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Lie flat on your back. Place your arms at
your sides, palms down, several inches from the body, legs at full
length. Relax to the best of your present ability. Make sure that you
are allowing the bed to receive your full weight. After taking about
three minutes to close the eyes gradually and lightly, keep them closed
throughout the entire practice period:
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After approximately ten minutes of such
relaxation without moving your arms-slowly stiffen the muscles slightly
:n both arms in their entirety, without clenching your fists. Hold it
at this degree of stiffness for about ten seconds. Now stiffen a little
more and hold still--a little more and hold. Maintain that
rigidity in the arms for about thirty seconds.
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Carefully observe a distinct feeling
throughout both arms. This sensation is the experience of tension. It
occurs when a muscle contracts. This feeling, also called the
"tension-sense," is a signal of nervous-muscular activity. It is under
your voluntary control, and may also be termed the "control sensation."
You must become familiar with this feeling of tenseness--no matter
where it occurs in the body or how slight it may be--so that you can
rid yourself of it! As you become aware of the sensation of tenseness
in your arms, realize that you alone are responsible for its presence
because you are doing something! This "doing" involves effort on your
part. What we want is the opposite of effort-that is, simply, "not
doing"!
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Now, slowly, let go, slightly, of the
stiffness in both arms and hold it. Let go a little more and hold;
still a little more-a little more-observing as you do that the feeling
in the arms diminishes in intensity. Now let go completely, and note
that the sensation in the arms disappears. The disappearance or absence
of this sensation is relaxation. This illustrates progressive tension
and relaxation in the arm muscles. Maintain such relaxation for about
five minutes.
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Repeat the tension and relaxation as
above, and make your observation. Relax completely for about five
minutes.
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Repeat the tension and relaxation one
more time. Then relax beyond the stage where you think that the arms
are perfectly relaxed, and even further, in order to do away with
residual tension. Devote the remainder of the practice period to
complete relaxation, without performing any more tensions.
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Bear in mind that true relaxation
involves no effort, while tension does. You did not have to do anything
in order to relax! However, you did have to put forth effort, or do
something, in order to tense your muscles. During tense states, muscle
fibers contract, producing the sensation or experience
called the "tension-sense," while during a completely relaxed state
muscles are limp.
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