Let's close our eyes.
Let's become aware of our breath.
Of our breath,
Our jaw,
Our face,
Our tongue.
And let's make sure our jaw is relaxed.
We're breathing through our nose,
If possible.
Our tongue is relaxed.
And while breathing through our nose,
Maybe if we want,
We can crack open our mouth a little bit.
Let's relax our hips.
The same tightness that we hold in our jaw,
We tend to hold in our hips.
So let's consciously let the chair or the floor carry all our weight and relax your hips into it.
Same is true with your knees and your toes.
Nothing should be tight.
You are safe here.
So let's put our guards down and let us experience what relaxed state of body feels like consciously.
Let's relax our fingers and our wrist.
If you're making a fist,
Just let it go.
And if your elbows and shoulders are tightened up,
Consciously rest your elbows in your thigh or your armrests.
And let's sweep our body one more time.
But before we do that,
Let's make sure our shoulders are relaxed.
Many of us hold the tension,
A lot of tension in our shoulders.
Once your fingers and your elbows are resting,
Your shoulders should automatically relax.
But if not,
Let's consciously try one more time.
And now let's sweep the body through our jaw,
Teeth,
Tongue,
Hips.
If you're tightening your butt cheeks,
Relax them.
Your knees,
Your ankles,
Your toes,
Fingers,
Elbows,
Shoulders.
Surprisingly,
You might notice that although you're consciously relaxing different parts of your body,
You might still be upright in your spine.
And that's an important recognition that we don't need to be tensed to be upright.
And we don't need to be slouching to be relaxed either.
It's very easy for our minds to move on to the next thing.
What I mean by that is,
Let's say you don't like something.
Or let's say you don't want to do something.
You want to avoid something.
Or you feel fear,
Not a strong fear,
But a little fear.
And a natural extension of that fear in your mind is a tightening in some part of your body.
Most of the times we don't recognize that we have tightened certain parts of our body because we are more interested in the fear,
On how to avoid the fear that we experience in our minds,
That we completely neglect the body component of it.
And let's say there's immediate relief,
Whatever you were anticipating did not end up happening.
For instance,
If you're driving a little faster and you see a cop car,
You'll probably have a flash of fear.
And then as you keep driving and you don't see the cop car chasing behind you,
In a minute or two,
Your mind will relax.
I'm sure we all have experienced this.
But if you keep doing this often,
Your body might recognize this as a default state,
Muscle memory of sorts,
To be tensed,
To grab the wheel harder.
And that tightness,
That habit of remaining tight,
And by tight,
I mean stressed,
We might drag that habit into peaceful times as well.
Tightening up has its own benefits.
It is designed for that.
It is designed for that.
But if we consciously relax ourselves,
Because most of the times a cop is not potentially chasing us,
Most of our days are mundane,
Uneventful,
Maybe a sprinkle of eventfulness here or there.
But on an average,
We live in a very safe,
Physically safe space.
It is important for our bodies to start recognizing that we are safe.
And one of the most important attributes of safety is being carefree,
Being relaxed.
When me and my wife got married five,
Five and a half years ago,
It was an arranged marriage,
So we were getting to know each other every day.
And I noticed that every time I came close to her,
She would make a fist.
She would bend the elbows and make a fist.
Even when she was cooking and we were having a casual conversation,
She started having a lot of shoulder pain.
And she didn't realize she was tightening up.
And I could see it.
Many times I would ask her to consciously relax.
But this habit happens behind me also.
It's just a habit that can get triggered by anything and everything.
And it almost always shows up as pain.
As pain.
Pain without getting hurt.
That's the funny part of this pain.
The same thing could happen if we are scrolling on our phone and consciously,
And many times unconsciously,
We see something or read something and get triggered.
And we tighten up and we forget that we have tightened up and we go about our day.
Something that triggered us in the morning could unconsciously stay in our bodies.
And we might end up infusing our different life experiences with the same fear or avoidance,
Because that's how our state of body is.
And for pedagogical reasons,
I'm making a distinction between body and mind.
There's no line as to where the body ends and where the mind begins.
At least I have not seen one.
So if we are tensed in our bodies,
The mind is tensed,
Not actively,
But passively.
It might be distracted by a new problem at hand,
But it's not the same relaxed state of mind that one might feel when we are carefree.
Completely carefree,
Sitting on a beach,
No thoughts,
No duties,
Nothing.
Just complete abandonment of all worries in our life.
And I'm sure we all have experienced even for a split second this abandonment of all that bothers us.
And as I'm describing this,
I'm noticing my hips tighten up.
And every time my sentence is completed,
It just relaxes.
Because I know what the relaxed state of body feels like.
Tension can be sensed and immediately relaxed so that it doesn't linger.
It doesn't stack up.
Incorporating a workout routine,
A yoga practice,
A mobility stretching routine,
And approaching this practice in a very sacred manner.
And by sacred,
I mean giving a lot of attention to whatever is being worked out and not being lost in our thoughts,
In our emotions.
Then we can start practicing this body awareness,
Even in a stressful environment like working out.
What it feels like to do a push-up.
What it feels like in your shoulders,
In your wrists,
In your hips,
In your core,
In your toes.
While your mind is resisting it,
You're witnessing this drama happening in your mind while your body is under tension.
Same as while running,
Same it is,
Same as while doing yoga.
Those kind of practices prepare us so that we can be a little more relaxed when panic hits.
And this,
What I described before the workout part,
Helps us become relaxed,
Become familiar with the natural state of our body in regular mundane times.
As an experiment,
Just to become familiar with what I described,
What I would suggest is to step out of the house at night,
Today,
Or whenever you feel ready,
And walk in the dark for 30 seconds in a section that you're not familiar with,
Maybe your basement,
Maybe outside the house,
And see how naturally your mind becomes more alert and your body tightens up,
And then come back home where you feel safe and feel how relaxed you would feel.
This might be a little loud experiment,
But just to get familiar with how the body states keep changing,
And then we can start consciously relaxing,
Consciously recognizing that we are safe,
And we'll start putting our guards down.
Most of the times,
There is no cop car chasing us,
And anything that is fearful in our minds can never truly hurt us.
It's only in our minds.
Thank you.
