In your mind’s eye, try to find a good path toward wellness.
To find out if you are as relaxed as you should be, here are a few questions to ask yourself.
Here are some physical challenges from Mariane Kohler in her book: The Secrets of Relaxation. Learning how to relax and be at peace with yourself can be a great wellness goal which includes changing your attitude to a more positive focus toward life.
Your Physical Being:
1. Can you reach an object 2 feet above you simply by standing on your tiptoe. Tiptoe exercises can help you with this.
2. Can you sit on a couch with one leg tucked under you?
3.Can you sit on the heels of your feet stretched out?
4. Can you sit cross-legged with your feet tucked under you, and then get up without holding onto the ground?
Your Reaction to Stress:
1. Do you wake up tired?
2. Do you suffer from occasional lapses of memory?
3. Are you clumsy?
4. Do you slam doors?
5. Are you dissatisfied with yourself?
6. Do you lose your temper easily?
7.Do you interrupt instead of hearing someone out?
8.Do you make yourself unhappy over trivial things?
9. Do you suffer from insomnia?
10. Do you have any nervous habits like grinding your teeth, tugging at your clothes, frowning, biting your nails, smoking too much?
If you answered yes to more that a few of these, you need to add relaxation techniques to your plan of becoming healthier in mind, body and soul!
So what are you supposed to do now? How can you learn to relax so that you will become less stressed out?
Well, learning about yourself can be a good first step. Learning to be more aware of yourself; are you present? Or are you absent?
Learning How to Relax
Relaxation is a practice, therefore, it will take some time to learn. You learn about being present and reaching inside of yourself to find inner peace.
You can begin with a form of relaxation that takes each part of your body and allows you to concentrate on it.
For example: Sit down with your eyes closed, your hands resting on your knees. Concentrate you thoughts on your right hand , allowing the muscles to relax. Another whole body technique is to stretch out in bed at night and allow your whole body to go limp. Your first step- allowing you to become aware of the weight of your body.
Flat on your back is a good way to start a relaxation routine for yourself. You can experiment flexing and relaxing each part of your body starting from the top of your head all the way to you toes!
Isn’t it funny that in moments of bliss our body is completely free of tension. It is because our muscles are relaxed, without strain. Is it because we are euphoric or very happy?
If your thoughts are light and full of good thoughts, nothing but good can come.
Watch Your Thoughts for they become you
If your thoughts are heavy, obsessive and negative, then this will manifest in tight, constricted muscles. And then the muscles will act upon the organs nearest to them which can give you internal trouble such as constipation, headaches.
What is Relaxation? It is the ability to consciously feel your body’s movements ( tension and flexion) and together with it, it sings, it is silent, and it has a dialog with your mind and soul.
Taken in part from: Kohler, M. (1973) The Secrets of Relaxation. New York, NY. Warner Communications Company.