Books on Happiness / the happiness revolution - 2 students
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the stomach relaxes. If it relaxes, the air bubble in the stomach could come up and put subtle pressure in your esophagus. To keep the esophagus closed, you must raise the head up about an inch or two. Thus, the purpose of the pillow is not for the comfort of your head but rather to raise the head. In the beginning of learning this exercise, this is not a big deal, but later on, as you experience deeper and deeper states of relaxation, you should practice 61-Points with a pillow.
When laying in the corpse pose, you should have a light blanket covering you, so that other air currents do not a ect the current of the mind as it travels through the body. Protect yourself from noises -- make sure the telephones are o , and do not answer the doorbell. If your spouse is practicing with you, and you have small children, I recommend that one of you keep an eye on the kids while the other one does 61Points and then switch.
Once you have acquired the experience of relaxation, then 61-Points really helps deepen that experience. You will be using your mental awareness to travel through 61 di erent points throughout the body. At each point, you will bring your mental awareness there. To make sure both the right (creativity and colors) and left (analytical and numbers) hemispheres of the brain are involved at each point, visualize a blue dot and also the number of that dot. The blue color represents a deep form of relaxation. Of all the colors in the mind, visualizing blue is the most relaxing. These points are called marma sthanas, meaning a delicate intersection or place. There are several types of marma points. In 61-Points, the marma points are visualized as being blue because they have to do with cleansing, rejuvenation, and relaxation. As
* The corpse pose is illustrated in Chapter 5.
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you travel through your body, you may encounter a marma point that causes your body to flinch or twitch. This experience is the release of tension. You may also encounter points of dullness – causing you to forget what you are doing or causing you to briefly fall asleep. Don’t be disappointed when these things happen. Falling asleep is cleansing.
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THE 61-POINT RELAXATION EXERCISE
Use the chart to learn the location of each point before beginning this exercise. Lay down in the corpse pose as described above and begin your relaxation exercise. Gently bring your awareness to each point and visualize the number at each location along with a blue dot the size of a marble. Travel slowly to each point as you follow them in numerical order.
1- Point between the eyebrows
2- Hollow of the throat
3- Right shoulder joint
4- Right elbow joint
5- The right wrist joint
6- Tip of the right thumb
7- Tip of the right index finger
8- Tip of the right middle finger
9- Tip of the right fourth finger (ring finger) 10Tip of the right small finger
11The right wrist joint
12Right elbow joint
13Right shoulder joint
14Hollow of the throat
15Left shoulder joint
16Left elbow joint
17The left wrist joint
18Tip of the left thumb
19Tip of the left index finger
20Tip of the left middle finger
21Tip of the left fourth finger (ring finger) 22Tip of the left small finger
23The left wrist joint
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24Left elbow joint
25Left shoulder joint
26Hollow of the throat
27Heart center
28Right nipple
29Heart center
30Left nipple
31Heart center
32Solar plexus (just below the bottom of the breast bone) 33Navel center (2 inches below the physical navel)
34Right hip joint
35Right knee joint
36Right ankle joint
37Tip of the right big toe
38Tip of the right second toe
39Tip of the right third toe
40Tip of the right fourth toe
41Tip of the right small toe
42Right ankle joint
43Right knee joint
44Right hip joint
45Navel center (2 inches below the physical navel) 46Left hip joint
47Left knee joint
48Left ankle joint
49Tip of the left big toe
50Tip of the left second toe
51Tip of the left third toe
52Tip of the left fourth toe
53Tip of the left small toe
54Left ankle joint
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55Left knee joint
56Left hip joint
57Navel center (2 inches below the physical navel) 58Solar plexus
59Heart center
60Hollow of the throat
61Center between the eyebrows
This was excerpted from Happiness: The Real Medicine and How It Works, pages 77-81, 108.
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These three methods – diaphragmatic breathing, alternate nostril breathing, and the 61 Point Relaxation exercise – are for relaxation. They remove restlessness and anxiety from your mind and body. Once you have mastered these techniques, you can move forward to resting techniques that remove dullness and fatigue from your mind and body.
You will begin with learning advanced relaxation, a profound method to provide you with deep rest and an enhanced ability for self-understanding. This advanced relaxation technique can create more space in even the busiest day. Once you know the value of relaxation, it is time to learn another technique that is considered to be more profound than the 61-Point Relaxation exercise. Swami Rama stated that there is no exercise better than this one to alleviate stress.
In Swami Rama’s famous text on this practice, Path of Fire and Light, Volume Two, he claimed that through this advanced relaxation practice, blood sugars have been seen to decrease by 25 percent and high blood pressure readings have improved. Forty-one cases of insomnia were completely cured in seven days with this exercise. While it is known to resolve insomnia, relaxation exercises are not to be used to fall asleep. This is an important point. Rather, sleep will become easier to achieve because your tension and anxiety will be removed.
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Advanced relaxation is also helpful for pain syndromes and removing musculo-skeletal tension.
THE PRELUDE TO ADVANCED RELAXATION
Practice in a room that can be dark and quiet. You need to be protected from noises and interruptions during the 15 or 20 minutes needed for this practice. Lay on the floor in the corpse pose with a small pillow under your head. When you elevate your head by 1-2 inches, it will prevent the gases in your stomach from rising up and disturbing your heart by creating a block at the base of your esophagus.
Cover your entire body, except for your head and neck, with a light blanket that will protect you from chills and drafts. Close your eyes and, if necessary, cover your eyes with a soft cloth to ensure complete darkness. In the corpse pose, extend your arms 16 inches away from your body and have your palms facing the ceiling. Make sure that your legs are wider than your shoulders.
In this exercise, the mind and breath travel together throughout the body. You will be inhaling and exhaling to specific areas within your body. It will be easy to visualize these places. This exercise will expand the flow of prana (energy) and vitality throughout your body, creating more space in the subtle and experiential realms. Eliminate any noise, pauses or jerking in the breath, let the mind and breath flow together. Nasal diaphragmatic breathing is used the entire time.
THE PRACTICE OF ADVANCED RELAXATION
Begin this relaxation practice by breathing diaphragmatically through your nose five times – five complete exhalations and five inhalations. Allow your abdomen to expand on inhalation and gently contract on exhalation. Your mind (mental awareness) and your breath will flow together as you inwardly travel throughout your body during this technique.
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THE INWARD JOURNEY OF ADVANCED RELAXATION
The path of yoga is an inward journey. The journey is both a metaphor and a reality. In this exercise you will be enjoining your mental awareness and the pranic aspect of your breath to travel within your body. Initially, this may seem like a fantasy or a new use of your imagination, but in reality you will be learning to literally travel through your body. Once this skill is developed, your inner vision will become quite profound and may be used as a diagnostic tool for the skilled practitioner.
Thousands of years ago, the adepts of yoga were able to accurately diagram the neuropathways of the body through their power of introspection. Their ‘inner vision’ was more accurate and profound in understanding the body’s metabolism than what modern medicine has discovered through the dissection of a corpse.
The technique of inward traveling for the advanced relaxation sequence is quite simple. Allow your breath and mental awareness to flow together in the sequence written in the text and illustrated in the diagram. Keep your awareness in the central core of your physical body. The breath is not to travel along the surface of the body but rather through the center of your body. For example, as your mind and breath travel during exhalation from the crown of your head to your toes, keep them flowing in the innermost core of your physical body.
Exhalation begins at the crown of the head and flows toward the feet. Inhalation always concludes at the crown of the head. No matter from where in the body your inhalation begins, you always continue inhaling until you reach the crown of the head and then stop.
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The first phase of this exercise begins upon completing the first five breaths. Bring your awareness to the top of your head and exhale from the crown of your head down to your toes. On exhale, empty yourself and expel all of your toxins, fatigues, stress and strains. On inhale, know
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that you are inhaling energy from the atmosphere. Inhale from your toes through your ankles, knees, hip joints, spinal column, coming back to the crown of the head. Do not allow the breath to pause or stop. Let the mind and breath flow together exhaling toward the toes, inhaling up to the crown of the head for 10 full breaths. Please note that this exercise begins with an exhalation and ends on the 10th inhalation. Thus you enter the second phase of the exercise with an exhalation.
The second phase is to exhale from the crown of the head to the ankles and inhale back up to the crown of the head for 10 complete breaths. Next, phase three begins on exhale from the crown of the head to the knees and inhaling from the knees to the crown of the head for 5 full breaths. In phase four, you exhale from your crown to the bottom of your torso -- your perineum -- and inhale from the perineum to the crown of your head for five full breaths.
In phase five, you exhale from your crown to your navel center (the solar plexus), and inhale from the solar plexus to the crown of your head for five full breaths. In phase six, you exhale from your crown to the heart center in the middle of your chest, and inhale from the heart center to the crown of your head for five full breaths. In phase seven, you exhale from your crown to the throat, and inhale from the throat to the crown of your head for five full breaths.
In phase eight, you exhale from your crown to the bridge between the two nostrils, and inhale from the bridge between the nostrils to the crown of your head for five full breaths. During this phase your breath should become very fine and short. Even the motion of your lungs will have a shorter rhythm. The focal point is where the nasal septum joins the face directly above the upper lip. This spot is located at the junction between two nostrils on the face and not on the nose -- technically, the junction between the philtrum and the septum.
In phase nine, the final phase, let your mind and consciousness pay attention to the inhalation and exhalation flowing between the two