Comments on: How to relax

By: mig

mig — Tue, 09 Nov 2004 11:06:26 +0000

That’s an interesting comparison, because when we took social dance lessons last year it was very good for me, and I think us, in a similar way. We wanted to repeat it this year, but just didn’t have time. We’ll make time for it next year.

By: dogpossum

dogpossum — Tue, 09 Nov 2004 09:13:24 +0000

i do a lot of dance (lindy hop and other swing dances), which are mostly partner dances. this whole idea of staying relaxed, yet not quite a flubbery mess on the floor is essential to clear communication between partners.
as is walking ‘naturally’ – kind of a duh way of talking about actually putting each foot down with your entire weight over it at each step. rather than doing unnaturally tentative or stompy steps. this sort of movement helps communicate where your ‘center’ (your center of gravity, usually in your middle, round about the midpoint of a woman’s hips, slightly higher on a man) is to your partner. when you’re all tense in the arms, body, etc, you make it really hard for your partner to ‘communicate’ with you – to move you or to follow your movements.

with this sort of technique, you can dance to 300bpm for half an hour and come out of it relaxed as a very relaxed thing. rather than dancing all tense and finding it exhausting. swing music encourages all this with its relaxed approach to timing – behind the beat.

i’m obsessed with this: keeping my body relaxed, yet doing proper weight transfer. to the point where, when watching the winning jockey’s victory lap in the melbourne cup the other day i declared: “look at his CENTER!”. it’s facinating and wonderful and neatly dovetails with the principals of yoga.

By: mig

mig — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 20:42:20 +0000

Same problem here, I barely got the blog post out.

By: The Cowboy

The Cowboy — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 20:37:32 +0000

I also practice what might be called deliberate patience….I do these little self checks all day long and if I find myself feeling a bit too intense or too anything…I deliberately re-adjust my posture, take a few deep breaths and remind myself to chill out. It works well and I’m a much happier, more satisfied person. I’d write a book about it, but I’m too relaxed to undertake the effort.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 18:03:06 +0000

Walking meditation is a great Zen technique. Especially this time of year.

Undoubtedly learning how to stand “openly” would be a great way to relieve the ambient stress we carry with us.

By: Ossian

Ossian — Fri, 05 Nov 2004 17:52:58 +0000

It sounds a bit like the Alexander technique, which is perhaps a bit more mundane. I don’t know very much about it, but I believe it relates to only using the minimum amount of force needed for good posture. This is a thought that is found in music training for example, as when a guitarist is taught to only apply just sufficient pressure to the strings against the frets / neck. It’s also observed that great jumping horses only clear jumps by the bare minimum distance. Okay, I think I’m straying into deep irrelevance. Cheers.