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This is the technique of relaxing worry
(with eyes remaining closed), taking as an example the possibility of
losing your position as the needless anxiety or fear. However, you may
substitute in its place any worry or particular fear which may be
troubling you.
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Lie on your back comfortably and make
sure that your entire body including the eyes and speech apparatus are
completely relaxed.
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After about fifteen minutes of such
relaxation, start "worrying" that you may lose your job.
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Observe very closely what is now taking
place---the instant you begin to worry, you have a mental picture,
along with a slight tension in the eye muscles. You are visualizing the
various unpleasant details and the consequences of losing your
position.
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Note that you are seeing various mental
pictures related to the troubling situation. The phenomenon in the eyes
can be likened to a motion picture projected on a screen.
Of course you now realize that you are
looking directly at your worry. At the same instant, carefully observe
the very slight tension in your speech apparatus, In addition to seeing
your worry, you are actually talking or representing, over and over
again to yourself, or to others, the nature of the trouble, without
producing a sound! This inner speech is rapid, slurred, and the words
are telescoped.
Some persons may not experience marked visual imagery When they worry;
others, on the other hand, may experience both visualization and inner
speech during the worry process. This observation should make it
clear to you that "worrying" includes brain plus muscle action in an
inseparable combination.
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Now completely relax the eyes and the
speech apparatus. Again carefully note that when you do so, the
mental pictures disappear and inner speech ceases. For the present you
have stopped worrying!
Lets emphasize that at this point that you have stopped worrying
because you have relaxed, to an extreme degree, your eyes and speech
apparatus, which are the key regions controlling thought (and worry)
processes.
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Maintain complete relaxation for ten
minutes. Until you become sufficiently skillful in relaxing your
worries, you will undoubtedly have some recurrence of undesirable
mental pictures and inner speech involved in the process of worry.
Observe when this occurs that you are tensing the eye and speech (key)
regions. Relax these parts when-ever the worry makes its appearance.
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Again, in imagination, choose to worry
about something, and make your observation as above. Let go all the
muscles involved in the worry (thinking) process, and relax completely
for the remainder of the practice period.
Relaxation Tips
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Make sure when relaxing worry to
completely let go the forehead, brow and eyelids, together with the eye
and speech regions.
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You are tensing muscles whenever you
worry.
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In the early stages of practice, relief
from worry may not be constant. However, beneficial results in the form
of nearly complete relief will be acquired through diligent practice
and application of the technique as outlined in this work.
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The desired goal in relaxing worry is
attained when relaxation becomes "second nature," so that the worry
process can be "shut off" much like an electric switch, at any time.
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