Forums IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ Spring Forest Qigong How do I relax?

Apparently, you need to be relaxed before attempting to do Spring Forest Active, or sitting exercises... so how exactly does one attain this relaxed state if they have trouble relaxing?

Bounce.

I find it gets helps even the energy of being hyped up to allow openness for relaxation. Then stand quietly and call upon the masters energy. And stay that way as long as it takes to relax.

Even if I do nothing more than bounce, be still for the I notice a sense of relaxation.

Other things that work for me is calming music. Chants I found particularly interesting in calming the mind if that is where I'm not relaxing.

Then there is the phrase. This for now is relaxed enough for me.

I know there have been times I couldn't relax enough to do the active or sitting meditations. I'd be in the middle of it and then just throw it in and get busy with something else, it feels like a champagne cork that popped and the bottle overflowing. Rather than worrying about it I just decide to do it another time. Since frustrating myself about not being relaxed enough now is just going to keep me in the cycle of frustration.

Alex

You may be experiencing the paradoxical becoming tense because you're trying to relax thing.

In that case, don't set any goal for yourself in terms of relaxation. Just let whatever state of tension you're in remain and relax into the tension.

When you accept tension and relax into it, the struggle dissipates and you will find yourself being more at ease.

I love what Alex and Babayada had to say about relaxing. I have had difficulty relaxing too - still do at times. Bouncing is great for me if I do it with a light, carefree heart! (That may be the secret "a light, carefree heart"!) Also I have learned that, as Babayada says, to resist something is to have it persist. "I don't (really don't care)care whether or not I am relaxed" helps dissolve the resistance, as well as embracing the resistance or simply breathing gently into the resistance. Stretching is also great - just stretch a delicious stretch the way a cat does:-)
It is so important not to take all this too seriously as over-seriousness is the great enemy of relaxation, IMHO.
Nacho, if you think of it, at next Saturday's healing meditation, ask for the ability to relax. We will all help.

This is not one I can relate to, since I've always been able to relax. I work at it from the physical side, and that brings my mind into focus. I can think of a muscle and notice its current state of tension and then just relax it. Like gripping something and letting go. If you find this hard, you can start by picking the muscle, noting its state, contract it a little then let it relax.

That was the way I used to do it, and still for single muscles I'll do it. If I choose to consciously relax, which I seldom do, I use the wave technique. Where you have a wave of relaxation sweep from your head to your feet.

Now here is something I've done in the middle of meditation and wanted to relax even more. Now it's not SFQ but something I just did when doing a sitting meditation. I use the waves in rythmn with my breath. I inhale and think about my head area, then on the exhale I move my focus through my body to the lower dan tien.Then as the exhale is ending I bring my awareness out of my body.

Doing this with a verbal thought of RE (inhale) LAX (exhale), have been very powerful for me. It deepens my meditation, but I only use it after I've gone into a meditation. I don't use it for entering a meditation.

Sorry, that's gone off topic again.

As a last note, it deepen my sense of energy but it doesn't bring me deeper into the emptiness. Ooops, that may be my labelling problem.

You are perfection.
Iam2