Week 4 Teacher Notes: The Physiology of Relaxation
7:00pm — Mid-Course Review
7:20pm — Bodyscan Meditation
7:50pm — What Happens When You Meditate
Background Information to “Relaxation and the body”
The following is provided as background information. None of it needs to be explicitly covered in class. However, it may provide useful when responding to students questions and comments following the bodyscan.
Our aim this week is to delve deeper into what happens during meditation, focusing on both the physical and mental signs of relaxation.
Strangely, relaxation can be both unfamiliar and counter-intuitive. Some students may actually feel apprehensive or fearful as they relax. They may even think that they are going mad! Sensations of heaviness, or weightlessness, of falling or sinking, of losing touch with body (or of going numb) can all trigger some degree of fright. Similarly, when thoughts become very fragmented, random and dreamlike, students sometimes conclude that they are losing touch with reality. Many of these common meditative experiences indicate a loss (or relinquishing) of control, and this loss can also trigger some degree of apprehension.
Of course, few of us have ever been taught — and therefore don’t really know what it feels like — to relax. Thankfully the signs are easy to recognise once you know what they are, and focusing on these little signs — as strange, surprising and unfamiliar as some of them may seem — helps you to relax further. Tuning into these details is much more useful than trying to space out in order to feel good.
It’s useful to remember that mental and emotional calm are usually dependent, to some degree, on relaxation of the body. Paradoxically, the fastest way to relax is to notice how tense you are. In this way awareness acts as a biofeedback mechanism — it tells you where you’re tense and what to do about it. Conversely, if you are not conscious of tension it may manifest as agitation, irritability, boredom or restlessness.
During the debrief students will likely mention some, if not all of the following.
All we need to do is to reframe / normalise these experiences and to confirm that they are all clear indicators that the relaxation process is underway.
And remember, focusing on anything sensory will relax you, but it’s feedback from the body that lets you know where you are.
1. Heaviness
- “body felt like lead”
- “hands feel numb”
- “couldn’t feel my body”
- heavy-numb-light-disconnected
Comments: Muscles soften and drop — the brain may interpret this as heaviness. Proprioception (our ability to sense where we are in space) only works when we move. Sitting still, our brain may interpret a lack of signals from the proprioceptors as nausea, vertigo, feelings that you are floating or numb, leaning to one side, moving, falling etc.
3. Aches and Pains surfacing
- “I didn’t realise how tense I was”
- “I thought I was fine..then I noticed this awful headache”
Comments: Stress the importance of welcoming the aches and pains and reassure students that with acceptance the pain generally dissolves, whereas resistance keeps it stuck. Use the analogy of a splinter (hurts when it goes in, hurts when it comes out – but much better to dig it out than to let it fester. This is a great analogy for meditation in general). A meditation can feel like a good massage. The loosening process continues even after you stop meditating.
2. Tingling or warmth on the skin
- “I felt warm when meditation”
- “hands feet became hot”
- Fingers may feel puffy
Comments: Improved circulation loosens muscles which become soft and pliable.
4. Changes in the breathing
- “My breathing became quite light and occasionally stopped”
- “My breathing was erratic. I had to sigh or take a deep breath”
- “I felt like I wasn’t breathing enough”
- “My breath felt deep and lovely’
- It eventually becomes light and delicate. It feels soft and spacious.
- There can be long pauses between breaths.
Comments: Breath drops by 12 to 15% during the first few minutes of meditation. It takes about 5 hours to drop 8% as you enter deep sleep.
In this sense, meditation is deeply relaxing. A state as close to hibernation as humans can get.
In summary a relaxed body tends to feel heavy, still, soft and warm, While these adjectives may seem vague they refer to precise sensations in the body. Muscles literally loosen.
Other signs of relaxation:
- Stomach gurgling / Increased salivation (signs of digestive system working – it doesn’t under stressful situations)
- Mild nausea, irritability, discomfort
- Fatigue, twitching
- An avalanche of thought
- Smooth flowing movement
- Other individual signs
Relaxation is a process – you gradually slip into it.
Physical Indicators
- Muscle tension releases
- Respiration softens
- Blood pressure drops
- Circulation improves
- Digestive function improves
- Aches and pains become more obvious then fade away
If you are alert you can notice all this happening. Also:
- Changing hormone levels
- Improved immune system function
- Altered metabolic activity etc.
Mental Indicators
- Sense of peace/stillness
- Emotional release or flow
- Colours, dream images
- Old/random memories
- Mind seems empty, blank or dark
- Feeling hyper-alert, very present
- Time distorts, collapses
- Serene detachment
- Heightened awareness
- Spectator rather than participant
How to evaluate your meditation.
Ask “Am I relaxing?” Then look for signs:
- Heavy body
- Warm skin
- Being in touch with the body including its aches and pains
- Changes in the breath
Then ask “Could I relax more?”
At the end ask “Am I more relaxed? Does my mind feel calmer?”
Don’t hanker after perfection. A relaxed body ins not automatically pain free or filled with bliss – it’s just relaxed. Nor is a clear mind automatically happy – it’s just clear. Let got of expectation and comparison.
8:00pm — Impromptu Yawning & Stretching Session
8:05pm — Mantra & Affirmations
Week 4 Homework
On to Week 5.
7:10pm — Purple Round M