Mental Housekeeping Benefits
- By:Robert Baird Baird
At the end of the day, a normal healthy mind will sort and file things that have happened during the day to prepare for a good night's sleep. It's similar to what goes on in a store at the end of the day, after the doors have closed. Stressorsinsufficient or interrupted sleep, chronic tension in the body, illness, or major upheavals (e.g., moving, changing jobs, death, or divorce)-interrupt this natural process. All stressors diminish in some way the mind's ability to sort through and file the events of the day and to let go of what is finished.
Consequently, what does not get sorted out and filed one day is left until the next day, and so on, until it accumulates to overload level. This accumulation can leave a person feeling as if he or she has no room for any more thoughts. It may result in stress, anxiety, and depleted energy levels.
Deep, progressive relaxation retrains the mind to use this natural housekeeping ability by creating a beautifully relaxed body, mind, and emotions so that this work can continue, unhindered, in the stillness. The magic of deep, progressive relaxation is that you awaken with a refreshed mind, body, and spirit-full of focus and energy. The benefits of relaxing the mind deeply can be experienced after even a few minutes of practice.
Benefits
Encourages the mind to relax
Enables detachment from unimportant thoughts to switch off the mind before sleeping
Focus
Consciously sort and file all your day's events before allowing yourself to fall asleep.
Relaxed Pose
Lie on your bed in Relaxed Pose with arms at your sides, palms facing up, feet flopped apart, and shoulder blades squeezed together to open up your chest. Release the tension in your face by unlocking your jaw and smoothing out your forehead.
Observe your breath, and count the length of each inhalation and exhalation. Gradually make your inhalations the same length as your exhalations, pausing for 2 counts after each.
Do 7 Full Yoga Breaths then resume your own breathing pattern.
As you observe your breath, feel your body growing lighter and lighter, and allow your thoughts to come and go; they are not important right now. Let any sounds you hear to fade into the distance. Feel a sense of growing detachment from your thoughts.
Imagine that you are sitting in a favorite room in a deep comfortable chair in front of a screen, and you have turned on a video of your day's events.
As you watch the video, mentally check off those things that are finished; visualize them being copied from a computer's hard drive (your mind) to a diskette marked "Finished." For things that need to be attended to, make a mental note to look at them tomorrow; visualize yourself placing each item into a paper folder marked "Unfinished."
When the video ends, imagine throwing the diskette of "Finished" business into the trash can. Imagine placing the "Unfinished" folder on your bedside table, ready to attend to in the morning.
Visualize yourself getting up to draw the curtains in your room. Symbolically draw a curtain across your mind to signify the end of the day, then sink down into that comfortable, deep, velvety darkness behind your eyes.
Listen to the silence all around you as you drift down into your own interior world and a deep, relaxing sleep. In the morning, you will remember the imaginary folder beside your bed and all those things you need to do.
Practice this technique every night until it becomes automatic and effortless.
If you find that your mind is still full of busy unimportant thoughts after completing this exercise, focus on observing these thoughts in a very detached way, letting them come and go. The more you focus on each thought, the more your mind will become quiet, until you begin to see a space between the end of your last thought and the beginning of the next. When you become aware of that space-that emptiness in your mind, let your mind rest in that space for a moment. You then will be able to drift off to sleep.About the author:
Learn about the different yoga techniques , yoga exercises, routines to improve your mind awareness and coordination. To get all this in detail you can visit http://www.yogabenefits.org/ .