Through the Flaming Sword

I combine the deep breathing exercise I described in the previous Deepening Techniques post with focused relaxation on discreet areas of my body, starting at the top.

The face

Forehead : I tend to keep my forehead habitually creased, as though thinking or worried. Focus on the muscles of your forehead and let them relax, if they’re tensed.

The eyes : I tend to keep my eyelids habitually squinted or bugged—my eyelids scrunched up. Check your eyes and relax them if you’re doing the same.

The mouth

I tend to keep my lips pursed, my lower jaw in some artificially maintained position, and my tongue in some artificial placement in my mouth. Check your mouth and relax any part that’s not fully relaxed.

Review

Go back and check your forehead and eyes—they might be tensed up again.

Shoulders

Are your shoulders hunched?

Stomach

Is your stomach sucked in?

Lower abdomen

Are your inner thighs or your buttocks flexed?

Feet

Are your feet flat on the ground and relaxed?

Review

Start over and quickly run through all these areas again. You will probably find that some of them have reverted to a flexed state. I don’t dwell on them with the same attention as before in this review; I just sort of go through them in a smooth sweep of attention.

Tips

• When you have the exercise down, you can combine it with deep breaths, one deep breath for each area. This provides a good timing device for the whole exercise.
• It helps to scrunch up the part you want to relax before you relax it. This helps you learn how to narrow your focus and muscle control to that specific body part. It also helps with the relaxation.
• After just a little practice, you will find that isolating and relaxing each area gets easier and happens faster. With enough practice, it becomes second nature, almost reflexive, something you can do anywhere, anytime—a two- or three-second run-through from top to bottom for near-instantaneous relaxation.