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DeVliegendeHollander comments on "Spiritual" techniques that actually work thread - Less Wrong Discussion
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Functional:
I have tried multiple relaxation techniques that did not work e.g. flex and relax your muscles. Finally on Wiccan site, of all places, (this is what gave me the idea for the thread) I found this technique, which they use for preparing for astral projection and all. I just use it as a sleeping pill or feel better relaxation stuff, in bed or lying on the couch:
visualize descending slowly a stair of 9 steps into a place that is full of nice lovely stuff
with each step relax a muscle area without flexing it first: 1. head and face 2. neck and back of neck and shoulders and traps 3. chest, back 4. belly, lower back 5. hips, genitals, glutes 6. thighs 7. calves 8. feet 9. toes. At the toes you stepped down the last step, and now you are in that nice place and just rest in it.
I sometimes use a similar technique that I've known since I was a kid, don't remember its origin.
Lie down, relax, and imagine a warm, almost hot, wave slowly pass through your body starting at the top of your head and going out at your feet. Repeat.
You can use the same technique for only part of your body (face/neck/shoulders is the most useful), this allows you to synchronize your breathing to it -- the wave goes down as you exhale.
Hmm, a potential fix for "laptop trapezius". Thanks. The upper trap painful stiffness from bad computer posture is a tough nut to crack. I have noticed how almost every computer user enjoys upper trap massage i.e. there is some stiffness and pain there for all (for me, a lot), but hardly anyone tries to figure out how to solve it. I try, but to not much avail. The basic issue is "turtling up" pulling up the shoulders to the ears and leaving them all day. This is both a poor computer posture thing which is unfixable without rebuilding the office and getting a desktop pc, and actually a bit of fear, stress, worry defensive reaction.
That might be a worthwhile thing to do (or at least getting a separate monitor). First, big screens are highly useful, and second, ergonomically speaking the screen should be considerably above (~2 feet) the keyboard.
I use a separate keyboard.
I've heard similar techniques suggested for astral projection and self hypnosis. With the former, I actually heard the reverse order on muscle relaxation, with the idea being to move attention away from the body and into the mind.
Back when I could actually concentrate for more than 5 seconds, my early experiments with this technique resulted in me feeling something odd around my spine, as though there was some sort of force or pressure fluctuating with my breathing (probably because that's how breathing works and my posture was better than usual thanks to the relaxation exercises). I treated that feeling like "Qi" and tried different visualization and breathing tricks to try and make it do something more interesting, but little came from that particular aspect.
I did get into wake-initiated dreaming this way, though.
When I was 12, I tripped on something in my room and cut my knee on a tripple hole-punch I'd taken apart and left in the floor. The wound looked huge to me, so I cleaned it, wrapped it in a wash cloth, and meditated on healing it for quite a while (I don't know exactly how long). It looked like a day-old scratch by that evening. Presumably, my evaluation of the severity of the wound was exaggerated.
I tried the same thing a few years later, when I cut my thumb on a soup can. I could not focus at all.
You mean relaxation going from toe to head made you feel that fluctuation and the WILD? Did you flex the muscles first and then relaxed or just relaxed?
For wounds, I used a Potion of Healing! Lake sized. I was swimming in a lake whose water is rich with NaI, Na2CO3 and MgCO3 and for some reason this speeds up the wound healing process. It felt magical enough - I was about 11.