Aprenda como relaxar
Meditação e relaxamento são coisas muito diferentes, muito mesmo, mas relaxar também é importante. O texto abaixo foi baseado nos ensinamentos de Sri Chinmoy.
Tensão x relaxamento – onde ficam?
O coração-silêncio é o lar de uma mente liberta de tensões.
Onde há fé, a tensão não encontra espaço.
A tensão, na verdade, está na mente. O corpo não tem tensão – ele tem dor. Você pode fazer as coisas com energia, mas ao mesmo tempo sem tensão.
A importância de relaxar
Para ficar forte, é importante saber relaxar também. Enquanto uma perna sobe um degrau na escada, o outro relaxa.
É importante ter atenção – mas não tensão.
Como relaxar e diminuir a tensão
A tensão muitas vezes vem por estarmos nos prendendo a uma vida de prazeres efêmeros.
Inquietação consegue afastar o relaxamento. É importante manter um sentimento de calma no corpo.
O humor inocente é uma boa forma de diminuir a tensão mental. Não ao assistir novelas e outras coisas emocionais, mas sim um humor realmente inocente.
Exercício para relaxar e diminuir a tensão
Sinta que cada respiração leva um minuto para ser realizada. Mesmo que de fato não leve tanto tempo, imagine que leva um minuto inteiro.
Abaixo seguem os textos originais, em tradução automática para o português.
Question: I don’t seem to feel comfortable and relaxed while meditating in a sitting position.
Sri Chinmoy: Everybody has a room where he can meditate. He may not own a house or apartment but he certainly has a room. In one corner of that room he can have a shrine where he can sit and meditate. When the body feels uncomfortable it will change its position and it is up to you to keep it comfortable. If there is restlessness though, immediately relaxation goes away. If you constantly move from this side to that side, how can you have relaxation? In order to maintain relaxation one has to keep calmness in the body and avoid restlessness at all costs.
Sri Chinmoy, Meditation: God speaks and I listen, part 1, Vishma Press, 1974
Relaxation And The Ants
A doctor said to his patient, “How am I going to cure you if you do not listen to me? You must not work so hard. I am asking you to relax and take some time off for vacation. Then only will I be able to cure you.”
The patient said, “Nonsense! I am an important and very busy executive. I have no time! I am always busy.”
The doctor replied, “You idiot! Have you ever seen an ant? Ants are always busy, busy. Is there any fleeting second when ants take rest? But again, ants enjoy picnics. Wherever there is a picnic, ants are always there! The ants work hard every day; but if there is a picnic, you will see that all the ants have come for relaxation.”
We can learn from the ants that we have to work very hard in life. But again, relaxation is of paramount importance to inundate us with new freshness, new hope and new promise. Otherwise, if we work very, very hard day in and day out, there are many things that we will not accomplish. We must also take relaxation seriously. Even with a machine, if we use the machine continuously and do not allow the machine to rest for a couple of hours, then the machine will revolt and break down. The body is also a machine. If this machine does not get some rest after working vigorously for quite a few hours, then the body will collapse.
In every field of life, we shall do everything diligently for hours and hours. Then we need to rest and energise ourselves with new inspiration. Life needs both activity and rest. They both must go together hand in hand. Both hard work and relaxation are absolutely necessary.
With one leg we cannot walk. Activity is one leg and rest is another leg. Relaxation does not mean the negation of work. Relaxation is absolutely needed when we have played our role in our multifarious activities.
Again, relaxation is totally different from luxury or pleasure. Often we do not work for even five minutes and we still want to enjoy pleasure. But after working for eight hours, the body does need a little rest. Relaxation is also a part of God’s creation. Relaxation is complementary to our hard work; it fills us with a new hope and a new promise.
Sri Chinmoy, The mind-jungles and the heart-gardens of life, Agni Press, 2001
Question: About two weeks ago, a Hatha Yoga Master came to the United Nations and said that first you must conquer and overcome the body and only then can the Supreme be manifested. What are your feelings about this?
Sri Chinmoy: It is true that the body has to be a perfect instrument of the spirit. But we have to know that for the body to be a perfect instrument, it need not be a perfect body. The world’s best athletes, the world’s strongest men, are not necessarily manifesting the divine Will unless they are conscious instruments. God only knows when these people will accept the spiritual life. So physical perfection does not indicate receptivity to the spiritual message or the light of the spirit. The message of the spirit, the message of the soul, our heart’s inner cry for God, for Truth, for Light — these things are not connected at all with bodily strength. We become aware of our inner, spiritual life only through prayer and meditation.
If you compare the physical strength of any of the world’s greatest spiritual Masters with the physical strength of the world’s great boxers or wrestlers, the spiritual Masters are nowhere. But if any of these Masters were to challenge a fighter with his spiritual strength, inner strength, soul’s strength, then that fighter would be compelled to surrender. If the Master used his occult power or spiritual power, he could immediately take away the life-energy of the fighter. This has happened in India many times. If somebody mocked at a spiritual Master’s occult and spiritual power, in the twinkling of an eye the Master would make that person so weak and lifeless that he could not even lift up a pencil. In India many years ago, a great wrestler was swimming in the Ganges alongside a spiritual Master. The wrestler was tormenting the Master, pushing him under the water and in every way trying to drown him. Finally, the spiritual Master said, “Now you have played your role. Let me see you lift up your arms.” Then he used his occult power and the wrestler who had been bothering him for about twenty minutes could not even move his arms. He would have drowned if the spiritual Master had not released him. So physical strength in comparison to spiritual strength is nothing, absolutely nothing.
If our body is strong enough and healthy enough to perform its natural functions, and if it is capable of sitting quietly for two hours or three hours without any difficulty or unusual discomfort, that is more than enough. The body has to be a fit instrument, but that does not mean we have to become the strongest or most powerful of men. It is sufficient to have the amount of strength that our body requires in order to stay on earth and play our God-ordained role efficiently. The body needs strength so that it can receive and manifest the message of the spirit. If matter is not strong or receptive, then how can the message of the spirit be manifested in the physical?
Suppose we want to meditate in the morning. If we are physically weak, if we have a stomach ache or headache or some other ailment, then how will we meditate well? That is why we have to give due importance to the body. But due importance does not mean extravagant concern. Early every morning if we exercise for fifteen minutes or so, and if we have a proper diet, that is sufficient. Western exercises are all right, but if we do Indian exercises, asanas, we get a kind of relaxation that helps in meditation. But one can become expert in the Indian system of exercises without attaining any spiritual advantage. There are hundreds of Indian villagers who can do these exercises, but how many incarnations will it take before they even begin to accept the spiritual life?
I do not deny the role of the body. But you have to know how much you can expect from the body. If this body is five-feet-eight, then it will remain five-feet-eight no matter how hard I try to make it taller. A runner may reduce his time if he practises, but eventually he will reach his maximum speed. The body’s capacity is always limited. Its height, its strength, its speed all have a point beyond which they cannot develop. And, after many years, these capacities will gradually decrease. But as long as we continue to pray and meditate, our inner capacities will go on increasing until we grow into something infinite and boundless. Our inner power, inner light, inner wealth have no limit. There is no boundary for the soul within us. Peace, Light and Bliss can be increased in infinite measure. So eternal progress, infinite Peace, Light and Bliss are what we can expect from the spiritual life, whereas temporary fitness is all we can expect from Hatha Yoga or any other form of physical culture, no matter how faithfully and devotedly it is pursued.
Sri Chinmoy, Flame-Waves, part 4, Agni Press, 1975
Question: How can we work quickly without tension?
Sri Chinmoy: Tension is in the mind, nowhere else. Inside the heart there is no tension. Even inside the knees or legs there is no tension; there is only pain. Real tension is inside the mind.
Tension goes away to a great extent if you can breathe in and out very slowly. If you can imagine that you are taking one full minute to breathe in and another full minute to breathe out, even though in reality it may not be true that you are taking that long, then your tension is bound to be released.
Sri Chinmoy, My heart shall give a oneness-feast, Agni Press, 1993
- This is the discovery
Tension and destruction:
This is the discovery of the animal life.
Tension without attention:
This is the discovery of the human life.
Attention without tension:
This is the discovery of the divine life.
Attention with discovery:
This is the discovery of the supreme life.
Sri Chinmoy, The Wings of Light, part 5, Aum Press, Puerto Rico, 1974
- Free yourself from tension
My Supreme Lord,
How can I free myself
From tension?
“My child,
You can free yourself
From tension easily
If you do not cling
To an astonishingly fleeting
Pleasure-life.”
Sri Chinmoy, Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 19, Agni Press, 1981
25750
Smile, smile as powerfully as possible
To relieve yourself
Of your mental tension.
Sri Chinmoy, Twenty-Seven Thousand Aspiration-Plants, part 258, Agni Press, 1998
818
Faith knows no tension,
For it knows that God
Is always with it
And always for it.
Sri Chinmoy, Twenty-Seven Thousand Aspiration-Plants, part 9, Agni Press, 1983
10739
Every night take a step back
From your fancied tension-life
To sleep with God’s God-Vision-Dreams.
Sri Chinmoy, Twenty-Seven Thousand Aspiration-Plants, part 108, Agni Press, 1987
- Two medicines
My body is all tension,
My vital, all frustration,
My mind, all suspicion,
My heart, all hesitation.
Although I have four serious ailments,
Two medicines can cure them all:
My receptivity-hunger
And
God’s Compassion-Feast.
Sri Chinmoy, Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, part 18, Agni Press, 1981