If you count the number of relaxation techniques that have been described, recommended, tried and forgotten you would be counting beyond your ability to remember what you were anxious about and will fall sleep before you are finished.
There is relaxation style for every person in every situation and in every route imaginable including lungs, muscle, mind, voice, and sleep.
The grand daddy of all relaxation techniques is also a kind of meditation and employs the elements that cause all suffering and routes away from suffering.
It has other names but from my sources it’s called one pointed concentration Is it easy. It is hard depending how you approach it.
You can use it for simple relaxation or as vehicle that takes you to enlightenment which is relaxing too – possibly for eons.
Sitting quietly, preferably with legs crossed, you merely imagine gazing at a simple object for as long as you have the time.
That’s it? Well there is more. The instruction is easy – the implementation is less easy. It’s as easy or hard as you want it to be and if you are self critical it falls on the hard side. You decide.
The idea is to maintain the image clearly in mental focus for seconds to minutes. A few years ago I started out with a dot which I could keep in an imaginary pristine condition for three seconds before it was covered up by an imaginary cloud. Piss poor. It was like I was helpless to the smothering death of the dot but I thought it back into existence over and over and over.
I have improved some since then and now use more complicated images such an image of my wife’s face or an image of my spiritual guru.
Incidentally, when I meditated on my wife’s smiling face she was always in a good mood the next time I saw her. That is relaxing.
Many short meditations are generally better than fewer longer ones. There is no limit of how long you hold the object and the objectneeds to be still.
Actually this technique is described in many spiritual traditions but the practice of a spirituality to do it is not necessary.
Faithfully once a day every and in three months and you will brag progress.
Brevity and simplicity is vital to good practice because giving up and avoiding is a common habit for no particular reason except no time which is baloney because coming up with three minutes is a cinch.
Give it a shot.
It’s a win win situation.
