Feel good techniques

Life is never easy and I've spent a good long while finding that out for myself. However, that doesn't really seem to be the issue. Assuming that there is a point at which life can be easy seems to be a main cause of the difficulty. Now, this is just a way of thinking (a point of view), and, since thoughts are just our personal play things, we can open ourselves to the idea that if we change our thoughts then lots of other things will change too.

I keep trying to write a final post but I keep coming back for more. Perhaps I should look into that ...

Anyway, here's an exercise I've been doing over the last few days to try and stay connected with a sense of ease in the body and mind:

- Set up a timer for 3 minutes. You can use mine if you want.
- Aim to do 4 breaths a minute. You can either track your progress per minute or close your eyes and do 12 (or less) in three minutes.

That's it. Short and sweet.

Follow the breath.

It's not as easy as it sounds, but if you do follow the breath (come what may) then all kinds of things happen - many of them quite pleasant.

Obviously it's a meditation practice but it goes something like this:

- Sit down to meditate, what should I be doing?
- Follow the breath
- Get lost in thoughts, what do I do?
- Follow the breath
- I feel calm, what should I do next?
- Follow the breath

You get the idea. Clearly, you may get overwhelmed by your thoughts, and you may find this advice a bit non-sensical, but there it is. Follow your breath.

Cultivate happiness

I feel that there's not much more I can add to this blog. I've not found any miracle techniques but then I didn't expect to. It's all down to working with the mind:

Find what makes your mind happy and contented, then stick with it.

Clearly this is not an easy task, but that's my final summary of my last few years. We're all different; some like apples, some like pears, some like brussel sprouts. Our tastes even change as time rolls by. Things come and go and disappear. New things pop up to replace them. It's an endless adventure of change.

Good luck!

I've noticed during my many attempts at relaxation that the area of most tension for me is in the face. In an attempt not to have my life etched into my face, here some exercises that I like to do to try and undo some of the tension:

- Firstly, close the eyes and notice the tension in the face and head area. Contrast this with an area of the body where there is less tension - the legs or belly. Notice the difference between tense and unwound. Imagine a tension free face.

- Scrunch your face into a grimace and let it go. Take a breath.

- Open your face in a gesture of amazement and let it go. Take another breath.

- Notice if your face is less tense.

- Quite often (for me) there's a kind of mental fog behind the forehead. This fog manifests in my face as a kind of heaviness. Notice the fog and breathe energy into it. If there's some openness in the body, breathe into the openness and then move that energy up into the head. Then let the effort go.

- Try breathing lightness and ener…

Being in control is one of things we can pride ourselves with, but it's easy to get a bit over the top and try to exert control on things that are basically uncontrollable - this leads to stress, which in turn leads to a draining of energy. This is not good! In this exercise, reign back your natural instincts to get what you want and tell yourself:
- we can't know everything
- we can't stop the things that happen
- we will never get what we ultimately want (it's a kind of mirage)
- life goes on fine even if we are not there
- we can't fix people

So, we learn the skills of patience and appropriate response, and then go with flow.