Sit in quietude as often as possible as the day unfolds. Call to mind, and body, the relaxation exercises that suit you best. Breathe. Let yourself in on the secret that in this moment you are well, in body, mind and spirit, that you are whole and perfect in this moment. As the day progresses, remind yourself to relax, to breathe, and to just be at peace so that the day unfolds in calmness and peacefulness in your own little world. It’s one of the best things you can do for yourself. To get yourself into a restful, calm and relaxed state of being will reverberate into the world around you and you will greatly affect anyone you come into contact with.
Stay contained within the self no matter what transpires in the world around you. This is a great time of change for the entire world, both near and far; the little world of your own life and the greater far-reaching world at large. Practice keeping yourself in a calm state. Use all the tools you have learned to center and guide yourself into a state of inner and outer relaxation. You know how to do this. There are so many things you can use to help you, especially your own breath. Learn to breathe so that relaxation occurs and call upon this ability as often as necessary. Just breathe.
The truth about relaxation is that there cannot be relaxation if we are not in the truth.
If we tell a white lie, even if exquisitely justified, we will experience an excitement to the nerves that innervate our eye muscles, which will in turn throw our eyes slightly out of focus.
In fact, if we mistakenly misstate our age, with no intent to deceive, our eyes will be thrown out of focus. If we then state, or even just think our true age, our eyes will be restored to normal immediately.
The subconscious mind is responsible for this glitch. It knows the truth and cannot help but register a reaction, however subtle, to untruth. This is not from the place of morality or judgment; it’s simply the subconscious mind’s unswerving loyalty to the truth.
The subconscious mind is wired to do the right thing. This is how it keeps our physical body alive. Nonetheless, it is a true servant to the suggestions it receives from the conscious mind. It exercises its creative power to manifest anything we want, even if what we want serves not the true needs of the self. It will fully manifest a life of error, if that is what we choose to explore.
However, every thought and every action have an effect, which is often called karma. If our thoughts and actions misalign with the truth, the body will register a reaction that indeed, keeps the score.
Our thoughts and actions are constantly straining our central nervous system, often resulting in various states of dis-ease. Often this can manifest as physical symptoms that are erroneously thought to be physical problems, when in fact they are actually but feedback mechanisms from the body that reflect the disordered effects of our current state of mind.
Relaxation requires a quiet mind, where thoughts do not impose themselves upon the body.
The eye, like all senses, is a passive sense. Light waves impress themselves upon the retina, reflecting what is in the world outside of the eye. It does not see from the inside but is only impressed upon, like a small reflecting pool. Seeing is a completely receptive, inert state.
If we squint and tryto see, we completely contort the eye and interfere with its receptive ability. To see best, the eye must be left alone, completely relaxed, to receive its impressions. To trust the eye, is to completely relax one’s grip upon it.
Taste is another sense that requires complete passivity to deliver a true flavor. If the mind decides to think and talk when we eat, we hardly taste our food at all. We cannot make ourselves taste.
The sensory capacity of our taste buds passively receives impressions from the food. It requires of our mind to relax its thinking, and passively be present and attentive to these sensations, to know the fullness of the flavors of what we eat.
Even touch is a passive sense. Although a massage therapist might be quite active in giving a massage, they must really be quite passive in order to receive the true state of a client’s musculature, which allows them to truly connect and know how best to touch.
Relaxation requires trust in the body, and trust in the subconscious mind.
If we passively let go of trying to control the non-activity of our senses, they will operate most efficiently.
If we center our attention on our eating, refusing thinking and talking, we will have a pleasurable and fulfilling culinary experience. This includes not listening to podcasts when we eat!
When we touch another, if we take our mind off our thoughts, we can, in the experience of sympathy, register the truth of that other person’s state of being, and instinctively deliver the right touch. And yes, when we actively touch, we are taking action, but it is action informed by the truth passively received.
When we act in alignment with truth, we are, and deliver, calm.
A path to relaxation is to intend that the conscious mind stay in alignment with truth. That truth is best known through passive presence that follows the guidance it receives from its senses and the natural wisdom of the subconscious mind.
Beyond the senses is the wisdom that all guidance arrives when we are calmly, passively available to receive it. If the mind is actively fretting about what decision is right, it is too distracted to take in the myriads of signs from spirit, often arriving through the subconscious mind, that point to the right path, the path of true knowledge.
Ego, for all its valiant efforts to anxiously do the right thing, is at its most mature when it waits, gets calm, and truly listens and receives the truth, from which naturally flow its true marching orders.
It begins with deep calm in the body, the soul’s physical extension into this life. The true father of all modern somatic therapy, Wilhelm Reich, brought intimate attention to the opposition between natural impulse and defense in human musculature.
The suppression of sexual and aggressive energies, as well as powerful emotions such as sadness, is executed through what Reich called bodyarmoring, the tensing of muscles that freeze the free flow of instinctive and emotional energy.
A tense throat constricts the vocal expression of emotion. A tense belly and solar plexus create a wall that short-circuits the natural energetic current of tender emotion, natural reflex, and instinctive movement that issues from the lower half of the body.
Love is the energy of union and wholeness, the glue that binds together all of creation. To embody it we must soften our armored muscles.
The standoff between impulse and defense creates pools of charged energy, which in turn generates fears of an uncontrolled tidal wave of chaos and eventual loss of control. Indeed, a cathartic release, such as a deep cry or scream, might be necessary before a natural balance between expressive and receptive energies can be established.
One can directly speak to the body and receive a response. “Stomach, relax and release tension,” or “Shoulders, let down, release tension,” are suggestions to the body subconscious that result in immediate relaxing of rigidity.
Be gentle and accepting of small increments of release with each suggestion. Allow the body to gradually let go and adjust to the influx of freed energy. As the body musculature releases, invite and allow the breath to flow gently, expanding and opening new channels. The key word here is gentle. Follow each gentle breath with a slightly more deepening next gentle breath. Force nothing; gently widen the channel over time.
On the mental plane, Carlos Castaneda’s suggestion to suspend judgment is foundational. When we judge we create separation; this is good, that is bad. Thoughts, feelings, sensations and intuitions that are ‘bad’ are suppressed, and the body responds by rigidifying against them; they are not allowed.
In a shamanic recapitulation, or in an end of life review, as reported consistently by many who have experienced near-death experiences (NDE’s), the salient feature is total acceptance of every experience and every person one has experienced in life, regardless of their abuses and failures. This is the mood of love embracing everything with equanimity.
Boundaries may be absolutely necessary in this life but love knows no boundaries, all is accepted. Love and boundary can coexist. That was Christ’s golden message: Love All!
Total acceptance of self and other, of every aspect of life lived, and lost, is the path to embodying the mood of love.
Find stability in your own ability to relax your body and still your mind. In heart centered breathing gain control over your thoughts by breathing them out so that the mind is quiet and the body limp. In total relaxation let your heart be your guide. Let its guidance fill you with renewed vigor and rejuvenated hope, with the certainty that all is well when love abounds, when positive thoughts of health and peace stir, and when kindness becomes your motivation. In heart centered breath, let your love shine through, within and without. Let your true loving self live a little bit more each day. You can’t go wrong with loving kindness.
