SunAgape's Spot: How to relax

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Deeply Peaceful and Relaxed

Take a moment, and pull in a nice, deep, slow breath. Now let it out, slowly. Go inside and notice where you might be holding a little tension, and let it go. Breathe into it if you can. Soft, relaxed.

Notice your feelings, your emotions. Breathe in peaceful, breathe out worry, breathe in peaceful, breathe out fear, continue breathing in peaceful, breathing out stress until you feel soft and relaxed.

Notice your spirit. Breathe in engaged, breathe out isolated. Breathe in self-curiosity, breathe out self-ignorance. Breathe in infinite, breathe out small.

I love that exercise. Relaxing my body, mind, and spirit. Peaceful at my core, engaged, curious, light.

Why do I choose peaceful? How can I choose relaxed? What makes me serene?

I used to think that being calm meant being slow; dum..dum...dum..... with nothing much going on. How boring would that be.

How wrong was I.

When I feel serene at my core, I am my best me. I am sharp-witted, compassionate, fluid. I can do any task and enjoy it. I feel strong and beautiful and competent. Everything is fun.

I practice this a lot on the little stuff; my frustration when my computer pointer is jumping around; the fuel pump’s inability to read my card; the store being out of what I went there for; the driver in front of me going too slow. I got a lot of practice yesterday. And then I made the flip, and life is good.

Why can I choose peaceful? What makes me relax? How do I feel when I am serene?

I have to admit, I hadn’t considered the idea that I could relax my feelings until recently. I mean, I knew how to calm down, but I hadn’t made the connection about relaxing all the way through all my systems.

If you work on nothing else for the next while, work on this. When I am relaxed all the way through, I am less likely to go to my bad habits for comfort, because I am already comfortable. I will sleep better because my body and mind are relaxed. I will find bliss more easily because my spirit is relaxed.

Now I will let you in on a secret, because I love to tell my secrets. I get a lot of practice in because I use odd moments. I stopped listening to the radio in the car, and now use it to practice feeling peaceful because I have many opportunities to leave peaceful. I practice in the restroom at work, or in the elevator, or running an errand down the hall. Waiting for the bus is another nice place to run my Creative Questions, to soften my tense muscles, to breathe in deep, slow, and to breathe out slowly. In, slowly, deeply. Out, slowly, fully. Soften, relax.

How have I changed from feeling tight and clenched to choosing peaceful all the way through?

Are you feeling a bit more relaxed now? Please consider either a + or a share. It makes a big difference. How do you know you are important?

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Cure For a Relax Relapse

For you on the email list, I get my daily inspiration by pulling a card from the Creative Questions deck of cards. I pulled the” Why is it so easy?” card this morning for the second time in three days. I love it when a random draw focuses me on a particular topic.

Why is it so easy? Why can I relax? What makes it effortless?

I am playing a little mind game this week. I printed out a map whose orientation is South Pole on top. It means that where I live, in Minnesota, is now at the bottom of the US, not the top. It makes me feel a little weird to think of North as down, and South as up.

Arbitrary notions that we cleave to like they are true as breath.

We have a lot of arbitrary notions when it comes to ourselves, each other, and life in general. We behave as though they are true. They aren’t. When I think my arbitrary thoughts are true, and they are at odds with your arbitrary thoughts, we gots trouble.

One of our most treasured arbitrary notions is around stress. We believe in it with all our taxed, exhausted, sorrowful hearts.

Our reactions to stressful situations is a learned behavior. Really and truly. That is wonderful news because it means we can unlearn it and replace those reactions with new responses. Why is it so easy?

When I first encountered this idea I thought it was a cruel joke. But I started to practice with little stressors, and, Lo. I find that I stay calmer way higher on the Stressful Situation scale. Really and truly. Sometimes it surprises me, and I have to double check the calm.

Why can I relax?

I have said it before, and I will say it again. There is no situation in the world that stressing over can’t make worse.

There isn’t one thing that everyone stresses out over, except maybe birth. I don’t know about that one. Babies are so challenging to interview. Point is, stress is arbitrary and personal, and therefore we can change it.

First, you have to believe. Decide that there is a stress loophole, and you can use it. Decide that you can learn to stay calm and present and flow. Decide that you are worth learning to live easy.

Second, you have to notice how and when you stress out. Or stress in. Me, I check in with my shoulders a lot. It’s where we carry our burdens, you know, the weight of the world on our shoulders. I imagine all by stuff packed into baskets on my shoulders, and I imagine taking them off, and setting them down.

I will shrug, roll them around, do a little stretching, imagining the sense of burden falling away. I’ve used meditation, hypnosis, talk therapy, yoga, swimming, to transform stress into happy action. I like to think of it as transforming stress rather than as relieving stress. Relief always seems so temporary.

I will ask, “Why could I relax? What makes my life so easy? Why do things go my way? What makes it all so much fun?” I attend to my point of view, and shift it back to the higher vibration.

How can I feel more relaxed in this very moment?