Relaxation, Yoga and Meditation

Suppression of energies in your body can cause tension.

This tension lodges itself in the organs and muscles of suppression.

Suppressed grief causes tension in the sinuses, throat, and lungs.

Suppressed anger and rage causes tension in the back, neck, arms and stomach, while fear usually tenses the back and leg muscles. These are the most common places that energy is suppressed.

It takes an enormous amount of energy to create and maintain tension in the human body. This makes for an inefficient operation of the human body. It makes you feel very tired. It is like driving your car for years with the parking brake on. When you release these patterns, the more relaxed you are, which in turn means more energy is available to you.

Fear creates tension and tension creates loss of available energy, health and joy.

When we are tensed the mind tells the body that there is danger and the tension prevails.

When we are relaxed the mind tells the body that we are safe and relaxation prevails.

This system of feedback also works with the breathing. When we are not breathing (or breathing very shallow) we are telling the mind that we are in fear and the body tenses and the shallow breathing continues. By breathing fully and freely we are telling the mind that we are safe and the body relaxes into more peace and joy.

To achieve complete relaxation you have to have awareness of your body language and any obvious tensions that you are holding. When you are fully relaxed, your muscles will be soft. Hard muscles are in tension and so some of the energy available to those muscles is being used against the flow and purpose of those muscles.  Soft muscles and pliable muscles have no tension and so all the energy available to those muscles is used efficiently.

Just by breathing slowly and fully, your body will relax to some degree.

You need to lay down and scan your body muscle by muscle. You will find that relaxing each muscle will bring you closer to relaxation. Feel the tension and see where you are holding the tension, the most common places are your neck, shoulders, upper and lower back, stomach, chest, face, legs, and groin. After you feel it just let it go.

Tension is a reaction by your mind’s defense system to a perceived life threatening or damaging experience. Most perceptions are due to early life programming. Just by telling your mind’s defence system that you are safe will reduce tension and promote relaxation.

If you are feeling tense, fearful, uncomfortable in your body, nausea, light headed, dizzy or out of your body, you might be in fear. Tell your subconscious mind the words “I am safe” “I feel Peace” and BREATHE deep and slowly and your body will stabilize itself.

BREATHING TO RELAX.

The breath contains energy. The more we breathe, the more energy we have. The more and faster we release our exhale, the easier it is to let go of suppressed energy and emotions.

Visualise waves breaking on the beach. See yourself as the beach and the waves as your breaths. Your inhale is strong and positive like the waves breaking on the beach. Your exhale is relaxed, and surrendered like the water from the waves returning to the ocean.

The more you practice these breaths, you will get an intuitive feeling about them, and know just what breath speed and fullness to use.

When you are tense, anxious and fearful just take a sit and relax. Take 3 slow full breaths, focusing on the inhales and allowing the exhales to just flow out freely and uncontrolled.

When you are relaxed and not in fear or tension, people relate to you better.

Your ability to be creative increases and you will be in the flow of life itself.

YOGA

Yoga means union of the individual consciousness or soul with the universal consciousness or spirit. Yoga is a holistic way of life that integrates all elements of ancient knowledge of Yoga to make a discipline uniting the body, mind and soul.

Yoga will help to restore your balance, strengthen your body, calm your mind, regain your focus and improve self-confidence. Many have experienced relief from chronic illnesses, reduction of anxiety, increased tolerance and mindfulness. There is evidence that regular yoga practise is very beneficial for people with high blood pressure, heart disease, aches and pains, including lower back pain, depression and stress.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF YOGA

HATHA YOGA

A system of physical postures, or Asanas, Their purpose is to purify the body, giving one awareness and control over its internal states and rendering oneself fit for meditation.

KARMA YOGA

Selfless service to others, without attachment.

MANTRA YOGA

Centering the consciousness within through a repetition of a higher vibrational word or chanting a universal root word with sounds representing a particular aspect of spirit.

Jnana (gyana) Yoga The path of wisdom, which emphasizes the application of discriminative intelligence to achieve spiritual liberation.

RAJA YOGA

Is the Highest path of yoga immortalized by Bhagavan Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita and systematized in the second century B.C. by the indian sage Patanjali.

Certain yoga practices are very effective in releasing and integrating tensions in the body. One of these postures is called the Plow.
To do the Plow, just lay flat on your back, gently lift your legs over your head as if you were to touch your toes to the floor behind your head. Do not force yourself as this is a posture of relaxation, just allow the weight of your legs to pull you over slowly.

The tension in your back and leg muscles (all your suppressed energy) will slowly release and flow through your hands, your feet or your head. As long as you breathe and experience the energies as patterns of energy and not pain, the experience will be great. Remain in this posture until all the energy flows have stopped.

A variance of the Plow is called the Inverted Plow.

Sit on the floor or flat surface with your legs straight out and together. Let your head, neck and upper torso lean forward using the weight of your upper body to do this, don’t force any movements, allow gravity to do it all while you focus on breathing and relaxation.

Clasp your hands behind your head and allow the weight of your arms to move your head and torso down closer to the ground, do not pull on your head or neck. Allow the weight of your arms do it all while you remain relaxed and breathing slowly. You will feel the suppressed energy held in the muscles will slowly and pleasurably release and flow through your feet or head.

MEDITATION

What is Meditation?

Meditation is the art or technique of quieting the mind so that the endless chatter that normally fills our consciousness is stilled. In the quiet of the silent mind the meditator begins to become an observer, to reach a level of detachment, and eventually, to become aware of a higher state of consciousness.

The practice of meditation helps us clear our minds. It rids us of stress, intrusive thoughts and echoes of the outside world, all of which disturb our conscious minds.

The act of of meditating opens the door to inner peace and health.

The first object of meditation is to become the master of your mind.

Anyone who worries has obviously not achieved this. To become the master of your mind you have to understand the mind. What you understand you can control.

Meditation will show you the worry is mechanical. Anger, hate, arguing, envy, resentment, judging others, justifying yourself, blaming, are all mechanical.

While the mind controls you, half of your life is lost in mechanical ifs, shoulds, doubts and fears. You will be trapped in a world of living in halves.

The more often you meditate on yourself and observe yourself in action, the stiller and more intelligently alert your mind will become. After a certain time you will find that many of the disturbing and destructive elements in your thinking have begun to disappear. You will find that you are experiencing more beauty and richness in your life, a deeper smile, the will to help someone without looking for acknowledgement, the lack of fear of tomorrow.

You will begin to know certain things that cannot be put into words. This is the dawning of the intuition of life, wisdom brought by increasing union with the subject being studied – yourself.

How long does it take to master the mind? About as long as it takes to master a foreign language.

Take a seat on a firm chair. Sit upright.

Close the eyes and breathe out until all the air is gone.

Breathe in slowly and gently and fill yourself with air.

Breathe out until you are empty.

Take three more of these deep breaths.

Deeply, slowly, evenly.

Now let the body breathe naturally.

A thought comes in…

You starting to think about something.

Observe yourself.

Thinking is mechanical.

Catch the thought.

And breath out….

As if to breathe the thought moving away from you.

Breathe the thoughts out!

Now you look at the feeling of your body, look inwardly and see what you feel. What is the feeling. Scan your body and let go of any unpleasant feelings. Just observe it and don’t get drawn into the feeling or physical pain you could experience.

To ignore the body procedure and fall straight into an imagined stillness is inadvisable. You fall into a half-daze; you are only half conscious and mistake this pleasant semi-sleep for successful meditation. This is a mind trick. The unfailing test of successful meditation is to be present in your body where your body is; not to be in some sort of trance of thought-world.

You are aware of everything that is going on within you as the feeling of yourself. If anything happens outside you that you need to know about, you feel it instantly. Without trying, you are present within and without. It is a state of acute awareness, of maximum consciousness.