Destress method

Whenever I feel tired or stressed, I will use the following method to relax.

First, find a quiet place and sit down comfortably with back straight. Then close the eyes and relax whole body slowly.

Start by relaxing the scalp, moving down to the forehead, eye muscle nose, mouth, face, ears and neck. Next, relax the shoulders, forearms, wrists, palm and fingers. Feel your muscles relaxing as you focus your attention to them.

Move next to the chest, stomach, groin, then to the upper back, lower back and buttocks, and on to the thigh, knee and calve muscles. Lastly is the ankle feet and toes.

Sweep thru the body from head to toe, and see if any of your muscle is still tense. Focus your attention there, and slowly relax it. Feel it let go, just relax.

After taking care of the physical body, move on to the mind. We have to make it soft and relax too.

Start by wishing our own self to be happy and care free. Free from all problems(work, money, relations, etc..). imagine we are happy and healthy. See ourselves smiling, happy and healthy.

Next, radiate this wish to our parents, teachers, relatives, friends, colleagues, and everyone around. See them happy and smiling in front of us(mentally).

After making our body and mind relaxed, we are ready to recharge and relax further.

Bring our attention to our breathing. Note the in’s and out’s of our breath. Notice when we are breathing long or short. If we get distracted(by other thoughts, eg bored), just gently bring our attention back to our breathing.

One method I find useful is to count the breathing as it goes in and out. I will count from 1 to 10, then back from 10 to 1. whenever I get distracted and lost count, I will start from 1 again.

After sometime, fully relaxed and recharged, I will slowly open my eyes, noting how my brain send signals to the eyelids to open, and how the eyelids slowly pulling up. Then slowly unfold my legs, lie down, and sleep…

I notice I will have less dreams(or less tiring ones, where I am working, or got chased around by monsters) if I do it before bed…

Guess I have to be more hardworking and destress before sleeping. Winks.