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relax_all_your_muscles.html
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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8" />
<title>Relax All Your Muscles</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Lato" />
<link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css" />
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" />
</head>
<body>
<div class="top">
<div class="back">
back to: <a href="/">Be Well Tuned</a>
</div>
<div class="tabs">
<span>Skill</span>
</div>
</div>
<div class="content">
<h1>Relax All Your Muscles</h1>
<h2>What do you get out of it?</h2>
<ul>
<li>
<p>The good.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>A predictable, easily actionable way to reduce stress.</p>
<ul>
<li>This can go a long way after a tiring day at work etc.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>Helps relax muscles after exercise (similar to massage).</p>
<ul>
<li>If execute this really well, your body won’t be sore on the next day.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>A gentle introduction to <a class="page" href="/sense_your_body_with_extreme_clarity">Sense Your Body with Extreme Clarity</a> and <a class="page" href="/tune_your_motor_cortex">Tune Your Motor Cortex</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li>Learning to relax your body is very useful on its own, which means that by learning it first you can reduce the barrier to entry to these more esoteric skills.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>The bad.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>You might easily fall asleep.</p>
<ul>
<li>This soporific effect is not always undesirable, and in fact you can integrate the skill into your life as a way to accelerate falling asleep.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h2>How to tell if you have it?</h2>
<p><em>Note: this is an easy skill. You are likely to get value out of it on the first try, though there will still be a lot of room to improve.</em></p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>You can intentionally relax your body to a degree that makes a clear difference.</p>
<ul>
<li>Ideally, you can tell which muscles and muscle groups are already relaxed, and which ones need more work.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>You know how to balance exercise and relaxation in a way that makes your body refreshed and ready to repeat the cycle on the next day.</p>
<ul>
<li>A part of why many people exercise irregularly is that they lack awareness of this balance, and push themselves too hard.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h2>How does it work?</h2>
<ul>
<li>
<p>The stress response (activation of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sympathetic_nervous_system">sympathetic nervous system</a>) is closely linked to muscle tone.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Whenever you are stressed, your muscles tend to subtly get more and more tense, in a way that accumulates throughout the day.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The connection between these two effects is two-way, so you can also directly reduce the stress response by making all (or most) of your muscles relaxed.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>One way to learn how to explicitly relax your muscles is to put your body in a situation in which it’s naturally going to happen anyway, and pay close attention to the process.</p>
<ul>
<li>Mentally saying phrases like “I want my arm to be more relaxed” or “I notice how my arm is becoming more relaxed” helps create a link between muscle relaxation as it happens automatically and subconsciously, and your explicit awareness of it.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h2>How to learn it?</h2>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Before you start.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>It’s a very good idea to do some mild exercise.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>The skill works perfectly fine without it, but the positive effects are amplified by combining it with exercise.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Try e.g. 20 minutes of light jogging.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>Step 1.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Lie down comfortably on your back, and give yourself somewhere between 15 and 30 minutes to do this.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Make sure that your body is oriented in a natural way, and there’s nothing uncomfortable about your clothes or the position of your limbs.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>This typically involves having your arms symmetrically spread to the sides, at an angle to your torso.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>Step 2.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>From this point onwards, keep your body perfectly still (for the whole duration of the exercise).</p>
<ul>
<li>At some point you might get a strong urge to move some part of your body. This means you are onto something - do not yield!</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>Close your eyes gently.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Stop moving your tongue (just let it relax and rest on the bottom of your mouth cavity).</p>
<ul>
<li>This might sound strange as the first part of your body to focus on, but there’s a simple reason for it: if you do this, after a few minutes your mouth will stop producing saliva, and you won’t be distracted by needing to swallow while going through the rest of your body.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>Step 3.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Follow the template of an inner monologue that is given below (or some customized variant of it).</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>While calling out each part of your body, let your attention go completely to that place.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>However, put no pressure on yourself to make anything happen as a result of this.</p>
<ul>
<li>The best advice if you are new to this kind of mental activity is probably to take as your goal to simply <em>say the words in your head</em>, without worrying about whether they are causing anything to happen at all.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>It helps to explicitly add slow, deliberate inhales and exhales as a practiced part of the monologue.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>For example, take a slow inhale before each line, and then say the line together with a slow exhale.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Alternatively, to slow down even more, breathe twice for each line (you can also repeat the words).</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p>I want the toes of my left foot to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my left foot to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my left ankle to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my left calf to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my left knee to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my left thigh to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my left buttock to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my left hip to be relaxed.</p>
<p><em>[Then repeat the same for the right leg]</em></p>
<p>I want my crotch to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my belly to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my lower back to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my left side to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my right side to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my chest to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my back to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want both my shoulders to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my neck to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want the fingers of my left hand to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my left hand to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my left wrist to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my left forearm to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my left elbow to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my left upper arm to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my left shoulder to be relaxed.</p>
<p><em>[Then do the same for the right side]</em></p>
<p>I want my shoulders to be even more relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my neck to be even more relaxed.</p>
<p>I want the back of my head to rest gently on the ground.</p>
<p>I want the top of my head to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my forehead to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my eyes to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my nose to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my left cheek to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my left ear to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my right cheek to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my right ear to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my mouth to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my jaw to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my tongue to be relaxed.</p>
<p>I want my throat to be relaxed.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h2>Further progress</h2>
<ul>
<li>Once you get a foot in the door with this skill, it will be easier to learn how to <a class="page" href="/sense_your_body_with_extreme_clarity">Sense Your Body with Extreme Clarity</a> and <a class="page" href="/tune_your_motor_cortex">Tune Your Motor Cortex</a>.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="bottom">
<div class="back">
back to: <a href="/">Be Well Tuned</a>
</div>
<p>Copyright 2017-2018 SquirrelInHell</p>
</div>
</body>
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