Relaxation
Practising the art of relaxation affords us a natural method to control and eliminate stress. By learning to completely relax our bodies and minds we allow room for more constructive, harmonious thoughts to be deliberately ‘planted’ into our subconscious mind. This can be the powerful basis of all our self improvement strategies.

Meditation
This allows us to focus our consciousness to a single thought, object or idea. This in turn has tremendous benefits which affect all aspects of our every day life such as the ability to think more and more clearly, greater decision making ability and becoming aware of our own intuition.

Visualization
With visualization we can sense an image in our mind’s eye, a picture of our future goals and the ambitions that we desire to appear in our lives. By always keeping in mind the images of our goals, the possibilty of reaching them becomes more and more believable.

Affirmation or Auto-suggestion
The interior dialogue that goes on inside our heads has a profound impact upon our state of mind and our ability to achieve the success we desire. Replacing any habitual and ongoing negative self-talk is essential if we are to create a happier and more successful future life. Any positive ‘suggestions’ we can make to ourselves, can have a dramatic influence upon our subconscious mind and therefore our ‘reality’ for ‘as we think, so shall we be’.

Inspired Action
Taking action follows the changes that we make on the inside. It is not as difficult as you might think once you have realised the direction you want to go in. No-one should feel afraid of taking action. Inspired action is not like work or a chore it is exciting, thrilling and an expression of our greatest self. You too will be able to take action in the most effective way and at the perfect time by putting these tools into practice and making them a part of your life from now on.

These strategies can help to create acceptance of who we are because they help to bring about rapid change in how we feel about ourselves and are the foundation of a powerful, positive mental attitude. Once we have created a positive mental attitude it is far easier to then begin taking the right kinds of actions in our daily lives that help us to move forward toward our most cherished goals.

The deliberate and regular practise of a few simple relaxation techniques enables us to exercise a greater control over our ‘autonomic’ nervous system and, consequently, the parasympathetic nervous system which governs our fight or flight response. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to manage our emotional reactions in a whole host of situations that we presently find stressful or hard to deal with and react the way we want? This a primary benefit of relaxation. The secondary benefits of practising relaxation are often increasing peace of mind and greater calmness and confidence throughout all aspects of our lives.

“The soul that moves in the world of the senses and yet keeps the senses in harmony…finds rest in quietness” – The Bhagavad Gita.

Our state of mind can be directly controlled our internal attitudes and choices rather than being at the whim of external unpredictable conditions and circumstances! Relaxation is the foundation for this control and learning it is one of the key skills we need to master in order to bring about greater degree of personal success.

Often we don’t realise just how stressed out we are with tension building in different parts of the body. For some that could be in the shoulders, others the stomach, the neck and so on. Before you know it you have an ulcer, a bad back, a stiff neck or a host of other niggling ailments. Relaxation is an incredibly effective tool for allowing us to spot this tension before it accumulates and therefore neutralise some of the harmful effects on our bodies.

One of the simplest ways to begin to practice deliberate ‘relaxation’ is the following muscle tensing/contraction technique which involves:

• Slowing your breathing
• Starting with the lower body – the feet and begin to contract your muscle groups
• Maintaining your breathing evenly and calmly

Initially, you should be lying down as this way the body is supported evenly but eventually you will be able to practise this technique wherever you are.

Beginning with the toes and feet and working your way up the main muscles groups and limbs of the body start to contract the muscles holding the contraction for 3-5 seconds. Then let go of the contraction and the muscles will relax naturally.

As you become more familiar with the exercise and the sensations in your body you can alter the amount of pressure you use i.e. how hard you contract the muscle but don’t strain too much in the beginning.

You will want to pay attention to how your body feels as you go through the routine. Becoming body conscious will in the future help us recognise when we are feeling stress and in what area of our bodies.

Go through all the parts of your body, squeeze and hold then release:

1. Feet and legs: One at a time, lift each foot off the floor by about an inch and tense.
2. Buttocks: Squeeze your buttocks together as you raise your hips slightly off the floor.
3. Chest: Lift the chest of the floor as you tense the muscles keeping the head and hips on the floor.
4. Shoulders: Raise them up against your neck tightly and release.
5. Head: Roll you head gently from side to side.
6. Face: Squeeze all the muscles in your face, really scrunch it up and then open your face up wide.
7. Hands and arms: As with the feet lift each hand from the floor, make a fist and squeeze then release.

After a round of this routine your body should feel a great deal looser than when you started. You can do as many rounds as you wish. Decide before hand how long you practice; ten to twenty minutes is a good amount of time. Allow at least five minutes after the contractions to use a little auto-suggestion such as:

• I am relaxing more and more
• I am relaxing more and more every day
• My body feels better and better
• It is easy for me to relax
• I am getting better and better

These help to prepare the mind for further sessions making it easier and easier every time. Alternatively use whatever affirmation you are currently working with.

Relaxation when practised regularly can be very effective at countering the stress in our lives, reducing anxiety and helping us focus on our goals. If you haven’t yet, try it for a few day and see!

Stress is also allowed to diminish almost by itself when we naturally relax. We begin to realize that our quality of life can be very dependent on our state of mind and the attitudes we hold about ourselves.

Therefore, if we follow this train of thought it makes sense to be as good to ourselves as is humanly possible. This doesn’t mean having distorted thinking about who we are or what we can achieve but it means letting forgiveness and tolerance toward ourselves be the priority in our day to day existence. After all, if we aren’t kind to ourselves why should anyone else be?

Be good to yourself. Be kind on yourself. Don’t be so hard when you don’t get things just right. Be patient whilst waiting and working toward your goals! Be less resistant to situations you find frustrating, all the while knowing that you deserve better because of your inherent abundant nature. When we have time for ourselves we find more time for others. Consequently, when we don’t feel good about ourselves then the opposite is equally true. So remember:

• Try to forgive yourself for not having achieved
• Always be kind to yourself when you make mistakes
• Practice releasing guilt that you feel over things that happened in the past
• Use forgiveness toward yourself and others.