The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-01-16
THE VALUE AND THE
MEANING OF "RELAxING."

THE woman who knows how prop
erly to relay her mind and body
can obtain rest twice as effectual-
ly and quickly as she who tries to re-
pose with her muscles tense or drawn
into knots Many time this tightness
of muscle is unknown to herself. but it
is none the less damaging on that &C
count. The art of relaxing is of such
vital Importance that Mrs. Vance Che
ney declares a shattered nervous sys-
TEN may be restored to health through
the simple expedient of letting go in
the right way.
How to let go? That is the question.
Many of us have kept the muscles of
our eyes, foreheads. threats and those
around our mouths SO tightly drawn
that at length they have hardened into
wrinkles, that, too, in just the place
where most of all we don't want wr1n-
kles.
1 will tell you how I learned to ere
lax" and perhaps it may help you.
Some time ago 1 attended a course of
lectures on light They summed up
the latest conclusions of science on this
point The professor told us that sci
ence takes for granted the existence of
an invisible elastic ether filling all
/
where in the universe. The vibrations
of that ether produce the effects of
! light and color. This etheric substance
constitutes all that we call matter.
The professor told us we might picture
it to ourselves as a colorless, elastic
perpetually vibrating jelly. Although
it is not this strictly. that idea would
help US to understand how it acts.
Just so. Now, when you retire for
| the night or when you are all worn out
and lie down to rest loosen your cloth
! ing till nothing binds you sufficiently
to recall to you that you have body.
You are to consider yourself for the
time as thinking machine vibrating
! the elastic jelly of which your body
and everything else in creation are COM
! posed. The theory of science is that
the hardness or softness and pliability
of substances are owing to the close
ness or looseness with which the etheric
particles are held together.
That is the science of relaxing. Now
for the application. Your thought and
will must be trained to properly ma
nipulate the etheric substance of which
you are composed. Let loose every
| muscle you have. Just sink into your
couch as though you were a jellylike
| substance spreading all over it. Par
| forehead and around the eyes and
mouth. Notice how you habitually hold
| the muscles of your throat. l hope
| sincerely you may not find that you are
| keeping them tight and puckered up as
if you were all the time swallowing
! something. This is one thing that
withers women's threats.
Continue the loosening, letting CO.
process till you are no longer conscious
of a single muscle in your body, not
| even around your eyes or throat 1t
| will help you much to keep in mind the
elastic jelly" theory that you are real
| ly not at all hard, immovable sub
stance, but a collection of infnitesimal
atoms eternally revolving and vibrat-
| ing. These atoms you can relax, can
| move and vfbrate according to your
will. Will and believe that they are
vibrating sound, free, harmonious,
while you rest, then go to sleep.
Do not draw your knees up toward
your chin or clasp your arms over
your breast or clutch the bedclothes or
assume any eccentric. distorted atti-
tude. Such attitudes forbid the perfect
realization of that elastic jelly ol
which you are composed.
In cases of stiffened joints and hard
ened muscles which come from disease
it will help greatly toward a cure to
relax in this way-to bear in mind al
ways that our bodies are really COM
posed of soft, yielding material. vi
brating more or less to the patient
thought of herself. Ask your doctor ii
this is not true.
In relaxing do not try to direct your
thought to any particular part of your
body. Just loosen your muscles, then
think in your brain that you are en-
tirely relaxed and resting, and this
thought will send the right nerve i'm
preston to the right place.
MARY GOULD LYTLH