Kindly shared by Raymond.

I sometimes ask my clients the question “How to do you relax?”  Often, I hear: “I watch TV, read a book, go for a walk”.  That’s all very good and valid, of course, but how would it be to do Absolutely Nothing?

Tension in the BodyMind accumulates and contributes towards the muscular tensions in the body.  Many of the people I treat live in a constant state of stress, but to them it has just become the new normal. Many of my clients are in high power positions at work; responsibilities are huge and pressures are tremendous.  The health-affirming choices or eating organically, practicing yoga and keeping active are paramount, of course, but where’s the PAUSE, the reflection that we need to validate, affirm & experience our life in the moment, in the present?

During the day, the body is constantly exposed to external stimuli that affect our balance internally. The constant state of alertness causes us to breath shallowly and can lead to degrees of anxiety, causing us to tense-up. Our vital force of life – Energy or Qi – is affected directly by tensions as well as attitudes to life and living.  Instead of being invigorated by our work, we feel our resilience depleting slowly. We need to implement strategies to help restore balance and maintain good health.

So, lets come back to…. PAUSING.

There are several ways this can be done.  Start by choosing how long you want to pause for, maybe light a candle or smell something nice that is relaxing and pleasant to you. Turn off all phones, alarms, bells and other stimuli.  This is your time to be still and connect with yourself.

I will share what works for me:

When I come home, I enter my sanctuary of quiet and space.  This space is maintained so that I can ‘hear’ myself. There is no music, no TV just quiet.  I sit in my quiet space and look within.  I ask myself, how was my day? What lifted me, and what didn’t? I ask myself how am I feeling? What are my emotions?  Whilst in this space I breath into my tensions, my feelings, my emotions and if I burst out crying – great! It’s a release, my body has been able to let go.

Another way is to simply lie down in the corpse pose, knees comfortably bent or straight.  Here I just breathe into my belly, expanding the breath through the diaphragm and into the upper lobes of my lungs.  If thoughts come, I allow them to pass without attaching to them. Practicing this breathing method is a form of meditation that helps diffusing and eliminating stress from the BodyMind.

I would be interested to hear how you are getting on when I see you all.

Photo by Felipe Dias on Unsplash