How to 'unclench' and come to your senses

Click Me to see Maddie back from the beach!

With the stresses, pressures and rush of our modern day life, our thinking, minds, energies can become 'clenched', free flow diminished. Here is a simple technique you can do to 'unclench' - do it now and feel the difference. It's something I love to do out in Nature, sitting with bare feet on the ground (unless it's freezing!).

This is a gently effective technique that can be done:

A]     before or after your ‘Daily Energy Exercises, yoga or any self care practice, or

B]     by itself whenever you feel drawn to it, or

C]    for the sheer joy of experiencing the tranquillity it brings.

D]    when you visit a new place – mountains, sea, building etc., and  seek to connect to that place.

E]  when you need to get off the merry go round and still the chatter of the daily grind

F] if you are a person who is driven to be ‘doing’ something all the time and finds it hard to sit and smell the roses!

First things first.... 

When did you last take time to smell the flowers? 

 One of the basic principles of energy medicine is FLOW, essential to the health of the mind and body. Nothing whatsoever is going to flow with ease if your mind or energy is clenched through the pressures of life.

How do you ‘unclench’? 

Any technique that relaxes and frees the mind will work: conscious breathing, meditation, prayer, exercise, yoga – the list is endless.  If you are confused and not sure what to do, try this simple technique to exercise your senses. It will gently slow down and stop the merry-go-round, bringing you into the peaceful clarity of the ‘here and now’.

Rather than trying deliberately to empty your mind of all the thoughts that plague and pester you, by giving your mind something else to focus on, those thoughts automatically disappear. 

If they creep back, and they will every few seconds/minutes, don’t fight them, just return your attention to the ‘sense’ you are working. 

You cannot move forward smoothly in life if you are tethered by the minutiae of small thoughts, each one acting like a guy rope holding you down and preventing you flowing with the natural rhythm of your life.

I can hear some of you saying: ‘that’s all well and good for her, but I don’t have TIME to do this or any other technique’ – Don’t you? really?

THEN LIFE IS RULING YOU RATHER THAN YOU LIVING YOUR LIFE

Look at your schedule carefully, with inspection you will find the time by cutting out something that is not constructive: a little less TV, getting up a SLIGHTLY earlier, going to bed a little later, taking a shorter lunch break, a little less talking on the phone ….. Think!  You can find a few minutes a day for yourself. It will be the best investment of time you will ever make.

(Incidentally, even I am not perfect and will skip my exercises some days, none of us are full time ‘saints’ – why not strive for 100% perfection but pat yourself on the back and feel a sense of achievement if you  hit 75%, or even 50%, after all that is better than 0%.)

Okay, so how do you do it?

Find a quiet corner in your home or go for a walk in nature and pick a safe, peaceful place to sit.

Ideally sit in the Lotus pose, but if this is not possible for you, find a comfortable position where your spine is straight. A straight spine is vital so that energy can more freely flow up and down the spinal column and therefore out to the entire body. Do it in bed this evening.

Once you are comfortable, take a few deep breaths and gently stroke from temples, up over, behind the ear, down the neck, off the shoulders - on both sides of the body at the same time.

Do several times, smiling and breathing at the same time. End by gently tapping over breastbone (Thymus). This can have a calming and energetic 'balancing' effect.

1.    Now close your eyes and just focus on what you can HEAR – keep your breathing natural.  Peel back the layers of what is going on around you and you will be astonished at what you start to hear. Remain with this for 2 minutes and if distracting thoughts come into your head don’t worry, just  gently take yourself back to the sense of ‘hearing’.

2.    Keeping your eyes closed, focus on what you can SMELL[3] for a few minutes

3.    Still with eyes closed, TOUCH[4] something.  Again, 2 minutes.

4.     Focus, for a couple of  minutes, on something in front of you and really SEE it. 

5.    If you are outdoors,  ‘FEEL’ how the environment touches you: feel the breeze in your hair, the sun on your skin, or the rain on your face…. Bring ALL your attention to the sensations.

6.     Bring your focus to your body, mentally run up it from your toes to the crown of your head and FEEL each and every part of it.   This is not easy at first, just remain with it, sooner or later you will begin to ‘feel’, begin to reconnect with every cell in your body. You might find it easier to connect with the womb or heart areas - placing a hand on each - this also provides an energetic connection that can active deeply healing energies in the body.

All too often we live in our heads and disconnect with our bodies, an alienation that can ultimately disrupt every system. Reconnection therefore, is something to work towards if self-healing is to work at it's optimum level.

When you have mastered this ‘feeling’, take it a step further and isolate a particular part of your body and focus your sense of ‘feeling’ on it.  For example, I will isolate my lungs or spine. Don’t forget  your breathing!

End by doing:

o   The Classic Hook Up  - i.e. hold the 3rd eye and navel areas, gently with the middle fingers, softly pulling both upwards.

o   tap your 3rd Eye to ‘tap in the feeling of peace and joy’ – by doing this, you will remember it more easily when the going gets tough.

Another benefit of coming to your senses is that by putting them through their paces they improve and ultimately, it may take a long time, once they reach optimum efficiency the other more esoteric senses begin to develop and emerge into the open.

[2] Timings are approximate: you can stay with each sense for a minute or ten minutes – experiment to see what suits you.  

[3] You might like to prepare some items to touch or smell. For example a flower, an essential oil, a herb, a sprig of mint

[4]  You can simply touch your hair, nail, skin, grass, sand or whatever is around you OR be prepared and take along a tumbled crystal, a feather, a leaf – something deliciously tactile.