About Steven Aitchison
Update: Please click on this link for more information about The new Mind Alchemy course. All the links to the downloads have now been removed. I would like to thank all 800+ readers who expressed an interest in this course and for everyone who completed the course the first time round, it is becasue of you I could make the course better.
Before we start
You can still join the course by Clicking here
A few readers are now blogging about their experiences on the course, and it would be great to lend your support:
Stacy Claflin – Grow With Stacy
Marty BoneIdol – Living Life in Chapters
Stephen – New Life Starts Here
Read the interview I have done with Angela Artemis from Powered by Intuition
Read the interview I have done with Sandi Faviell from DevaCoaching
Watch an interview I made with Suzie Cheel on Mind Alchemy
Mind Alchemy Day 10
We’ve covered a lot of ground over the last previous 9 days and have worked on some potentially life changing exercises. Well it’s time for a little chilling out for a few days 
Today is another Daily Practice exercise. If you have been following this course you should now be reading your outcomes every single day and hopefully you are already seeing the benefit of focusing on your outcomes for 10 minutes per day. Now I want to introduce another daily practice, and it’s something we might take for granted and that’s relaxation.
We all know how to do it, we all know the benefits and yet very few of us practice relaxation of any form.
What is relaxation?
Relaxation is taking our bodies and our minds and letting them chill out for 10-15 minutes per day. No agenda, no stress around doing it, no formal training, no going to meditation or yoga classes, just sitting, or lying, down and letting your mind and body be calm for 10-15 minutes every day.
“There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden or even your bathtub.”
Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Relaxation technique
There are many many forms of relaxation and if you are not used to it here is a very simple technique for practising it.
1. Choose a quiet haven for you. Your bedroom, the bathroom, the garage, anywhere where you won’t be disturbed.
2. Do a few gentle stretching exercises to loosen up your muscles, so muscle tension won’t be a distraction for you.
3. Get comfortable in a chair, or lye down on a mat of some kind.
4. Start to slowly breath in, as you breath in let your lungs fill and push your stomach out, a la pregnant pose. When you exhale, do it slowly, and when you exhale pull your stomach in to try and get your stomach to the inside of your back, in other words pull your stomach in as far as you can. Do this 5 times.
5. Now gently tense, then relax, each part of your body starting from you feet and work your way upwards.
6. As you are tensing each area, think of a warm glow coming into that area, with a relaxed heaviness.
7. If any thoughts come to mind, just let them drift by without attaching to them. This can be tricky at first but with practice you will learn to let thoughts drift through your mind.
8. Once you have completed a round of tensing and relaxing your body. Take a few minutes to go to a place in your mind that you find extremely relaxing: A garden, a waterfall, the beach, anywhere that brings you a feeling of peace and serenity.
9. Stay like this for about 15 minutes. Now take some deep breathes in, pushing out your stomach, and exhale slowly pulling in your stomach. Lie for another few moments before getting up.
This is a simple routine that can be practised on a daily basis. You might already know another technique for relaxing, or you might do some meditation, tai chi or yoga that will get you into this frame of mind. The important part is that you do this every single day and make it as much a part of your daily routine as brushing your teeth is.
I guarantee you after a few weeks of doing this every day you will be a much calmer, relaxed, and focused person. It will increas your mental well being and is an extremely effective tool for preventing stress and anxiety.
Tomorrow
Tomorrow I want to continue with the theme of relaxation and have a guided meditation for you, which I hope you’ll love. Until tomorrow my fellow Mind Alchemists……..
Action follows a thought…
This course is about taking action, and to become pro active in changing your life. Take time to do this exercise and really think about it throughout the day. You don’t need to wait until tomorrow to take steps to improve your ‘Wheel of Life’, but with the support and encouragement from all the members we can help each other and support each other, but ultimately ‘you have to bring something to the table!’
Your thoughts
As always it’s good to talk about your experiences and share it with the rest of the members of the course, so let us know how this exercise went for you and if you gained any insights or had any revelations about yourself or your life.
You can share your thoughts at Mind Alchemy Facebook Group
You can Tweet using the hashtag #MindAlchemy
Or of course you can leave a comment at the blog
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This sounds like an interesting course, I hope I’m not too late for it. There’s too much stress this days that being able to relax for just a few minutes everyday is a necessity. I would have to print out this page so I can review this steps, I don’t want to miss out on anything by forgetting about it.
Andrew @ Blogging Guide recently posted..You Are Losing Customers If You Don’t Do This
Hey Andrew, no you’re not too late for the course
relaxation is a great way to let your mind unwind and get rid of the stress we feel in our day to day life. If we can incorporate it into our daily practice the results will compound and affect every area of our lives.
I’ve been doing this for quite some while now. In fact I’ve developed a guided relaxation class of my own that I use at work. Even being the guide has the value of doing the exercise. There is the “leading by example” element to it. 10 minutes of this can be as effective as a full nights sleep if the focus is right. I’ve seen some miraculous effects upon some of my clients at work. one in particular.
Anyone reading todays session, I highly recommend it.
Marty recently posted..Inspirational songs
Hi Marty, we seem to do a lot of the same things in our working practice. I truly believe that a 10 minute relaxation can be equivalent to a few hours sleep, or a good night sleep as you’ve said.
It would be good to hear more about your results with your clients.
I’ve been doing this myself, relaxation exercise with a teacher but I have not put it into my daily habits, what I will do from now on at least do my best to do this daily.
Because it’s powerful to relax, less anxiety, stress and for our own mind well being.
Thank you once again Steven
Hi Engilbert, good to see you do this already. The results will compound the more we do it.
I did this exercise and all kinds of thoughts came over me, but then it happened, everything was “paused” and I was living in the “NOW” my mind was not everywhere, it was right there at the same moment, we together, amazing feeling.
I however, manage only to do this for 10 minutes, for me, however it was good. I just train myself to become better at this, will create this as a habit, I’ve done this before but then with “calming” music, I maybe use a calming music next time, but I will for sure start to practice this from now on, thanks again Steven.
Steven you deserve all the best life can possible give you & all the gratitude too.
Looking forward for DAY 11
That’s a great share Engilbert, glad it helped in some way and the feeling you got is typical of a lot of us who use relaxation on a daily basis.
thanks you for your kind words, always appreciated.
This is exactly what I need to do RELAX.
Cynthia this song could help
“By Mika – Relax, Take It Easy”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xvn_Ku55cI
Take CARE
Let us know how you get on Cynthia.
It is really good techneque to relax the body and the mind:)
Love it..
Glad you liked this one Angeldadi.
@ Engilbert
The more you practice this, the better it gets. There are many techniques of preparing. My preferred is to sit upright in a chair keeping the back straight and feet flat on the floor. This is good for grounding. Keeping the spine straight allows maximum use of your brain communicating with your body. Be aware of the earth’s natural gravity.
There is nothing spooky about the process. By relaxing, we allow our body to operate in its natural state. It allows the body and mind to naturally replenish without being distracted by everyday stress and distraction. This meditation technique, guided with affirmations and calming music works really well, particularly for people that have trouble sleeping well at night.
I also think that by sitting upright, we stop ourselves going off into what could be the fitful poor sleep we sometimes get at night.
Marty recently posted..Inspirational songs
Steven,
I really like the ‘task’ for today! Relaxation is great, I have always gotten a lot out of it. Definitely all the benefits that you have listed. I wrote about one of my favorite techniques to use during a stressful situation on my blog today.
I look forward to tomorrow’s guided meditation!
Stacy
Stacy recently posted..Changing Beliefs and Relaxation
Hi Stacy, it’s great that you are blogging about this and sharing it with everyone else.