The Empowerment Tension & Release Relaxation Procedure
“Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless – like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”
This procedure is adapted from long established practices of Hatha Yoga, perhaps the most fundamental and efficient system of natural physical health maintenance there is.
The purpose of this procedure is multifold:
A. It is experiential, giving you direct experience of Muscular Tension through its deliberate induction. At the same time you should consciously realize the connection with “nervous tension” and “emotional stress.” At the muscular level, they are all the same.
B. With the intense experience of induced tension, you will learn to recognize the symptoms of tension, often overlooked because they are themselves symptomatic of most adult modern life. With knowledge you can begin to recognize the common sources of stress factors in your physical and social environment that induce tension. With understanding, you can reduce tension producing reactions and you may choose to remove stress factors from your life.
C. With the combined experience of induced tension followed by its deliberate release you will know and understand the function and benefit of tension-release procedures.
D. Through progressive tension and release of muscle groups from toe and foot to the top of skull, you will accomplish total relaxation and open the way to benefit from the Tattvic Connection Meditation & Visualization programs that follow.
E. Knowledge through actual experience gives you somatic understanding of what physical relaxation of the body really feels like so that it is always your objective and goal in any relaxation procedure, and— indeed— in your everyday life. Remember: stress kills and tension brings harm and injury.
F. Being now able to identify what relaxation is enables you to better relax the body, reducing stress, and removing tension at will even when you don’t have the time and opportunity for the full procedure. While we feel that tension & release is itself a foundational procedure, it can and should be augmented in numerous ways including breathing rhythms, visualizations, musical accompaniment, and more— but not all of these at once. Start simple and add complexity with mastery of the foundational procedures and understanding of the augmenting factors so that the foundational experience is always foremost.
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Summary of Purpose & User Benefits.
Physical Relaxation is necessary for the free and unmitigated flow of Prana and other subtle energies throughout both physical and subtle bodies. Through the flow of these energies, controlled & directed purification of various physical and subtle body parts and energy channels can be accomplished, and then may be followed by specified stimulus of particular psychic centers to accomplish certain goals.
Step 1. Preliminaries. Read through the procedure before beginning so that further reference is not needed. Time & Space: A period of approximately 30 to 40 minutes should be set aside for the active 16 steps of the procedure to be conducted in a comfortably warm, quiet, and safe setting free of interruptions.
You should repeat this entire procedure often, and particularly as needed— but not more than once daily. Like strenuous exercise, it can give you sore muscles if done too often in a single day. At the same time, we recommend that you do repeat it daily for the first week. It is desirable to use this relaxation procedure or a more simplified procedure before a meditation program or magickal ritual for maximum value.
Personal Preparations: Remove shoes and keep clothing or covering minimal to minimize the effects of external stimuli.
Posture & Position: Lie supine— or nearly so— on a recliner, the floor with a slight pillow for the head, or a bed with a relatively hard mattress. Stretch out in a straight horizontal position. Separate your feet about fifteen to twenty inches apart with toes and ankles relaxed to the outside. Place the arms alongside your body with the hands palms up (without straining to do so). Your shoulders should be flat and the small of your back relaxed. Feel yourself relaxed so that most of your body touches the surface on which you lie. If needed for comfort, place minimal padding under the knees, neck, and shoulders.
Special Lighting and/ or Other Requirements: While a darkened room is not required, freedom from both sound and visual distractions is advisable. Likewise avoid cooking and other odors if possible. If necessary make use of a sleep mask and soundless earphones or ear plugs.
Breathing: It is always desirable to establish a rhythmic flow of your breath, mostly balanced between inhalation and exhalation. It is likely, however, that as you start this procedure, you will inhale as you tense the muscles, and then exhale with their release, but once you have gone through the procedure, you will more naturally exhale with the contraction (tension inducing) of the muscles, and then inhale with the release. You may inhale and exhale more naturally as you rest between each of the steps.
With experience, you will find it easy to establish a natural rhythm inclusive of tension and release. That should become your choice rather than the intervals suggested in the steps below. In other words, follow instructions, and then adapt to what works best for you.
Vocalization: Vocalizing, either silently stated or voiced aloud, the affirmations and the identification of muscle groups increases the effectiveness of the procedure. With each step 5 through 23, it is helpful to vocalize the words describing the particular muscles within the group.
Step 2. Goal Statement. As mentioned in the Introduction to this section, your goal is two-fold:
1. To become fully familiar with the feelings associated with muscular tension and learn to totally relax the physical body.
2. To enable the healing and purifying flow of subtle energies throughout the physical and subtle bodies complex.
Step 3. Affirmations. I am becoming free of all stress and tension. I feel fully relaxed and naturally energized. I feel clean and purified. These affirmations may be spoken as goals at the beginning, and then as confirmations at the ending of the procedure.
Step 4. Mental Imagery. Visualization: Visualization, like vocalization, increases the effectiveness of the procedure. Let it happen naturally as you move through the procedure, and combine imagery with feeling. When you vocalize, for example, I feel fully relaxed and naturally energized, let an image form of your fully relaxed body and actually do feel relaxed, and at the same time, energized.
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Spontaneous Imagery: Let any spontaneous imagery, feelings, and vocalizations naturally and spontaneously happen. You might, for example, say “tense and tight” during the first part, and then sigh “ahhhh” during the second. Do not, however, say or feel anything negative— like “That hurts.” Keep the imagery natural and spontaneous, without planning and contrivance. Just let it happen, and it will. And expect it to change as you repeat this procedure again and again. The following procedure is the core that should be followed exactly, but the images and feelings should be spontaneous. Don’t worry about them, and don’t force them.
For each of the sixteen groups that are recognized in Steps 5 through 23, visualize and sense the individual parts and the group as a whole. Experience them for what they are to the body as a whole as well as what they do individually. Get to know your body consciously and with appreciation.
Step 5. Feet, Toes, and Ankles. Tense both left and right simultaneously, curling the toes upward for about 30 seconds and then downward for an equal amount of time. Note feelings both on bottoms and tops of feet and toes, and front and bank of ankles. Feel the tension in feet and ankles for the full 60 seconds, and then suddenly and completely relax. Letting go of all tension, feel total relaxation for about a minute.
We’re spending more time on your feet than on other muscle groups because your feet are your contact with the Earth— and they “exhale” negativity to the earth and “inhale” positivity. Your feet are the polar opposite of your hands and the crown of your head, and energies circulate up and down between the two poles, and throughout the body.
Step 6. Shins and Calf muscles. Tense both left and right simultaneously and hold for about 30 seconds. Because of the tendency of the calf muscles to cramp you should be cautious about extending this period to as long as 60 seconds, but no longer. Our goal is not endurance but experience. Feel the tension front and back, and then let go, and feel the relaxation. When you feel you really know the experience of this relaxation, you can move on— but wait at least ten seconds.
Step 7. Knee Joints and Muscles. The knees are joints, but very special joints with a front and a back, and they are surrounded with muscles. Tense them both simultaneously for about 30 seconds, pressing the hollows behind each knee against the surface you are lying on. Feel the sensations, and be aware of just how important the knees are to all you are. Then, let go and relax. Feel relaxation peacefully and with gratitude for ten or even thirty seconds.
Step 8. Thighs. The thighs are pillars of strength and the action limbs for the body’s movements. Tense them both simultaneously, and hold for a minimum of 30 seconds. Feel the hard muscles both front and back and visualize yourself striding with vigor through all the paths of life. Release, and feel the satisfaction as if of a hard day’s work well done.
Step 9. Abdomen, Groin, and Buttocks. Tense both abdomen and buttocks simultaneously— pulling the abdomen inward, the groin upward, and squeezing the buttocks forward toward the abdomen. Hold for a comfortable period— 30 seconds is recommended— and then release, letting go of all tension. This is a transition point, often blocking the flow of energies. When you truly let go and relax, feel the freely flowing energies upward and downward.
Step 10. Solar Plexus. Pull the navel back toward your spine, hold briefly, and let go. Tense and release. For some people, the solar plexus holds a lot of nervous energy— hence the phrase “a nervous stomach.” For these people, finding release of these tensions can be an enormous relief.
Step 11. Upper Chest. Deliberately inhale and expand your rib cage to fill the lungs to capacity. Hold, and then let go and release the tension. We tend to “hold our breath” in particular moments (panic, pain, excitement, etc.) and this sometimes becomes a semi-permanent retention of energy— a continuous tension— that we need to release. Feel a deep sense of relief that is actually pleasurable with the cycle of release. Practice a pattern of comfortable full inhalation and exhalation to establish a natural and healthy rhythm and consciously re-assert that rhythm whenever you feel “out of sync” with the world around you. Breath is life.
Step 12. Spine. The spine runs from the tail bone up to the neck just behind the jaw area. Pull the small of the spine back against the surface you are lying on. Hold and release as you push the rest of the spine back. In other words, it takes a double motion to flatten the entire spine in your moment of tension. And then release. You will feel tension moving out of the spine, liberating energy and bringing pleasant feelings. Enjoy! The spine is your “Tree of Life” supporting all your physical and etheric being. It is magical and spiritual at the same time it is physical reality.
Step 13. Hands, Thumbs and Fingers. Curl your thumbs into the palms of your hands, and then your fingers. Squeeze them all together, feeling the tension right into your fingertips, and then release. Make your hands and wrists go limp and feel the relaxation spread into your body. Your hands are one of the three primal interfaces with the world (feet, hands, mouth) where you have conscious interaction. Your hands not only grasp and point, but act like antennae to transmit and receive between you, other people, and the world through the palms and fingertips. Tension inhibits that flow; release and relaxation encourages it. The fingers give direction.
Step 14. Forearms and Elbows. From wrists to elbows, press both forearms down against the surface to create tension. Feel the tension, hold it, and then release andreal relaxation.
Step 15. Upper Arms and Shoulders. From elbows to shoulder joints, flatten down against the surface to create tension, especially in the shoulder area. Feel the tension, hold, and then release to experience relaxation.
Step 19. Neck and Throat. Press the back of the head against the surface and pull your chin back. Feel tension, hold and then release. Feel the relaxation. Supporting the head is actually more demanding, and expressive, than you may realize. We thrust the head forward in aggression, pull it back in defense and retreat, turn right and left, move up and down as we relate to the outside world. Tension inhibits and relaxation releases energy.
Step 20. Back of Head. Push the back of the head down against the surface for a few seconds to create tension, hold, and then release into relaxation.
Step 21. Jaws, Mouth, Lips and Tongue. Tense the area from the tip of the chin back to the hinge joints (you can feel them with your fingers as you open and close your mouth). Press your lips together, push your tongue up strongly against the roof of the mouth where you can feel a point of sensation, feel the accumulating tension, hold, and then release. Feel the pleasure of relaxation.
Step 22. Eyes, Cheeks, and Forehead. Sight is the most important of our senses, and the eyes are its vehicle. Squeeze your eyelids together and feel your cheeks and forehead all together tense, hold, and release. Feel refreshed vision as your eye muscles relax.
Step 23. Top of Scull and Scalp. Try to feel the weight of the brain inside your skull while relaxing the scalp. At first, it will seem difficult to separate the two, but try and it will happen and you will feel the complete relaxation of your body from toes to the top of your head. From your toes and feet to the crown of your head, tension and releases has opened blocked energy passages and prepared the way for the Tattvic Connection to bring healing and clarity.
Step 24. Completion & Self-Realization. We are more than the physical body, but we live in the body and it is the living foundation of our incarnate experience. We incarnate more and more deliberately with intention as we grow in the wholeness of our being— becoming more than we are. But modern life is stressful and the resultant tension inhibits our full living and growth opportunities. To benefit from programs intended to accelerate psychic development and spiritual growth we must reduce the inhibiting tension and clear the physical and subtle bodies of psychic and emotional “pollution.”
Step 25. Return to Normality. It is always desirable to fully return to normality following any procedure, be it of relaxation, meditation, ritual, or intense period of work whether physical or mental, with a deliberate act of standing, stretching, flexing head and shoulders, hands and wrists, perhaps some deep breathing, and a bite to eat.
Step 26. Review, Record & Analyze. Review the experience, and mentally summarize it. Record it in your journal. After a day or two, read what you’ve written and analyze it for any special values you note.
This meditation exercise has been reprinted from:
Weschcke, Carl Llewellyn; Slate, Joe H. (2013-07-08). Clairvoyance for Psychic Empowerment (Personal Empowerment Books) (pp. 55-65). Llewellyn Worldwide, LTD.. Kindle Edition.
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