All that I give are non-sentimental. I’m the centre of equilibrium in a room of thy mind, in the streets of thine life

Your currently held beliefs, whether good or bad, true or false, were formed without effort, with no sense of strain, and without the exercise of will power. Your habit whether good or bad where formed the same way. It also follows that the same process must be employed in forming new beliefs, or new habits, that is, in a relaxed condition.

Relaxation is the key to total muscle coordination and mental composure. It helps in determining adequate physical and mental response to either external or internal stimuli. Athletes use the technique of relaxation to “ward-off” fear and tension which impedes muscle coordination and general performance.

Emile Coue, the little French pharmacist, astonished the world around 1920 with the result he obtained with “the power of suggestion” he said, “your suggestion (ideal goals) must be made without effort if they are to be effective”. Another famous saying of his “ the law of reverse effort” which states ; “when the will and the imagination are in conflict, the imagination invariably wins the day”.

The late Dr. knight Dunlap made a life long study of habit and leaning processes. His experiments proved that the best way to break a habit is to from a clear metal image of the desired end result and to practice without effort toward reaching that goal. Dunlap found that either “positive practice”(refraining from the habit) or “negative practice”(performing the habit consciously and voluntarily), would have beneficial effect provided the desired end result was kept constantly in mind.

Dr. James S. Greene, founder of the National Hospital for speech disorders, New York city had a motto; “when they can relax, they can talk”.

Thus, Physical Relaxation, when practiced daily, brings about an accompanying “mental relaxation” and conscious control of your automatic mechanism. Physical relaxation also has a powerful influence in “dehypnotizing” the mind from negative attitudes and reacting patterns. It has also been proven scientifically that you absolutely cannot feel angry ,fearful, anxious, insecure ,’unsafe”, as long as your muscles are perfectly relaxed. Thus, the benefits of physical relaxation cannot be overemphasized.

We shall demonstrate a popular technique used in relaxation, which involves the use of mental pictures. It is also recommended that 1st should be practiced for at least 30mins daily.

Practice Exercise

Seat yourself comfortably in an easy chair or lie down on your back, But sitting position is more preferable. Consciously “let go”, the various muscle groups as much as possible without making to much of an effort of it . Just consciously pay attention to the various part of your body and let go a little. You will discover that you can always relax voluntarily to a certain degree. You can stop frowning and let your forehead relax. You can let your hands, arms, shoulders, legs, becomes a little more relaxed than they are. Spend about 5min doing this, then stop paying any attention to your muscles. This is as far as you are going to try to go by conscious effort. For here you shall relax more and mare by using your creative mechanism to automatically bring about a relaxed state. You are going to use “target pictures”, held in imagination and let your automatic mechanism realize those target for use.

Mental Picture 1

In your imagination, see yourself laying stretched out upon a soft bed. Visualize your legs as they would look if made of concrete legs sinking far down into the mattress from their sheer weight. Now picture your arms and hands as made of concrete they are also very heavy and sinking down into the bed and exerting tremendous pressure against the bed. In your mind eye see a friend come into the room and attempt to lift your heavy concrete legs. He takes hold of your feet and attempt to lift them. But they are to heavy for him. He can’t do it. Repeat with arms, neck etc.

Mental Picture 2

Your body consists of a series of inflated rubber balloons. Two values open on your feet, and the air begins to escape from your legs. Your legs begin to collapse and continue until they consist of only deflated rubber tubes, lying flat against the bed. Next a valve is opened in your chest and as the air begins to escape, your entire trunk begins to collapse .limping against the bed. Continue with arms , head , neck.

Mental Picture 3

See your self floating on a vast open sea. The sun reflecting its warm rays across your exposed skin. You feel the coolness of the ocean current as they blow across your face , neck, , hands , etc

You feel the wetness of the ocean on your back. Slowly and freely , you float on this vast sea. You see yourself get lighter and lighter . the ocean carries your, “ paper” weight effortlessly

St.Prince Xavier/2012/for the INC

( Extracts from THINKING PARK BY PRINCE XAVIER)