Before I discovered the world of nervous system healing, I thought I knew what it meant to relax.
I’d watch Netflix or get some Pad Thai or go for a walk and sure, it was relaxing… but I don’t think I realised that this was “relaxation by distraction”.
In other words, I didn’t truly relax my nervous system…
…I simply distracted myself from the stress and activation.
I THOUGHT I was relaxed… but I didn’t feel relaxed because, quite simply, I didn’t feel much of anything.
Then I discovered the world of nervous system healing and learned how to feel my body.
That’s when I finally started to FEEL relaxed.
Relaxation wasn’t simply Netflix or a walk around the lake at Chiang Mai University.
Relaxation meant feeling safe. Safe enough that I didn’t have to scan for threats or worry about money or what so-and-so thought about me.
Relaxation also meant feeling the tension in the body dissolve. I started to feel myself “land” in my body. Instead of everything being concentrated around my head, my sense of myself spread through my entire body.
I felt muscles relax and tension release… in weird new ways that I’d never experienced before but absolutely LOVED 😍
It was as if my entire body was letting out a long, pleasurable sigh.
Better yet, I learned how to relax like this on demand.
I could use a few simple techniques and literally within seconds, I’d feel my entire body soften and relax.
And as the body relaxed, so did the mind.
It was unreal 😮
More than 3 years after I first discovered these tools, I still use them regularly throughout my day – so much so that they’ve become a part of me.
Get the same tools I use to relax here:
Cheers,
John Wood