Question about the body relaxation techniques

[Aspirant]

I was just wanting to know how tight you should tense each muscle group on the relaxation part of MAP? Sometimes I think I might be over doing it because I work up into a sweat.

[Beekeeper]

Trial and error, Aspirant. Whatever works for you.

[goodo.]

Gooday Aspirant,
What I used to do, was to first off... (as I lay in bed) was to ensure there was no tension anywhere within me... I would imagine myself as a balloon full of water just laying there... for about a minute or so..!

Then I would go through the proceedure of strenuously tensing each body part as much as I could for five seconds... then relax...
This IS fairly labourous, as you implied Aspirant... and had a bit of a tendency to pull me a degree or two away from my balloon state!

The idea of this excercise is to encourage complete and total relaxation, so what I am doing now, is to start off with my balloon full of water for a minute or two...
I then ever so slightly tense each muscle part (instead of strenuously) so as to inform my body and conscious of where we are at... and then let it go..
I sort of *commmand by will* the blood in that area to be peacefully draining into its calm storage domains... and for that section to become TOTALLY RELAXED...

Not only is this method physically easier for me Aspirant... it seems to work a lot better as well!

What Beekeeper said is definitely the way though... because what works well for one... may not work for another!
Trial and error my friend... and to listen to your 'very inner' self!

[Aspirant]

So basically what both of you are saying is even though the MAP book has specific instructions about relaxing each body part, you should really go with what works best for you even if it deviates from the book? Very well because the books instructions are helpful but certain body parts like the neck and upper back are difficult for me due to muscle spasms I've had for a long time.

[Beekeeper]

Aspirant, I don't remember the book saying to tighten your muscles until you sweat! :D I think that it's within the spirit of what RB writes to experiment with his techniques but not so rigidly that you ignore your own requirements or intuition.

[BriMercer]

Of course, do what works best for you.

Tensing muscles is useful in targeting the proper area to relax and will actually get you more relaxed than by thought alone. However, you need not tense so much that you work up a sweat. It would be more to the level that one tenses up when having a good stretch.

Hope that helps.

Brian