What Does It Mean to Be in a Truly Relaxed State? And Is It Even Possible?
Relaxation and the ability to be relaxed is a very powerful tool in life.
I’ve seen it countless times since I started on my own health optimisation journey in 2011, as well as with my clients. Relaxation is one of the bases of optimised health. It helps us to be more in control of our thoughts, which in turn helps us to be more in control of our actions. And when we are more in control of our actions, it helps us to reduce inflammation in our body.
There are many benefits to being relaxed. But is being truly relaxed possible?
Don’t you hear it all the time?
When you are anxious or stressed, aren’t you told to “just relax”?
When you are feeling pain — or about to feel pain — aren’t you told again to “just relax”?
When you are about to speak in front of a large group of people, aren’t you told or telling yourself again to “just relax”?
There are many situations in life that require us to “just relax”. At even deeper levels, relaxation has the ability to show you something about yourself that most people wouldn’t believe unless they saw it for themselves.
What Is Relaxation?
When you are letting go of worry and concern in your mind, you experience greater degrees of relaxation. On the other hand, when you are encouraging worry and concern in your mind, you experience greater degrees of tension. Whether we are talking about physical or emotional tensions.
When you learn to meditate in order to experience inner peace you are encouraging yourself to relax.
When you enter into deep states of hypnosis, you are taken through a process of relaxation.
However, what is it exactly? It’s a silly question really, but the clearer we are with our definition, the easier we can reach it. So here it is: “Relaxation is the action of releasing tension in the muscles of the body.”
Mental relaxation is the action of releasing tension in the thought process, which we can do through various forms of meditation and hypnosis.
I personally love and recommend auto-hypnosis. Because of the many benefits I have found that it can bring us, I have created an auto-hypnosis audio you can use to help yourself feel more relaxed and less stressed.
So How Can We Make Use Of Relaxation?
Relaxation is something that all of us can use, at any time in our lives.
It is a tool that is very useful for dealing with situations and encounters that cause us mental anguish of any kind. It can also help us to experience a greater sense of well-being in our daily lives. Without tension, without stress, we experience greater peace. Inner peace is brought about by a relaxation in the mind and spirit.
At night, we can learn to go through a form of self-hypnosis exercise whereby we release the activities and attachments of the world by encouraging our bodies, mind, and spirits to let go, to relax and just let things be.
The positive effects of this type of mental training must be experienced to be believed, but needless to say, it is one of the most powerful tools we can have in our arsenal for encouraging greater health and wellness.
The Practice
Do these exercises at night when you go to bed when all of the days’ work is done and there is nothing else left that requires your personal attention. It can be employed during the day also, but make sure you will have at least half an hour to yourself in an environment where you won’t be disturbed or interrupted.
Silence your phone, turn off the T.V, wear something warm, and find yourself a nice comfortable spot to lie down.
- When you are lying down, allow yourself to relax and focus on your breath.
- Pay attention to the feeling in your feet and allow every muscle in them to relax.
- Slowly move your attention up into your calves and do the same thing. Breathe slowly and allow all the muscles from your calves downwards to relax.
- Move your attention slightly higher into your thighs and buttocks and do the same. Let everything relax.
- Continue the process until you have covered, bit by bit, the entire length of your body, from foot to head.
- Be aware of your breathing. Just breathe naturally and allow every muscle in your body to be in this relaxed state of awareness for as long as you like, or as long as you can.
Doing this exercise will develop your ability to be relaxed and you will learn that everything that happens to you in the world, develops a certain amount of tension in your body and mind, and doing this particular exercise will allow all of that tension to slowly dissolve.
Practising this properly can give you insight into the nature of meditation and has even led some people to have unexplainable mystical experiences. However, the main aim with this is to uncover for yourself a truly relaxed state.
Once you get the hang of this practice, you can even take it with you into your everyday life, while going about your daily business. Focus on your body and encourage your muscles to stay relaxed, by consciously relaxing them.
Advanced students of this practice will even do it while in stressful situations, combined with ‘breathing focus exercises’ to support their state of relaxation, they can face challenges and stressful situations to a degree much higher than most other people.
In terms of being alive today in the stressful world of the 21st century, developing your own truly relaxed state is a tool that is well worth forging within your body, mind, and spirit.