Chapter 14 - How to Relax
Joseph Kennedy, best-selling author of Relax and Live, who has taught his methods of relaxation to hundreds of pilots at the Pre-flight school at Athens, Georgia, very pertinently points out that nowadays most of us, in practically all our everday activities are driving with brakes on. The brake he has in mind is unconscious tension. The worst of it is that we are not even aware that the brakes are on nor the fatigue from clenched jaw and other constricted muscles result in severe loss of energy. Tension is really waste effort, an investment of energy into tasks that should be done automatically. For example, the speaker who tries too hard to speak correctly and starts to stutter, finally becomes tongue-tied. Or the violinist, who hundreds of times has played a difficult passage without even thinking of it, fails during a concert because he tries too hard. Intense competition in every field of endeavour and the resulting anxiety and fear of failure mean that most of us invest too much energy, too great an effort into the task at hand, that we try too hard. We do not rely enough on our automatic reflexes and on the vast storehouse of experience in our unconscious mind tht can only come to the surface if we do not interfere with its mechanism. Now the tension, itself, can become an unconscious habit. And that is finally what makes it so hard to relax.
The first thing to do then, is to locate the tension in your muscles. In order to do so, we must first create more tension, then let go. In going over every group of muscles in the body, layer after layer, we learn to discover tension where we never suspected it, in the forehead, the neck, the abdomen. Remember, in order really to relax, we must first produce more tension, conscious tension. Do not make another useless effort in trying to relax. Do this systematically, tense a particular muscle and then stop. It will relax by itself.
The interesting thing is that the interrelation between mind and body is nowhere as evident as in this field. A tense muscle denotes anxiety. Tension creates anxiety; relaxation dissipates anxiety. This is literally true. It is as though the mind or brain received a message from the nerves of the tense muscles, stating that there must be something wrong, that a special effort was needed. There may have been real anxiety at the source of the muscular tension, but as tension becomes a habit, so does the anxiety, one that is purely artificial. As we relax, on the other hand, the mind assumes that everything is all right and imparts to the whole organism a feeling of confident security and well-being.
This is particularly true with tension of the forehead, the neck, the eyes, the jaw and the hands. Learn to relax them systematically, in consciously tensing them, then letting go. When the hands are kept tense, the whole body is geared for action. Learning to relax your hands when you are under pressure will give you a feeling of relief and mastery. The habit of tension is a habit of defence. In moments of physical danger, our muscles tense automatically and if we habitually live on the defensive, the unconscious mind keeps the muscles tensed.
It is a fact that it is far easier to relieve one's anxieties physically through relaxation of our muscles than to do so mentally. Or rather, the two should go together. Mental control alone, without muscular relaxation cannot possibly produce satisfactory results. Body and mind are one. A systematic relaxation of the muscles through regular relaxation exercises once or twice a day, on awakening and on retiring, will pay you dividends in a feeling of well-being and peace.
The correct technique of relaxation is one of the great accomplishments of Hatha Yoga, for the benefits of which alone, western civilization, so desperately in need of relaxation, owes a debt of gratitude to the east. This technique is bound up with the entire system of Hatha Yoga and has to do particularly with correct breathing and the conscious control of breath, of which we deal at length in the chapter devoted to that subject. We would only mention here again that much of the tension, the nervousness and anxiety existing in the western world is due to the fact that hardly anybody knows how to breathe correctly, nor is even aware of the importance of correct breathing. It is falsely assumed that we all know how to breathe without ever having learned how. Those of us who have studied Pranayama and have learned how to breathe, will hardly need any further instruction in the technique of relaxation. It is impossible to feel tense when you know how to breathe.
The causes of tension and anxiety in modern society are bound up with the whole pattern of modern civilization. As long as the pattern is not changed, the tensions created by it will automatically reflect themselves in the behaviour of men living under the stress and strain of that civilization. For the civilization that created the great Yoga system, this tension did not exist. As long as conditions are what they are, all we can do is alleviate the effects of the tension produced by the basic causes. One of the most nefarious of these is the insane striving for so-called success, in trying so hard to win.
In more recent times, the notion of tension, stress and strain has finally also been added to the vocabulary of modern medicine. The age of anxiety has been upon us too long for it not to take its toll in all sorts of diseases, including mental breakdown. The poet W.H. Auden sings:
"Sob, heavy world
Sob as you spin,
Mantled in mist, remote from the happy ..."
The notion of stress is, first of all, a notion of physics and has been defined as far back as the seventeenth century by the British physicist Robert Hooke, who stated that "Stress set up within an elastic body is proportionate to the strain to which the body is subjected by an applied load." In the human "elastic" body, serious illness can be the consequence of too much stress and strain, emotional pressure, shock, physical fatigue, bad eating habits etc. These stress diseases are said to be a fast growing modern problem. They are recognized as strictly a problem of the civilized races. What are some of the symptoms? A child may get stomach cramps before a school examination. A housewife, reports 'Time', developed rheumatoid arthritis worrying over her relationship with her husbandd. A soldier cracks under the strain of waiting for battle. But these are by no means the only mentally induced stress diseases, or psycho-somatic illnesses, as they are also called. A partial list of such diseases includes stuttering, heart diseases, skin diseases, asthma, dodenal ulcers, hypertension, even diabetes. It seems that there is a saying in Wall Street: "When stocks go down, sugar (in the urine) goes up."
Medicine has defined the cause of thse stress diseases in the following manner: "Stress diseases are caused when the combat mechanism of the body goes into action under some shock, the thyroid demanding a 'purposeless increase' in metabolic output, the pituitary sending ACTH flooding into the adrenals and the blood pressure, blood salt and blood sugar increasing. Of course, there is also muscular tension. Once stimulated by the shock, the mechanism keeps on going. The human system is exhilarated, but badly unbalanced. Exhaustion usually follows, often with a dangerous lowering of the body's normal resistance to infection." (From 'The Practitioner', Jan. 1954).
On the mental plane, stress and strain easily take the form of anxiety and physicians agree this is the most dangerous form it can take. Medicine may be all too inclined to content itself with the exact description of the disease and to treat the specific illness, the affected organ. But nowhere as in these tension diseases is it as clearly apparent that they are only symptoms of an overall disease affecting man as an entity, or what might even be considered a collective disease of modern civilization. It is a hopeful sign that it is being recognized that spiritual culture, religion, the Church should make up for the deficiencies of modern life which cause stress and anxiety. A British clergyman has pointed out that within the family life of the Christian Church, many man and women have been freed from the fetters of anxiety and self-absorbtion. And a British surgeon, concerned perhaps with the slighly sectarian nature of the remedy, has suggested that leisure might be the answer. Is it? All depends, of course, upon the nature of this leisure. Such as it is used by most people, it amounts merely to a new soucre of stress and strain.
The answer may lie in a synthesis of the two remedies suggested. Long ago Yoga has pointed out that only a sound body can be an obedient instrument of the revelations of the mind. In the field of relaxation as in others, the physical exercises of Hatha Yoga are not meant to be a purpose in themselves, but merely a training, a conditioning of the body instrument for the higher purpose, the liberation of the mind.
In this sense then, the Yoga technique of relaxation deserves a more detailed consideration. There is no doubt that the method described by J. Kennedy is based on the age-old method of Hatha Yoga which is fundamentally the alternation of concentration and relaxation. In this art Hatha Yoga is inspired by the natural habits of certain animals like the cat, the relaxation habits of which have been studied closely. The famous Asana or posture called Savasana is the human adaptation of the secret of animal relaxation.
Savasana: The Sanskrit term Savasana means dead body. Asana means posture, and, therefore, Savasana "dead-body-posture" which, of course, is one of complete repose, complete relaxation. In this posture we lie flat on our back, preferaby on the floor, on a mat or rug, naked or as lightly clad as possible, arms stretched out alongside the body, feet stretched out and close together. We breathe easily, without forcing, slowing down the breathing movements as much as possible - we rest. We thereupon consciously tense all the muscles, group after group, one after the other, beginning with the feet. Immediately after tensing the muscles we let go and relax them. This tension and relaxation must be done consciously, in concentrating all our attention upon the particular muscle thus treated, the muscles of the feet, legs, knees, abdomen, arms, hands, shoulders, neck, jaw, face and forehead. We go over the whole body in this way once, twice, three times, until all the muscles are fully relaxed. We think of nothing except deep rest and repose and peace which insures perfect health.
The effect of this exercise is immediate and surprising. Not only the muscles, but also the whole nervous system are at rest. It should, incidentally, be noted that for the development of the muscular system, relaxation of the muscles is as important as their exercise. Blood circulation is now perfectly equalized, blood distribution regular. The circulation in the veins becomes easier, the heart feels unburdened since its work has been made much eaiser. It is said that ten minutes of rest in this posture, breathing slowed down, the mind filled with the thought of rest and peace is worth a whole night's sleep. This kind of relaxation also cleans the blood of harmful toxic substances.
Savasana (Fig. 3) should be performed regularly every day on arising and on reitiring. Even during the day we can easily find a few minutes to relax in this way. The secret of the vitality of many a busy executive lies in his faculty to "let go" completely, not only physically, but also mentally, several times a day.
Surprising as it may sound, the correct execution of Savasana is not as easy as it may seem. Relaxation does not come easy to western man. As a result of the "tempo" of our life, contraction of nerves and muscles often become an unconscious habit. There is a knack to relaxation. Once you have acquired it, once you have experienced the deilicious feeling of rest and peace it brings, you will never want to miss it any more. Relaxation will become one of your dearest "good habits".
It is excellent practice in finishing this exercise, before you get up, to consciously contract all your muscles in reverse order, from head to foot and finally to stretch yourself, arms, legs, once, twice, slowly, voluptuously. You will feel marvellously revivified!
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