Initiating therapeutic relaxation in Britain: a twentieth-century strategy for health and wellbeing

In 1972, a British charity, Relaxation for Living, was established “to promote the teaching of physical relaxation, to combat stress, strain, anxiety and the tension of modern life and to reduce fatigue”. This article explores the origins and development of “physical relaxation” techniques and ideologies, starting in the interwar period and the development of practical, therapeutic, social and cultural frameworks necessary for such an organization to come into being in 1970s Britain. It traces how relaxation was reconstituted as a scientifically-based skill that could be learnt and taught, imbued with therapeutic value for combating and preventing specific physical ailments and enhancing individual health and wellbeing. The article explores how relaxation techniques gained currency among particular demographic and clinical groups, ranging from middle-class, child-bearing women to middle-aged, “coronary-prone” men. This analysis highlights the role that relaxation practitioners played in both creating and responding to demand for individualistic health-management strategies, many of which have shaped contemporary health and wellbeing agendas. This article is published as part of a collection entitled “On balance: lifestyle, mental health and wellbeing”.