دار بيبليون
Practicing Relaxation/Notes from a videoconference by Lwiis Saliba
On Zoom – Wednesday, May 24, 2023
The tree of meditation has its roots in relaxation, its trunk in stability and its leaves in alertness (Tibetan tradition).
Lwiis now quotes a psychiatrist who writes in Arabic on relaxation and finds what yoga says.
The parasympathetic system is like a muscle, if you don’t work it, it will become incapable of doing it.
“Relaxation releases anxiety, like removing the clog from the bottom of a tub by draining the water.”
Without realizing it often, we dissipate our energy without realizing it.
2 tips for saving energy: observe yourself regularly.
Act more slowly.
Talk less.
Practice :
Act more slowly: stop with empty lungs.
Talk less: khechari mudra.
Break the nutcracker.
Jaws-thighs – relaxation in parallel.
Observe yourself:
– Are we clenching our jaws?
– Tic of passing the tongue between the lips.
– Bite one’s nails.
– Chew the pen or pencil.
– These nervous tics are both causes and consequences of anxiety.
– Snapping fingers: again both consequences and causes of anxiety.
Scientific research has proven that the essential cause of tension is not the amount of effort you put in, but the way in which you make it.
Doing the same job while wasting less energy:
Apply to breathing: breathe while spending less energy in unnecessary tensions and blockages: move towards great fluidity.
Cf Vijayânanda: “I got tired during my first satsangs because I put ego in them, I planned too much what I wanted to say. When I let things pass spontaneously, I no longer got tired.
Another golden rule given by Lwiis to save energy: each movement must be accompanied by breathing [cf yoga of Daisikachar]
– Yawning also causes a massage of the stomach… among multiple effects.
The psychiatrist insists a lot on yawning, it is very effective to reduce fatigue, tension, to reduce migraines and headaches, and has a positive effect on the aesthetics of the face, thanks to a natural massage effect to avoid wrinkles. It helps us to control our voice, and tensions in the chest. Also, practicing yawning before sleeping is a great introduction to deep sleep.
So, 5 tips for having deep relaxation:
1- Learn to yawn deeply, which can be synchronized with other exercises.
2- Remember to keep the lower jaw relaxed.
3- Relax the tongue, put it below the lower incisors.
4- Smile with both lips well stretched, which allows you to open both nostrils, the one in particular that is already closed. It can improve breathing and through it all physical and mental health.
5- Adopt alternate breathing. It opens the closed nostril and widens the airways.
There is a very curious Chinese proverb quoted by this Arabic-speaking doctor: “He who has a healthy body breathes through his big toe, while he who is sick breathes through his throat”. It can evoke a global breathing or a flow that settles peacefully throughout the body, which tends to disintegrate the usual blockages. Dharana, concentration on the big toe, is described in some yoga texts. It is related to the fixity of visual attention. In acupuncture, the second point of the spleen which is at the articulation of the big toe is connected to joy, this joy which one feels when one walks briskly at great strides, and of which this point is stimulated by the more complete unfolding of the step, especially at the level of the back foot each time.
Convenient :
Inhale and exhale through the big toes, and feel the connection with the nose, the tip of the toe corresponding to the tip of the nose.
Do not tense up because of the desire to be relaxed: do not fall into this paradox.
Beware of overwork when you want to work too much thinking that relaxation can also be a great waste of energy. Make shorter sessions to prevent this…
For a large portion of those with cardiac symptoms, it can only be stress without actual cardiac signs.
In summary, do not go to the point of fatigue…
About fear and fear: they are behind most psychological problems.
Observe small annoyances such as tingling: this is the first step in getting rid of these little annoyances.
Every man has many fears within himself of which he is generally unaware: therefore, look deep within himself for buried, hidden fears… Talk to others about them. This will take away a lot of the tension.
Jacques Vigne practices:
enveloping OM.
Put on two shawls to warm the body by wrapping it, and thus relax it
The three middles of the jaws, trapezius and thighs: “cut the pear in half” to remove tension.
Pass the nails towards the middle of the palms of the hands which are on the thighs on the inhale, and exhale through the middle of the thighs the black juice of its aggression in the earth below.