Quick way to relax your Body

Of course, relaxing your body has its own wonderful benefits — but your body won’t stay relaxed until you’re able to work with your mind. You can use deep relaxation techniques to relax your mind and body.

Thoughts keep leaping like the proverbial monkey in your mind and your body responds by tightening and tensing, especially in certain key places like the throat, the heart, the solar plexus, and the belly. When the discomfort gets intense enough, you register it as an emotion — fear, perhaps, or anger or sadness.

Because it connects you with your direct experience — and ultimately with a realm of pure being beyond the mind — meditation naturally relaxes your body while it focuses your mind. As a beginner, though, you may not experience this natural relaxation for days or even weeks. So it can be helpful to practice one of the  relaxation techniques in the following list before you meditate.

Turning your attention inward

Just take a few minutes right now to turn your mind around and pay attention to what you’re sensing and feeling. Notice how much resistance you have to shifting your awareness from your external focus to your simple sense experience. Notice how busily your mind flits from thought to thought and image to image, weaving a story with you as the central character.

Five brief relaxation technique 

Shower of relaxation: 
Imagine taking a warm shower. As the water cascades across your body and down your legs, it carries with it all discomfort and distress, leaving you refreshed and invigorated.
Honey treatment: 
Imagine a mound of warm honey perched on the crown of your head. As it melts, it runs down your face and head and neck, covering your shoulders and chest and arms, and gradually enveloping your whole body down to your toes. Feel the sensuous wave of warm liquid draining away all tension and stress and leaving you thoroughly relaxed and renewed.
Peaceful place: 
Imagine a safe, protected, peaceful place — perhaps a forest, a meadow, or a sandy beach. Experience the place fully with all your senses. Notice how calm and relaxed you feel here; now allow that feeling to permeate every cell of your body.
Body scan: 
Beginning with the crown of your head, scan your body from top to bottom. When you come to an area of tension or discomfort, gently allow it to open and soften; then move on.
Relaxation response: 
Choose a word or brief phrase that has deep spiritual or personal significance for you. Now close your eyes and repeat this sound softly, again and again.

Action Exercise: Practicing relaxation

To reduce your stress and reap the other benefits of relaxation, try practicing this simple exercise for 15 or 20 minutes each day. Known as the Relaxation Response, it was developed in the 1970s by Herbert Benson, MD, a professor at Harvard Medical School, based on research into the benefits of Transcendental Meditation (TM).

1. Find a spot where you can sit quietly and undisturbed.

2. Sit in a position that you can comfortably maintain for the duration of your meditation.

3. Choose an object to concentrate on.
This “object” can be a visual symbol (such as a geometric shape) or a special syllable, word, or phrase, known as a mantra, that you repeat again and again. Objects with deep personal or spiritual meaning are especially effective. As much as possible, keep your attention focused on this object; when you get distracted, come back to your focus. (If your object is internal, close your eyes.)

4. Maintain a receptive attitude.
Let thoughts, images, and feelings pass through without trying to hold or interpret them. Resist the temptation to evaluate your progress; just gently bring your attention back when it wanders.

With regular practice, you may gradually begin to notice that your body is more relaxed and your mind is more peaceful — just a few of the many benefits of meditation.

Key Points