Meditation is one of those self-defined exercises of the soulful spirit that’s been so clearly defined by so many in so many ways, yet so ill conceived in its manner and through its function. In one of the seminars I once conducted on meditation, the greatest bit of feedback that I received more than anything else from the participants was that they found the ability to engage in any meditative exercise was usually thwarted by their own seemingly consistent inability to calm themselves enough to discover any sort of comfort zone within which to exist long enough for it to do any good in their lives.

Before too long after any stated they had attempted meditation, they found their minds too racy, filled with all sorts of thoughts of their days, their weeks, their families and of course their own fears be these rational and more often irrationally based. This is when I found myself grasping at the basics of progressive muscle relaxation and presenting these to people in a simple and functional way.

An early twentieth century Physician named Edmund Jacobson in his practice with his patients discovered that through the process of tensing and then relaxing the muscle groups of the body, one by one through a directed regimen, he found that his patients could secure a greatly increased state of physical relaxation that also had its side-benefits in a greatly reduced state of his patients levels of anxiety and tension. The obvious result was the continued practice of this progressive muscle relaxation method which he found as a direct benefit to everyone from his pregnant patients to those reporting various somatic and psychological distresses.

His words on the method were poignant yet simple. He stated that “an anxious mind cannot exist in a relaxed body”. The broad benefits to people he found ranged from their increased abilities to handle incidental stress, their increased creative abilities, their reduced anxiety, phobic and generalized anxiety responses that had become difficulties in life. People reported better abilities to concentrate in their daily lives as well as reporting generally higher levels of self-esteem and a greater degree of self-definition in their lives.

It’s a rather ironic bit of symbolism contained in this methods results, where the person would be instructed to simply tense a muscle group for a short time, a matter of some seconds, then to relax these muscles. After repeating this process along the feet, the ankles, the shins and calves, the knees, the thighs, the hips, the buttocks, the lower back, the mid-section, the chest, the shoulders, the right and left arms to the hands and finally to the neck and even the face, the effects in quite a short time was a much more relaxed overall demeanor.

This method can be practiced by anyone in a rather short period of time. It’s akin to the usual muscle stretching we all do when we’ve had a busy or a tense day in one way or another. How this can transpose into ones meditative attempts can easily present itself. With a short bit of relaxation of the body, then a control of the breath in through the nose and out from the mouth, extending fully below the diaphragm at the stomach, one will find it a bit easier to begin to engage in some inner exploration of the mind, certainly in a more relaxed position than might have otherwise been engaged previously.

Remember that meditation doesn’t have to be an overwhelming or some mystical process. It can rather be viewed as a simple viewing of the thoughts that pass before your inner eye, much as a film or a television program is thought of. Try to become comfortable with this idea in the beginning stages of looking inwardly, while not placing judgments or over-bounded values on anything. Simply think of what you see and then feel as a bit of self-research along with some degree of objectivity. Try and avoid the inner moralizing or inner judging that is usually the very factor that causes one to leap up from ones seat after two or three minutes usually with the statement, “OKAY, That’s enough!”

Once this position has been carved out, then the inner journey can begin, and what a voyage it will be!

As Always,

WD

© 2009 WD Allan, spiritualitymoment.com

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