Relaxation and stretching
People who rush about in a frenzy are often not the ones who obtain the best results. What about the man who has had the time to think ? Who has made the time to think ? While others rushed dizzily past him he has been evolving ideas, building and planning in his slow but constructive mind. It has been said that much of the wonderful work of the world has been done by the dull man who has done his best. Yoga will not teach you to be dull, rather the contrary it will teach you to be more magnetic, but it will express you the importance of knowing when to slow down. The ancient Chinese believed in the theory of ‘masterly inactivity’ and this served to lay down the foundation of a unique civilization. By ‘inactivity’ I do not mean idleness, laziness or mental inertia. Yoga is not for the lazy. No, Yoga’s inactivity serves as a breathing space among the bustle of every day life so that one can recharge the batteries of one’s physical and mental techniques to pursue life with renewed energy and clearer thought. Yogis realized, centuries ago, that the mind always functions better in a state of relaxation. Force yourself to work and the result is a headache, weariness, and a lack of spontaneity. In those fields of work where creative capability is continuously called into play this spontaneity is of essential importance. No one wants to read, hear, or look at something dragged from a fogged and exhausted brain. Yoga’s first lesson, then, is how to relax. I do not wish to be an alarmist but the sheer inability to relax sends a lot millions of people to their graves ten, twenty, sometimes forty years before their time. So let us first consider how you are, here and now, going to cheat the undertaker of those precious years of your valuable time. First of all do not confuse relaxation with inertia. Relaxation has been defined as ‘a conscious transfer of energy from one department of nature to another after an extreme tension of body and brain’. A mere alteration of occupation is a form of relaxation. This is why a lot office workers play football or tennis at weekends, why a lot manual workers sit and watch television, why a lot ‘brain’ workers have hobbies that involve working with the hands. For your first lesson in relaxation let us consider that mid-morning cup of tea that the bulk people look forward to. What do you do when it arrives? Stand and gulp it down and maybe throw another one down your throat after it? Try again. No matter who you are, a busy housewife and mother, a secretary, a company director, a cabinet minister, or a ballet dancer, stop when that cup of tea arrives. Stop, whatever you're doing, sit down quietly even if all hell is let loose around you, and enjoy that cup of tea. Drink it slowly. Try to forget, even if you have only five minutes to do so, all your immediate cares— the shopping, the laundry, that lost letter, that copy your editor is screaming for, that order you forgot to push out. Let it wait. What is the very worst thing that can happen if you drink a cup of tea in peace and quiet? Why nothing. And how much better you will feel for it, how much easier things will seem after your few moments’ respite. Relax regularly and you double your efficiency. If you doubt me then try it and see. But this is a book about Hatha Yoga so you will want to know the Yoga technique to relax. Lie down on the floor and let go. That is all. And that is Yoga? It is indeed. It is called SAVASANA or the CORPSE POSTURE. Not a very pleasant name I agree but all the same it's one of Yoga’s the bulk valuable and powerful weapons against sick health and stress. It is pictured in figure 1. Try it. Lie down on the floor, no pillows, just a rug or the carpet. Leave off your shoes and wear as little clothing as possible. Whatever you wear must be light and loose fitting. Now stretch your arms above your head and stretch out your legs and feet. Go on, have a wonderful stretch like your cat does before it settles down to sleep. Close your eyes and let your head roll to one side. Let your hands flop where they will and imagine that your body has no bones and that you're giving your whole weight to the floor. Imagine you're on a cloud and that your body is slowly sinking via it. Keep your eyes closed and think of something peaceful, a lovely piece of music probably or the sound of the sea. Put on a assuaging record if you like or open the window and listen to the birds. Tell yourself that you're drowsy and comfortable over and over again. Now then, what about those knots of tense muscles around your mouth, your eyes, your stomach and your legs? Go over al! areas of your body and locate any knots of tension there might be. Be stern with them. Make them loosen up. Very likely they will tighten up again as soon as your back is turned so to speak but keep your mind’s eye open and consciously and repeatedly relax any clenched muscles. The worst offenders by far are the muscles of the face. You are clenching your teeth and your jaws right now are you not? You will be surprised at the number of people who do that, even in their sleep. The counter measure is yawning. Do it as often as you could but do please choose apposite times as yawning is not socially acceptable in a lot circles and your commendable efforts to teach your facial muscles to relax might be misinterpreted! Open your mouth as wide as you can, stretch your jaws, tense your facial muscles and then suddenly relax them. Keep practicing that movement and you will soon rid yourself of teeth clenching. That in itself is a wonderful start. So you're lying on the floor in the Corpse Posture and you're finding that it isn’t as easy as it appearance to relax. It is easy to lie down on the floor but you think I am unreasonable to ask you to relax every muscle, do you not ? But it can be done. I can do it and so can a lot other people. It takes constant practice but how worthwhile is time spent towards this end for Savasana is one of the greatest vitalizers known to man. Perform it whenever you're tired, angry, upset, or brain-fagged. Perform it whenever things obtain on top of you. It is not time wasted. It is Yoga’s ‘masterly inactivity’ working for you. No one is too madly busy to be quite not able to practice the art of relaxation at least once a day. Give to it a little of your time and it will repay you a thousandfold. What about those few minutes before you obtain into bed at night? Are you too busy then? When you have made some progress with Savasana your feet would be set firmly on the Yoga path. Its amazing influence will commence to work for you. As you grow more and more able to smooth away the tensions in your body you will find that the tensions in your mind will also become less. Problems which seemed mountainous will, if you practice and ideal the art of relaxation, be alleviated to a size whereby you could cope with and overcome them. But to return to you lying on the floor and thinking yourself into relaxing those tense muscles. What about that mind of yours running round in circles? What about that eye of yours on the clock ? What about that nagging worry at the back of your mind that you should be up and about doing things? No, you're not really relaxing at all. Let us try again. Let us approach Savasana from another angle. I want you to learn to stretch. A simple ample request but, you may ask, is this Yoga too? Just—stretching? It is indeed. As you read this book it will become more and more apparent to you that although Yoga is a Hindu science three thousand years old, a spiritually based technique of life, a contemplative philosophy and a profoundly dedicated art, nevertheless it has a real and essential place in modern every day life, your life. A simple thing like stretching is as much a part of Yoga as any of the more snarled up postures which I will describe during the course of this book. Stretching then. Lie down as before on your back with your legs and feet together and raise your arms above your head with the fingers interlaced. Now turn your hands palms upwards and you will instantly feel the increased stretch along your ribs and back. Stretch your arms as far above your head as you could and at the same time point your toes and push them forward so that you feel the tension in every part of your legs, arms and shoulders. Concentrate on stretching thus far and when, after practicing a few times, you could fully tense your arms, shoulders and legs simultaneously, try at the same time to pull in your stomach muscles, arch your spine, and to complete the picture open your mouth in a gigantic yawn. You will not make a particularly aesthetic picture at this moment but bear in mind that Yoga should always be practiced alone and in silence, if possible in secrecy. It is not a science for the extrovert. So you could go ahead and pull faces to your heart’s content and if no one is any the wiser you and your health would be all the better for it. Having stretched every part of your body, suddenly let go. Remember that you must stretch everything you could to the utmost, before you let go, so that the ensuing relaxation would be all the more complete. And when you let go you're once more in Savasana but this time you should feel much more relaxed. But keep a wary eye open for those persistent offenders—eyes, lips, teeth, and tongue. Are you clenching them again? Train your mind to watch these key points throughout the day not only when you're practicing Savasana, and if you discover that you're clenching any of your facial muscles be stern with them. As I have reiterated, they need constant watching but your persistence will soon be rewarded not only in a new feeling of relaxation but also in your appearance. For Yoga is a beauty treatment too. Those little tension lines around your eyes, lips, and between the eyebrows will not be given a chance to develop into deep, ineradicable wrinkles. Yoga, and particularly Savasana is the simple secret of how devotees of Yoga remain miraculously young looking even when well advanced in years, for nothing is so ageing as stress. It puts lines on to the face, sends the eyes back into their sockets, and gives an ageing droop to the figure. Having approached Savasana from two dissimilar angles, let us try a third. Yoga, while based on a set of unchanging principles, is not dogmatic and there is much room for personal preference and capabilities. Yoga’s greatness lies in its capability to recognize every individual and not lump humanity together as so a lot other sciences do. Savasana, then, from a third angle. This one is rather more hard but you may find it rather fun. It is called the A ngle Balance and you will observe an illustration of it in figure 33. It is not as easy as it appearance but it's well worth your perseverance. |
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