Relaxation is a direct route to tranquillity. It is a first class way of finding more joy, more strength and enthusiasm. It’s one of the secret keys, which open the door to happiness and success. But what does relaxing yourself mean exactly?
It means that you must first eliminate all muscular tension so that you can completely relax your body, then you must eradicate all tension from your mind. You will manage to do this quite easily, thanks to the instructions I’m going to give you.
This routine will be very helpful to you at any time of the day, and especially if you start to feel tired and tense. All you’ll need is a few minutes’ relaxation and you’ll feel like “a new person.” When is the best time to do it? Any time when you can isolate yourself is fine.
The ideal time to begin with, while you’re still getting the knack, is in the morning just after you wake up. Why? Because at this moment you are naturally feeling fairly relaxed. Your night’s sleep has “de-activated” your worries, nerves and anxieties of the previous day. And most of the little aches and pains that are behind a great deal of your muscular tension have been “lulled to sleep” by the cosy warmth of your bed.
So if you can practice for a new minutes in bed each morning, to get yourself in training, do so, because this is the ideal time to begin. Otherwise, lie down on your back on a flat but comfortable surface: the carpet or a blanket spread over the ground would be fine. Put a cover over yourself if you want to, because you should be neither too hot nor too cold.
To help you to really feel the difference between tension and relaxation, you are going to use a natural physical phenomenon. If you tense a muscle as hard as you can for a few moments, immediately afterwards this muscle needs to slacken, to completely relax. It only takes a bit of practice to be able to sense this automatic relaxation, and then to gradually increase it. Soon you will be able to achieve a state of profound relaxation “at will” …
Here is an example of how to go about it:
Clench your fists, tensing the muscles of your hands and fingers as hard as you can. Keep them tight for a few seconds so that you can really feel it … then relax your muscles. Do the same thing again, as hard as you can, until you feel the muscles shaking. And again, clench your fists with all your might … hold it … and relax.
Concentrate your mind on the feeling of relaxation you experience after each effort. Your fingertips may tingle … Now you are going to clench your fists once more, then tense your forearms, then your whole arm. Squeeze with all your might. Go on, clench your fists, tense your forearms, your arms … hard … harder … and then relax completely.
Did you really feel the difference? Well, now you need to create this same feeling of muscular laxity throughout your whole body. And this is relaxation.
Now, using nothing more than the power of your own thought, you are going to try to create this feeling of heaviness, weightiness, and warmth. Just let yourself go, feel your blood circulating more and more freely through your veins.
Focus your mind and attention on your right arm … your right arm is gradually getting heavier … it’s getting heavy … heavier and heavier … your right arm is heavy … your right arm is heavy … think: “my right arm is very heavy, my … right … arm … is … very … heavy”, your right arm is so heavy, just like a piece of lead.
Now do the same thing with your left arm, then your right leg, and then your left leg. Then move on to the muscles in your abdomen, your chest, your neck, and your head.
Remember to really relax the muscles in your face, around your head, the top of your skull. Slacken the little muscles around your eyes and the eyes themselves, because there’s always a lot of tension lurking here, although you may not realise it. In fact do it right now, while you’re reading this text – give it a try: close your eyes and try to relax them.
Relax them more and more, more and more … further … still further … If you can really relax all the muscles around your eyes, you should find that you feel a kind of wave of relaxation sweeping down through your whole body …
You feel this wave of warmth spreading right through you. Your heart is pumping warm blood all round your body … your whole body is warm … it’s so warm … relaxed. You feel relaxed, more and more relaxed … this relaxation is spreading more and more, step by step, spreading from muscle to muscle … you are wonderfully relaxed…
Try to imagine all the nerves and all the muscles in your body, from top to toe. They are slowly, gradually relaxing. You feel at ease. Your thoughts are flowing gently, they are flowing through your mind without you feeling the need to hold on to them, or to dwell on any of them in particular.
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