Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-10


q good deal of ungainliness. 1t Is she who
takes away the one extra inch OF fullness
across the chest or between the shoulders
which makes the differences between Conf
fort and the sense of being Bound into one 6
clothes If you feel that your waist line
binds you in any place, take a pair OF scis-
sors and cut 1t; that is. IL You care about
being graceful. You can be graceful clothed
In g garment of loose sackcioth, but not In
n gown OF rarest velvet that binds you be-
tween the shoulders or across the chest,
or, indeed. in any other place.
Physical grace or motion is the outcome
of proper control of the muscles and limbs
Physical culturists will tell you this can
only be acquired through physical culture,
but 1 have seen so many women who were
graceful that have come to the conclusion
that though this is true. namely. that grace
presupposes perfect control OF the mus
cles, believe this can only be accomplish
ed by learning to relax each muscle sep
arately. II you know how to relax your
muscles you must know how to stiaen
them, for you have to stiffen them In order
to get the sensation OF relaxation. If you
can both stiffen and relax them you can
control them.
So few persons know how to relax that
I win give little illustration OF how this
Is really done. particularly as relaxation
10 one of the odds nowadays l remember
the day when / paid $40 to famous
teacher to learn what am about to de-
scribe to you / do not say that 1t was not
worth It. In fact, I am sure 1t was, be-
cause II you know how to relax absolutely
both your mind and body you know how
to forget care, how to cure the mind OF the
nervous trouble prevalent in these times,
how to rest yourself when weary and. best
OF all. how to fall asleep when sleep seems
an impossibility, and even sleeping potions
are of no avail. Well. this Is the lesson in
relaxation my teacher gave to me:
She placed me in q large arm chair, the
well known Morris kind. Behind my nead
beside the regular cushion OF the chair
there was a small pillow; the back OF the
chair was lowered so that the body was
In most comfortable attitude. The hands
were rested on the arms OF the chair ana
the feet on small foot-stool. The teacher
now began by telling me to expei my
breath rapidly and forcefully did SO and
was told to begin again inhaling quickly
and expelling the breath as forcefully as
possible with. II possible, the sensation of
sinking In, not only of the chest, but OF
the whole body. This breathing was kept
up until I began to grasp her further ex-
PLANTATION of her system OF relaxation. She
now asked me to try to get the sensation
as II the top of my head were sinking down
right straight to my. eyes.
The downward sensation accompanied the
expelling of the breath. OF course, this
sounds rather extraordinary, utterly TOOL
ish,- in fact, but if you tried to get the SEN
sation of letting go the top of the head.
of letting it sink In, you would see just
how restful that sensation is. L did not
get it for some time, but when I did, it
was a delightful feeling. The top of tho
head is the hardest part of the body to
relax, with the exception of the vital or
gans. There Is so much tension in these
days, particularly with all those engrossed
In business and who are of a nervous or
worrying temperament. After l had Sc
cured this sensation of falling, dropping
relaxing or sinking Of the top of the head,
was told to take all the muscles Of the
face one by one, and feel as il they, too,
were relaxing and dropping, as If all the
tensions were leaving them. The same OF
the neck muscles. In order to get better
idea of what relaxation meant, the teacher
told me to strain every muscle of my neck
as much as / could, that is to say to put
on all the pressure and tension possible
By this, of course, I simply mean inward
pressure or tension of the muscles. l DID
this and felt every muscle strainlng as II
with some exertion.
Now said the teacher, relax your
neck. Let everything 60"
Once again. all the muscles were tensioned
and contracted with the outgoing breath,
and even greater relaxation was felt, and
each time that L put on the tension and
then relaxed the muscles perceived that
the degree of relaxation was greater and
that I was getting better control we now
came down to the shoulders. focused my
thought on the muscles of the shoulders,
making them tense and then relaxing them
as l first Inhaled and then exhaled deeper.
Then the arms were made to relax untii
they felt heavy and lifeless. Each internal
organ was treated In this way, first center
ing the thought upon contracting and then
relaxing. and so on; then the limbs to the
very toes. 1t must have taken some ten
minutes to work down from the head to
the toes.
'Now." said the teacher, ''inhale deeper
while contracting the whole body, count six
to seven while doing this. Hold the ten
sion and also your breath while you count
seven, then relax, expelling the breath TO
the same number
I did this repeatedly, and, by the end of
the lesson, I thought knew what perfect
relaxation meant. And did not mind pay
ing my so for the experience. l have
found it of great benefit in slight cases of
illness due to congestion of some part OF
the body which L have known now TO re-
duce through Transforming and relaxing the
part and thereby inducing the circulation.
Many of the pupils of this teacher, who is
now famous, have benefited by it, particu-
larry those of nervous, tense and over
wrought temperament.
1t is the physically relaxed woman who
is always famous for her feline grace, just
as the cat is the most relaxed of animals,
and at the same time, the most graceful.
You can tell the nervous tension under.
which woman is laboring by her gesture
when she passes you the cake If the arm
is round and free. she is probably at ease
with herself and with you; If the elbow is
cramped, undoubtedly the mind behind it
is cramped and anxious, too. So much Is
said of the graceful poise of woman's
head and what extraordinary things we
see them do. Yet what they fondly hope
is to acquire graceful poise. have seen
unfortunate girls work for hours In a
gymnasium, stretching their heads, bend
ing their necks and going through perfect
torture in order to acquire this free car
rage, and then leave the gymnasium, walk
down the street full of fear of big city or
bashfulness and perpetually conscious of
those around. In the gymnasium they had
been forced to hold their heads high, In the
street the carriage of their heads was
merely the outward expression of a shrink
ing conscious self that did not dare to look
the world and high heaven In the face.
Physical grace is the symbol of harmony,
of mental poise and bodily control. The
physical control you can get by exercising
your limbs and muscles, the other by ex-
ercisng mind and spirit.
D.