This is your dedicated time to relax and here are some suggestions to make this whole process seem more relaxing to you.
First,
Find a comfortable spot to sit or lay down and as you do this,
Take some time to take off your shoes and if you're wearing a watch,
Take that off too.
Feel free to loosen any tight clothing whether it's your belt,
Maybe a tie or perhaps even a button collar and then feel free to position yourself as comfortably as you can.
And now,
Having done all that,
Take a moment to take a nice slow deep breath and as you exhale just think the word relax.
The technique that we'd like to try in this segment of the tape is called the autogenic training technique and with this technique,
It's suggested that you have the ability to begin to make any part of your body feel very comfortable merely by the suggestion of thinking this.
The mechanisms behind this technique involve the movement of the flow of blood from your body's core to any part of your body whether it's your arms,
Hands,
Legs or feet,
Maybe even your head,
That you would like to feel more relaxed.
Right now,
I'd like you to take a moment to recognize that in a resting state,
The majority of your body's blood resides in your abdominal cavity in your GI tract.
That's about 80% and the remaining 20% circulates throughout your body in a resting state,
Just to carry a maintenance level of nutrients and oxygen to the brain and to your muscles and all your organs.
But one way to feel more relaxed is to try and decrease muscle tension and your muscles and the periphery,
Whether it's your arms or your legs,
Tend to carry a lot of tension.
In fact,
It is the number one symptom of stress.
Your muscles are like sponges and if you've ever held a dry sponge and tried to bend it,
You know very well that it can begin to tear and break.
But if you were to saturate a sponge with water,
It becomes very pliable and very easy to bend.
In fact,
A sponge,
When it's very saturated,
Becomes very relaxed.
Well,
That's how some people would like to have their muscles be,
Very calm,
Very relaxed.
So in this technique,
What we're going to try and do is allow your thoughts and your suggestions to be directed,
In this case,
To your arms and hands and allow the flow of blood to move from your body's core down into your arms and hands to make those muscles feel more calm and relaxed.
Think right now that by merely suggesting this to yourself,
You have the ability to redirect the flow of blood to any part of your body that you wish.
Right now,
I'd like you to think to yourself that you would like to move the flow of blood down into your arms and hands.
And when you do this,
You'll notice that your arms and hands begin to feel very warm and very heavy.
And the warmth and heaviness comes from this redistribution of the flow of blood down to these muscles to saturate them like you would saturate a sponge with water.
And so think to yourself right now that you would like to send internally the blood from your body's core up into your shoulders and down into your arms and hands.
And the mere thought about this will allow the blood vessels in the arms and hands to begin to dilate to receive more blood.
And at the same time,
The blood vessels and your body's core in the GI tract area will begin to constrict and actually force a shunting of blood from this area up into your shoulders and down into your arms and hands.
And now think to yourself with each breath that you take,
With each beat of your heart,
You'd like to have a sense of warmth and heaviness in your arms and hands.
And now take a nice slow deep breath and as you exhale think to yourself,
My arms and hands feel warm and heavy.
And now with each breath that you take,
With each beat of your heart,
Continue to allow the flow of blood to move from your body's core up into your shoulders and down into your arms and hands.
Feel the sensation of warmth and heaviness.
You might begin to feel as if your arms and hands are sinking down into the carpet,
If you're lying down or resting very heavily on your thighs or knees,
If you haven't supported there.
And think to yourself again,
With each breath you take,
With each beat of your heart,
That your arms and hands feel very warm and very heavy.
The part of your hands that will feel the most warmth are your palms and fingers,
As these contain the most receptors for temperature change.
And feel this warmth increase throughout your entire arm and hands and feel a sense of heaviness,
Very profound heaviness throughout your arms and hands as well.
And if you were to try and raise your arms up off the floor or off your lap,
Up into the air,
You would find this to be most difficult.
Because right now,
Like sponges that are saturated with water,
Your arms and hands feel very comfortably relaxed and very content to stay right where they are.
In a moment I'm going to ask you to try and raise your arms up,
But you won't be able to because they just feel so comfortable where they are.
You would prefer to let them stay right there.
Go ahead now and try and raise your arms.
You'll notice that they don't want to move,
They want to stay right there.
And it's alright.
Now take one very,
Very slow deep breath,
Comfortably slow and comfortably deep.
And as you do this,
Think to yourself,
My arms and hands feel warm and heavy.
And now take one more slow deep breath,
And this time as you exhale,
Think to yourself to allow the flow of blood to return back to the stomach area from where it came.
And now with each breath,
And with each beat of your heart,
Allow the flow of blood to return back to the stomach area from your arms and hands.
And as you think this,
The mere suggestion,
You will actually begin to feel a sense of dilation in the arteries of the GI tract area,
The stomach area,
To receive the blood that is being shunted from the arms and hands.
And again,
With each breath that you take,
With each beat of your heart,
Continue to allow the flow of blood to move from the arms and hands back to the stomach area from where it came.
And now take up one more slow deep breath,
And this time as you exhale,
Think to yourself now to try and really move all that blood back to where it came from,
Back to the abdominal area.
And as you do this,
You'll notice that little by little,
With each breath,
Your arms and hands begin to feel more light and not quite so warm.
Actually,
The sensation of warmth tends to linger for a longer period of time,
But you won't feel quite so heavy in your arms and hands.
In a moment,
I'm going to ask you to try and rotate your palms toward your waist and then out again.
And now you'll have no problem doing this,
Although your arms and hands still feel a sense of heaviness.
They feel nowhere near as heavy as before.
And now very slowly,
I'd like to have you try and rotate your palms toward your waist,
And then back to where they first resided.
Okay,
Good.
And now take one more final slow deep breath,
And this time as you exhale,
Think to yourself that you would like to return all the remaining blood that was brought down to your arms and hands,
And place it back in the stomach where it came.
And take one big comfortable slow deep breath,
And as you exhale,
Think to yourself,
All the blood is back now.
And although your hands and arms feel lighter,
They still have a sense of warmth about them.
But you'll notice now that these muscles feel very relaxed and very calm.
And as a result,
Your whole body feels more relaxed and very calm.
Again,
The mere thought about trying to make a certain body part feel warm and heavy and more relaxed can happen merely by thinking about it.
And the power of suggestion to control your own body is very helpful to create a sense of relaxation.
And at times when you feel that you are tense,
Or you are frustrated,
Or nervous,
Or stressed,
And you want to create a sense of relaxation throughout your body to calm down,
Think to yourself,
All you need to do is suggest to yourself to make either your arms and hands,
Or your legs and feet,
Warm and heavy.
And this will begin to decrease the neural stimulation to those muscles and allow the muscles in your body become more relaxed.
And now think to yourself that although you feel more relaxed,
You feel very calm,
Very peaceful.
You don't feel tired or sleepy,
You don't feel fatigued at all.
Actually,
You feel very energized.
In fact,
Think to yourself right now,
I feel energized.
And now as you think that to yourself,
Make yourself aware of your surroundings.
Think about the room that you're in,
Time of day,
And perhaps what you're going to do when this session of relaxation ends.
When you feel ready,
You can begin to open up your eyes to a soft gaze in front of you.
And now because your arms and hands feel much lighter than before,
You can begin to stretch your arms and shoulders,
And your hands,
And bring yourself back to a full awareness of your environment.
