Relaxation and meditation techniques which have worked for me

All meditation techniques lead to relaxation of the mind and body. As you develop in your meditation practice you will increasingly tend to dis-identify with the mind. The mind in the normal course tends to run unchecked with our hopes and fears and gives us no rest. As you do your meditation you will increasingly tend to not take the antics of the mind seriously. The fretful personal self will calm down and relaxation will be the result.

For quick results I would recommend that you learn Transcendental meditation. All the other meditation techniques described in the page Techniques of meditation would also work but would take some time. Many scientific studies have concluded that Transcendental meditation is a very good technique for relaxation and for combating stress. Further information can be found at this webpage on Transcendental Meditation.
Please read on for some important advice, which will help you to relax in your day-to-day life even when you are not doing your meditation.

There is a technique for releasing your feelings called the Sedona method. It has been highly praised by Harvard University. I have purchased the course but found that it did not live up to all the claims being made for it. But I found some very interesting and useful concepts in the course. If you are interested you can explore their webpage www.sedona.com. Perhaps you will have better results than me. If this course works for you then perhaps this will be a better technique for relaxation as compared to meditation because its goal is to help us deal with and release our negative and stressful feelings.

The most useful aspect of the Sedona method program is that it advises us to welcome all thoughts and feelings as they arise in the mind. We know through reading the Buddhist scriptures that our thoughts and feelings as well as objects in the external world are impermanent and transitory. As you welcome the stressed and tense feeling in your mind you give it room to play itself out. It will pass in due course of time and you will feel relaxed. Only do not identify yourself with the tensed, stressed feeling. Observe it with indifference, with the same attitude as a scientist in a laboratory. If you wish you can anchor yourself in the present moment by observing the breath. I have tried this method and it works for me.

Trying to avoid our fears, suppressing them, refusing to admit them into your consciousness is the worst thing you can do. It only pushes the fears into the subconscious mind and accomplishes nothing. Sooner or later your subconscious mind will overpower you and you will feel more tense and stressed than ever.

I also recommend that you read the Conquest of Happiness by Bertrand Russell, the well-known agnostic, mathematician and philosopher. This book has nothing to do with meditation but he describes a few relaxation techniques, which I have tried and found useful.

Bertrand Russell says that we give undue emphasis on the influence of the subconscious mind upon the conscious mind. However we can work on the contents of the subconscious through deliberate conscious thought. He says that when an irrational fear comes up in the mind convince yourself in detail and with reasons that the feared outcome is not all that bad. Such reasons always exist – for as he says – nothing that happens to us in our personal lives has any cosmic significance. The world will go on, the sun will rise, and the solar system and the Universe will behave exactly as it has always done. According to Russell, if a person convinces himself or herself – through reason – of the utter insignificance of himself and his personal problems then his fears will vanish and be replaced by a kind of exhilaration.

I have been reading Bertrand Russell with pleasure and profit ever since I was young. Although I do not now agree with all his views his passion for truth, intellectual honesty as well as his vast learning and wit make him always worth reading. Here is the link to The Conquest of Happiness . It is English literature at its best – you are in for a treat. This book is available at Amazon.

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