Progessive Relaxation- the practice of relaxing one’s muscles with the intent of reducing anxiety or muscle tenseness. Progressive relaxation can be used to help alter consciousness states.
Benefits to Progressive Relaxation
Progressive relaxation is often cited as one of the central psionics techniques towards achieving different consciousness states, and is often cited as beneficial for attempting psionics abilities such as out-of-body experiences. Progressive relaxation is also beneficial in trying to focus. Physicians and psychologists commonly use progressive relaxation (PMR) as a technique for reducing stress and anxiety. Progressive relaxation is also seen as effective in helping to treat hypertension or insomnia (though it should never replace normal medical treatment by a certified doctor or medical practitioner).
How to Do Progressive Relazation
Progressive relaxation typically involves the gradual relaxation of various, specific muscles in order to relax one as a whole.
Step 1: Get Into a Comfortable Position
The first step in progressive relaxation is to get in a comfortable position. You should do this psionics exercise while comfortable, because it is relatively hard to be totally relaxed if one is in an uncomfortable standing or sitting position. A comfortable position might be laying down in such a way as to not cut off or decrease circulation to any one point in the body. You might also wish to do this in a common meditation position, such as the lotus position. An example of a comfortable laying down position might be laying straight(not to the side), with your back against the bed, and your hands to your side. People usually have a hard time doing this because they fall asleep. If you feel that this position is a bit too relaxing, you may instead opt for a common meditation position, or other comfortable sitting position.
Step 2: Close your Eyes
The closing of one’s eyes in this exercise, if not done so already, is beneficial because of the nature of progressive relaxation. Since we are focusing on an psionics training exercise where relaxation of the muscles is a primary factor, the relaxing of one’s eyes by closing them makes sense.
Step 3: Tense and Relax
The third step in progressive relaxation is probably the most important of all, and involves tensing and relaxing your muscles for set time periods. If this is being done as a complement to a sleep-based psionics training exercise, such as an out-of-body experience (OOBE, OBE), or lucid dream, or if you start to feel uncomfortable, please feel free to alter the times in the progressive relaxation exercise to suit your needs. For example, if trying to have an out-of-body experience (OBE, OOBE), you might wish to focus strictly on the relaxation part of the exercise.
Your body should be tensed and relaxed in an order that resembles the following: Each portion of each arm, each portion of each leg, chest, stomach, shoulder, neck, mouth, forehead. Each part should be tensed for around 8 seconds, after which you release and relax them for 12 seconds.
This process should take around 25-30 minutes to complete fully.
