable for you, and you keep the same one for a good while.
When should I talk to my doctor?
Before you start if you have a heart condition, a mental health condition, epilepsy, or you’re pregnant. And at any time if anxiety, low mood or sleep problems don’t improve: autogenic training works alongside medical care, never instead of it.
Would you like some help?
A calmer nervous system changes so much about how we eat, sleep and cope, which is why I bring relaxation and breathing into my group programmes in nutrition and health, such as Six Tuesdays in Montignac. If you’d like to hear when the next group opens, write to me at hello@catherinepolet.coach.
If you’d like to learn autogenic training one to one, online, book a free 20-minute call. Tell me what keeps your mind spinning, and we’ll see together whether this method is right for you.
About Catherine
I’m Catherine Polet, a holistic nutrition health coach, yoga and autogenic training teacher for more than 30 years, author and speaker. I help people find a way of eating and living that suits their own body, online in English, French, Spanish and German, and in person in Southwest France.
