Everyday Enlightenment, page 8
1. Begin by lying comfortably on your back. If you wish, place pillows under your knees, arms, and head—whatever helps you find the most comfort.
2. Become aware of your body pressing down into the bed or floor, and notice the bed or floor pushing equally back against your body.
3. Allow yourself to feel a pleasant sense of weight, as if your skin, your bones, and your whole body is heavy.
4. Without concern over whether the process is working, or whether you are relaxing yet, let your awareness begin at your feet, feeling your skin, bones, and whole body become heavy, repeating this idea to yourself as your awareness, and the sense of heaviness, expands from your feet, up through your calves, knees, thighs, abdomen and lower back, chest and upper back, up through your torso to your shoulders, upper arms, forearms, out to your hands and fingers.
5. Then, releasing any residual tension, let the heaviness continue through your neck, jaw, ears, chin, mouth, nose, eyes, forehead, and scalp.
6. While in this pleasant state of relaxed heaviness, free of the usual tension, you have the best opportunity to feel and visualize yourself practicing a sport or musical skill. Once you are freed of interfering tensions, the skill you imagine is imprinted more clearly on your right brain or body consciousness. I would often do this when I was a gymnast, with excellent results.
7. Before you come back to everyday awareness, scan your body and remember that you can return to this state of profound ease just by thinking a key word or phrase such as “Relax” or “Let go.”
8. When ready, take three deep breaths, each breath deeper than the last, and with a third deep breath, feeling refreshed and alert, stretch like a cat and sit or stand, remembering how relaxed you can feel in stillness or in motion.
Slowing down for Ease and Energy
Slowing down in life, deliberately moving in very slow motion, amplifies awareness and expands time, enabling you to be conscious of every part of a movement—to notice and release any tension of which you would otherwise have remained unaware.
The following exercise helps illustrate this principle:
1. Perform any familiar skill, such as hitting an imaginary tennis shot, throwing a ball, playing part of a musical score, or swinging a golf club, at three speeds: first at regular speed, then at half speed, then in slow motion—moving so slowly that someone observing you from a distance would hardly see you moving.
2. As you move, notice your breathing, your balance, how your weight shifts from one foot to the other, the relationships among your different body parts. Especially notice any extra tension you are holding, and in each moment see if you can let it go and relax even more.
Once you become aware of tension, you automatically take steps to release it. This results in more efficient movement, so that when you move at a normal (but unhurried) tempo, you do so with greater ease, lightness, and energy. Try it. You may be pleasantly surprised.
Alignment in the Field of Gravity
Watch how young children sit, stand, and move. Notice how well their pliable bodies have adapted to gravity, sitting and standing straight, with each section of the body balanced in correct alignment above the other. As the years pass, because of injuries and stresses, our bodies become misaligned to one degree or another. This is a chief source of physical energy leaks.
When you rise out of bed in the morning, your body becomes a stack of building blocks, moving through space. Moving correctly saves vast amounts of energy; moving and standing incorrectly produces tension, wasted energy, and pain. Good posture—sitting, standing, and moving tall and aligned in gravity—has a very real energy payoff.
To illustrate how misaligned posture creates tension and pain, picture eight children's blocks stacked on top of one another. If you push down on that column when it is out of alignment (see next page)—with some blocks forward, others back, some twisted or turned—the blocks will fly in every direction. If your posture mirrors those misaligned blocks, the energy and muscular tension it takes to hold yourself together in the course of a day drains energy. (Imagine just holding your arm muscles slightly tense all day—it drains energy just as a dripping faucet leaks water.) To experience how this works, do the following:
1. Bend slightly forward or sideward at the waist and hold that position for thirty seconds. Notice that it doesn't take too long to feel the muscle strain. Where there is strain, there will be pain and energy drain.
2. Sitting down, stick your chin out or tilt your head forward, the way many of us do habitually as we talk, watch television, or read. If you hold that position, you'll begin to notice a tension at the back of the neck, creating a headache and neck pain. The same thing happens if you hunch forward over studies, reading or working at a desk. (When you bend forward while sitting, do so from the hips, keeping your back straight.) Hunching over makes it more difficult to take a deep breath. Poor posture, if chronic, leads to inhibited breathing, which contributes to other health maladies.
If the building blocks are in proper vertical alignment, you could place a heavy weight on that column of blocks, and because the structure is sound, it would remain strong. Similarly, when your body is properly aligned with gravity, with your head balanced naturally atop your spine (as if a wire from the sky were attached to the top back of your head, pulling up), this proper alignment frees up tremendous energy. At first it seems to require conscious attention and effort to hold your head tall and your chin slightly in, but once you get used to this posture, it becomes natural and effortless.
In realigning your posture, you will find that your body immediately feels lighter, freer, younger, and more elastic. You will breathe easier as your chest opens and belly relaxes. There are several methods to regain your youthful posture.
• The first method is awareness. Check your posture in a mirror. Awareness and a (literal) period of self-reflection can serve as a reminder to sit, stand, and walk tall. Self-consciousness can turn to consciousness.
• The second method is bodywork. Ultimately, any exercise you do to balance the body is a form of bodywork, but deep-tissue work such as Rolfing or Hellerwork is a specific form of bodywork that helps to realign your body in the field of gravity. Unlike massage, which can be wonderfully relaxing but addresses only the symptoms of misalignment, deep-tissue work provides longer-lasting relief by lengthening, realigning, and unifying the structure and relationship of your different body parts.
• The third method is to work with a practitioner specializing in movement awareness such as Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais Method, or Aston Patterning; another form of awareness training such as yoga, martial arts, or other forms of conscious exercise.
• You can perform the following method of bodywork yourself. As described, it takes very little time, is pleasurable, and brings immediate results. I've done it daily for years with wonderful results. Each morning and evening, do it to relax and realign the body by reversing the force of gravity.
Beating Gravity at Its Own Game
This simple and enjoyable practice instantly transforms gravity from a compressing, degenerative force into an elongating, regenerative one. This practice realigns and balances the body by providing natural traction. It also helps to prevent or reduce the severity of osteoporosis in older people. It strengthens your forearms and grip, reduces wear, tear, and pressure on the spine, and opens up and decompresses every joint in your body.
What is this miraculous exercise? It is simply hanging—a natural, enjoyable, even instinctual activity. All you need is a doorway hanging bar, available at most sporting goods stores—the kind of bar with brackets that screw into the sides of the doorjamb, for security.
• Each morning upon rising and each evening before retiring, grasp the bar (bending your knees if necessary) and hang.
• If your grip is not strong enough to hold the bar while supporting your weight, stand on the floor or a chair to support part of your weight (but as little as possible) until your grip becomes stronger (which usually takes a week or two).
• Start out hanging for five or ten seconds; then increase up to thirty seconds or more, breathing slowly and deeply and feeling your arms, shoulders, and entire spine stretch out. (Hanging for thirty seconds provides the equivalent of a fifteen-minute ma s sage.)
The Peaceful Warrior Workout™
More than a decade ago I designed an efficient routine of flowing movement, deep breathing, and tension release that incorporated elements from calisthenics, dance, gymnastics, martial arts, and yoga. Most important, I made sure that once you become familiar with it, you can complete the routine in less than four minutes a day, in a relatively small space. It's nearly excuse-proof. I have done it every morning for the last decade to jump-start my day. Other people tell me it's a perfect warm-up for any sport or game or just to loosen up after a busy workday—a relaxing yet energizing transition between work and home. If this workout is the only part of this book that you put into practice, you will still experience tangible benefits that increase over time.
This routine of conscious exercise goes beyond most fitness regimes in its style and purpose. Consistent with the higher purpose of the twelve gateways, the Peaceful Warrior Workout provides an efficient and balanced fitness routine, developing elements of strength, suppleness, stamina, and sensitivity.
It also operates at more subtle energetic levels. To understand this, consider the following: Although your body is the most visible aspect of who you are, you are surrounded and interpenetrated by an energy field (also called an aura) that connects the physical self to the Light that is always emanating from Spirit.
The planet Earth, like the human body (and all living things), has an energy field, called the biosphere. If the Earth's energy field is polluted by radiation or toxic gases, it affects the physical body of the planet. In the same way, negative thought forms—regrets, worries, resentments—will pollute the human energy field, creating weak or sensitive areas that then are susceptible to injury or illness.
A strong energy field means a strong body. The flowing movements and deep breathing of the Peaceful Warrior Workout liberate energy and attention to enhance your functioning on physical, mental, and emotional levels. As you complete this workout, your energy field becomes larger, brighter, and cleaner, like the atmosphere after a good rain. You will feel more expansive, alert, and relaxed.
While no four-minute exercise routine can equal an hour at the gym, this workout is unique in integrating all elements of fitness in an efficient package and helps to create a more energized body.
Remember that you gain only from what you can sustain. You are more likely to maintain this workout over time because it is relatively easy to learn, doesn't take much time or space, and feels good. Four minutes a day, every day, can go a long way. Keep it short, sweet, and simple. Experience the power of relaxed movement and deep breathing. Make it the foundation of an energizing lifestyle.
General Guidelines for Learning and Practicing the Series
• Respect your body's learning process; go gently at first.
• If you have any physical problems, consult with an appropriate health professional. Problems that result from muscle weakness, inactivity, or lack of flexibility will improve over time as you progress. If you feel discomfort or if a particular element feels too difficult at first, find a way to make it easier for yourself—work around the problem area.
• Do all (or some version of all) the exercises, and in the order presented. You'll benefit most from the elements that give you the most trouble, so don't skip them.
• Each time you flow through the workout, ask yourself, “How can I do each movement a little better?” That way you are always improving.
• Do the workout outdoors or in a carpeted space about six by six feet, clear of furniture.
• To complete the series in four minutes or less, do the number of repetitions indicated. Ultimately, the number of repetitions is entirely up to you and may vary, depending on your needs or energy that day.
• Enjoy the routine to music or in silence, as a moving meditation.
• Perform the movements vigorously or in slow motion, very consciously, as in hatha yoga or the Chinese martial art of tai chi chuan.
• Do the Peaceful Warrior Workout each morning or at another regular time so it becomes a natural part of your daily routine. The key to making this routine part of your everyday life is to commit to doing it every day for thirty-six days. At that point your subconscious will recognize it as a habit. If you skip even one of the first thirty-six days, the next day is day one as far as the subconscious is concerned.
Specific Guidelines
• Exercise is only as beneficial as the posture in which it is performed. Relaxation, breathing, and posture are key. If possible, use a mirror for the first few days to check your technique.
• For moves done to both sides, you can begin to the left or to the right, but stay consistent.
• Pay special attention to deep breathing as you flow through the elements. Breathe as deeply as possible without strain, coordinating your breathing with each element; feel as if the breath is moving the body. Inhale through the nose; exhale through the nose or mouth.
• Pay attention to the foot widths as shown. For each standing exercise, the feet are parallel and one, two, or three foot widths apart, as shown.
The Peaceful Warrior Workout
1
Stretch-Back Swing-Down
Directions:
• Palms are together in front of you as you inhale and raise arms overhead.
• Still inhaling, squeeze your buttocks as your arms bend and drop behind your head and you stretch gently backward.
• Begin exhaling as you straighten your arms and body, then continue exhaling as you swing your arms forward and down in a wide arc, bending your knees and letting your head drop and relax forward.
• As you finish your exhale, your arms swing back behind you and you momentarily straighten the knees for a stretch.
• Then bend your knees and begin inhaling as your arms swing forward, palms together, rising upward into the second repetition.
Reminders:
• One foot width
• Three repetitions
• Inhale up and back, exhale down
• Buttocks firm when stretching back
• Bend knees on down- and upswing
• Straighten legs momentarily at end of downswing
Benefits:
• Inspiring warm-up
• Gentle stretch of the spine
• Invigorates entire body
• Frees obstructed energy for exercises to follow
• Begins to clear tensions around heart and solar plexus
2 Squat-Down Side-Stretch
Directions:
• With your back straight, exhale as you squat halfway down and rest the back of your forearms on your thighs.
• As you begin inhaling, rise directly to the left side-stretch position, facing front (not twisted or turned), arms stretched sideways, and elbows behind your ears.
• Exhaling, squat back down as in the beginning, then rise to your right, as shown, and repeat.
Reminders:
• Three foot widths
• Three repetitions
• Inhale during side-stretch, exhale down to squat
• Keep weight evenly balanced
• Hip stretches opposite direction of arms
• Face front squarely with upper elbow behind ear
• Forearms rest on thighs during squat
• Rise directly to side-stretch rather than standing straight up, then leaning
Benefits:
• Opens rib cage and expands lungs
• Sideward stretch of the spine
• Generates vitality
• Clears energy around the head and shoulder areas
3 Neck Release
Directions:
• Standing in a natural posture, inhale as your head moves forward and down in a relaxed manner—do not force the movement—then exhale as you relax in the forward position.
• Inhale as your head tilts directly left (nose and chin facing forward, not twisted), and exhale as you relax in that position.
• Continuing to move when you inhale and relax when you exhale, place your head gently backward by lifting chin, with teeth closed but not clenched; do not force movement.
• Inhale directly to the right, and relax in the position.
• Then inhale as your head returns to a forward hanging position and exhale as it relaxes.
Reminders:
• Two foot widths
• One repetition each position: front, left, back, right, front
• Inhale moving to position, exhale/relax in position
• Let weight of head do the stretch rather than forcing head
• As head bends sideward, keep opposite shoulder down
• Gently lift chin rather than forcing head back, with teeth closed
Benefits:
• Relaxes tensions of jaw, neck, and shoulders
• Opens the lungs
• Clears tensions related to the weight of responsibility
4 Shoulder Roll
Directions:
• As you begin inhaling, pull shoulders forward, then upward.
• As you begin exhaling, pull shoulders backward and down.
• Let your arms themselves remain relaxed, with one hand grasping the other wrist behind you.
Reminders:
• Two foot widths
• Three repetitions
• Inhale forward-upward, exhale backward-downward
• Circle shoulders forward-upward-backward-downward
• Grasp one wrist with other hand
• Keep arms relaxed and passive, and let shoulders move
Benefits:
• Releases tension around the chest, shoulders, and upper back
• Invigorates and frees movement of upper thorax
