How to tense muscles for deep physical relaxation?

[luffy28]

Hi,
I've been trying to do AP practice/meditation recently. I want to know if I'm doing deep physical relaxation right? Sometimes I just focus on parts of my body and try to focus on them and relax them mentally. The process I do is that I try to feel relaxing the parts of my body. Am I doing it right? Is this what tensing the muscles means?

Thanks.

[CFTraveler]

The idea around tensing the muscles is to feel them as they relax, locating the part in your consciousness. You can feel a muscle relax if it got tense first. But this is not necessary, if you can relax a muscle from your present state, and feel it relax, you don't have to tense it first.

[luffy28]

Thanks,
When I try it if I tense a muscle group too long it ends up hurting like a cramp. I'm also sick as of now so I really shouldn't be trying it. Anymore advice from anyone would be good.

Thanks.

[CFTraveler]

Something I do is imagine the muscles are melting, after consciously relaxing them, after or instead of tensing-relaxing.

[luffy28]

What I've been doing so far (I'm a lot less sick because of medication) is squeezing/tensing my body then mentally relaxing each muscle. Is this right? What Robert said is true probably the deep physical relaxation is the hardest for me, then the trance and exit.

[lomax]

I focus on the area,and i give the mental command to ''let it drop''to the ground.

At first you can try it with your hands..

Say in your mind ''i let my left hand to drop down''.

Let your arm to ''let go'' completely and feel the gravity of the earth pulling it down..(You don't do it,you just let it happen.)

Your arm will start to feel heavier,and you might experience something like a tingling-numb sensation..
You can do it even while you walking..

The key is to allow it to happen without trying to force it...The mind can do a lot of things,but you have to stay somehow out of the process.
That means that you give the commands,but you let your inner self to do it...