Relax your body by starting with your mind — techniques relaxation and meditation.

The mind and body are intimately connected.  If you want to feel anxious and couldn't be simpler: breathe very shallowly, just in the top part of your chest.

Similarly, if you want to get your body agitated, just imagine something unpleasant or fearful or annoying.

When it comes to relaxation techniques, there are two primary ones.  The first is relaxing the mind by focusing on the body.  For example, progressive muscle relaxation.

With this technique you tense, some part of your body as hard as you can until you can't hold on any longer and then simply let go and simply relax.  And then repeat with the next part of your body, and the next, and the next, working from your toes all the way to your head, or from the top your head all the way down to your toes.

The relaxation, or what some might call exhaustion, that you feel in your body from doing this will transfer to your mind/thoughts and you'll definitely feel some calmness.

In terms of starting with the mind, most of the techniques relaxation involve meditation of some sort.  The problem with meditation is that it's not as direct as, for example, progressive muscle relaxation. In other words it's not as simple to tense your mind and then let go from exhaustion and feel their relaxation move through your mind.

For most meditation the mental relaxation is kind of a side effect.  For example, you're given a mission of watching your breathing and, in order to do this, you have to eventually figure out some way of relaxing your mind to accomplish this difficult task.

Most meditation relaxation techniques involve trying  to do something to the objects of awareness — the things that arise in your mind, like thoughts, sensations, feelings et cetera.  It's kind of like rearranging the stuff on a messy desk; it takes some effort and it takes some time. You might get things arranged a neat stacks for a little while but then the wind seems to blow or you get another batch of mail and the next thing you know everything on the desk is messy again.

I'd like to suggest an alternative. Something that comes from the Instant Advanced Meditation course — which is a meditation relaxation cd course.

Look around you at an actual desk (or table). And instead of looking at the things *on* the desk, notice the desk itself.  The desk  doesn't have a problem with anything that's on it, or whether things are messy or not. It's as if the desk is the background for everything that is on it. It's as if the desk always quiet, always still, no matter what's on it.

Similarly, your mind has a desk-like quality. A background that has no problem with anything "on" it, like thoughts or sensations or feelings. This is the background for whatever you're experiencing. It isn't affected by the thought or sensation.

Another analogy might be helpful is this:  Thoughts are like waves. And the only way to waves can exist is because an ocean exists.  So simply turn your attention to the ocean instead of the waves.

Here's yet another analogy: The sky doesn't care whether there are clouds and it, or how fast the clouds are moving, or how big the clouds are. See if you can sense that there's something like this sky in your mind when you notice the clouds  — thoughts sensations sounds etc. — that arise.

When you can put your attention on his background quality of the mind.  You might feel a small physical release, a letting go, a relaxation.  When you do, see how effortlessly you can merely encourage that relaxation to expand into the rest of your body.

While this might sound a little bit odd, if you play with it you'll probably discover how to do this meditation relaxation anywhere, at any time. As techniques relaxation go, it's worth giving it a whirl.

Next Post: Is meditation a relaxation system?

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