Daily exercises for developing presence and relaxation

Mostly we spend our breath verbalizing. As we talk, each word we use goes to our thoughts. Used this way, the breath is like a horse: It tires as it runs. If we carefully watch when we speak, we can see how our energy level is drained. So this is a first guide: Use as little energy as possible in verbalizing. The less we waste the breath, the more still it becomes, and the more we grow calm. It is this calm, inner breath that we can transmute into something blissful. As we relax into it, we discover a kind of pure energy that has great value or potential.

Day 9 – Expanding Feeling Exercise

Sit very quietly, breathing gently and evenly, with your mouth slightly open.

Cast your mind back to a wonderful memory and allow it to become very real in your mind –perhaps your first love, a beautiful sunset, a scenic walk along a river bank. Recreate the positive energy of the past time, expanding it throughout your being.

Let your body heat up and your breath move a little higher in your chest, until you feel a physical sense of exhilaration.

Expand the sensation throughout the body and beyond, so that you are the centre from which feelings ripple out in all directions. Now slowly draw this vital feeling back into your body.

Let this energy unite and cleanse the body and mind.

Continue to expand and retract your exhilarating feeling in this way for 15 to 20 minutes. If you do this whenever you have beautiful ideas, images, or feelings, you will enhance your sensory awareness.