Relaxation & Repetition
I have left this next concept of R&R for last. Why? Because this concept will help you understand all that we have discussed so far, easily and with greater comfort. The concept of R&R will also help you understand any part of the program that might not have made sense to you. You’re going to find these answers here. Simply, without the application of the R&R principle, you will have a hard time achieving the level of success you want in your life. So let’s start looking at good old R&R.
Now most people will define R&R as Rest and Relaxation. It’s partially true, but what I’m talking about here is not rest and relaxation, but Relaxation and Repetition. We will talk about relaxation first.
There are two types of relaxation. One is the relaxation of the body. You and I can understand this. We all know how to relax our body. Well, maybe not, but at least we would like to have our body relax. The relaxation we are talking about here is the relaxation and calmness of the mind. Relaxation of the body is a lot easier to achieve while the relaxation of the mind is a hard thing to achieve.
To enjoy the full benefit of relaxation of the body or the mind, they both have to be present. If I don’t have a relaxed mind, a calmer mind, I will not enjoy relaxation of the body either. So, for me to have a total experience, a totally peaceful, bliss experience of relaxation, then calmness, peace, and serenity of mind is absolutely needed.
Remember our session on focus? Focusing on the present will also apply here. You must focus on relaxation also. Lying on a beach watching a beautiful sunset, and other things around it, does not transform you into pure relaxation. Your mind could still be restless. You might be thinking of your financial losses. You might be thinking about a bad relationship or maybe something reminded you of your past and all the memories came back. So, true relaxation – physical relaxation – is not going to happen in your life until there is relaxation of the mind. Calmness of the mind must be accomplished first. They work hand in hand.
This is not a new concept. It has been here forever. Even doctors in 400 B.C. noted that if a man insisted on always being serious and never allowed himself a bit of relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing. Isn’t that the truth? If we work nonstop and we are always puzzled with the chaos and turmoil of our rigid society, or we don’t get a chance to relax our body or mind, then we are doomed to fail. We are doomed to not only fail in what we are doing, but our health might pay a big price for it as well. So, let’s go into relaxation because that is just such an essential part of our lives.
Now, I'm sure you know many people around you who exhaust themselves physically and mentally with the pressures of work. Then, they are almost at the brink of breaking down. Do you know why this happens? In most cases, they are fearful that if they take a break it might interfere with their progress and growth. It's quite the contrary. It is that break in one's pace that most often leads to the sudden breakthrough you have been seeking.
One of the world’s greatest physicists, Fritjof Capra, noted this by saying, “During a period of relaxation after concentrated intellectual activity, the intuitive mind seems to take over and produce the sudden clarifying insight, which gives so much joy and delight.” That is a physicist talking. This is a man who has studied and spent his whole life learning about energy. He understands that relaxation is not a drop in energy; it is simply a shift in energy. It is applying a different angle of the energetic vibration to our life. Now doesn’t that amaze you? So it is not the dropping of energy, it’s just a shift that is taking place. That shift is not only healthy, but it’s fruitful because that shift in energy gives you new reasons, new power to move forward.
To take a break for relaxation does not mean you are lacking in responsibility, or you have no desire to complete the job. In fact, the deeper the desire you have to succeed and the deeper desire you have to complete your task in a beautiful way, the more relaxation you need in between. So, you can shift your energy and in simple layman terms, I can try to correlate what Fritjof was trying to say: “Maybe I’m at a level of energy that if I’m working constantly I am burning more and producing less. To relax might be a boost to my energy.”
Can you see how the energy level works not only from a theological point of view, but also from a scientific point of view? To recharge your battery ... to reignite your brainpower ... you need relaxation of the mind.
The whole concept of this relaxation and shift of energy is to accomplish more by putting in a minimum of effort. Once you have a relaxed mind and you have the concept of relaxation, it will give you many other powerful benefits. For example, you are more prepared to accept good news with controlled enthusiasm and you will not overreact to bad news because you have a calmer mind. It puts you in a totally different level of increased awareness. This means you see more, you feel more and you experience more.
A relaxed mind allows you to respond decisively for any situation, so instead of REACTING, you are more able to calmly RESPOND. That’s a big difference, isn’t it? I’d rather act or respond than react. So this not only gives me power to act, it also removes all the negative emotions from my life, like fear, doubt.
confusion, and conflict. With my calmer mind, I can make better decisions for others and for me.
A relaxed mind also puts you in a state of thinking and that makes you more creative and less competitive. That is what the creative process is. There’s a book I have read (unfortunately, I can’t remember the name of the author), but it said, “God did not design you to play golf. God designed you to be creative.” Well, the idea here is that you are playing golf to recharge your battery and get into the creative process. And once you have a calmer mind, you need to be creative because you are a co-creator with our universe.
What I have found for me is that with a calmer mind I think more clearly. The calmer mind also helps me in self-control. It also helps me build my stronger character.
Have you ever seen an angry person? Have you ever seen their body language? Have you ever seen how they talk? When you’re angry, you are not in control of your own emotions. And when you are not controlling your own emotions, you have no idea what you are going to say and what’s going to come out of your mouth, which you might regret later on. So let’s all practice calmness of mind.
Some very important information I learned on relaxation I learned from one of the swamis from India. He taught me once that there are two types of tiredness. One is physical tiredness. So people might say to you, "I’m tired," and they go for more sleep or a nap, even though they might have slept for eight hours just a few hours before. And when they get up, they’re more tired than they were when they went to sleep. Why is it?
Well, this is what he explained to me: If you are tired because of a physical reason, 10 or 15 minutes of relaxation or a nap can recharge your battery enough to continue forward. But if you are mentally tired, any length of relaxation might not help you get rid of the tiredness. The difference is this: You don’t give relaxation to just the body. The relaxation of the mind and the relaxation of the body have to come together. And if I don’t have relaxation of the mind, my body might not enjoy the benefit of relaxation either.
It is also very important to understand that when we talked calmness of mind, we’re not talking about the speed at which you work. Calmness of mind does not mean to work slowly. Calmness of mind does not mean you walk slowly, that you are tired and you’re left behind. The simple idea of calmness of mind means you slow down in your mind, not in your action. The most productive people – the successful people who have lots of responsibilities – make decisions faster when they have a calmer mind. The calmer mind will increase your productivity, not decrease it. So it’s the slowing down of the mind that counts.
Let me share something from James Allen’s writing on serenity: “Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. It is a result of long and patient effort in self-control. Its presence is an indication of ripened experience and a more than ordinary knowledge of the laws and operations of thought.”
So, when you become calm, not only do you understand yourself more, but also you have more understanding of someone across the aisle from you. And the more you understand somebody else, the better the relationship you will have. That’s just how it is because now you are prepared for any or every situation that comes your way.
James Allen also mentioned in his writing that once you have calmness of mind, you stop fussing and fuming, worrying and grieving, and you remain poised, steadfast and serene. Now this is so beautiful and so powerful that I encourage you read it daily to add peace and sanity into your life.
Now, let’s go to the other R of R&R and that is Repetition.
Repetition also applies to relaxation in the following manner: If you are relaxing only once in a while, that brings you a very limited or no benefit at all. Your relaxation activity has to be repeated as well. It has to be a part of your daily routine. It has to be part of your weekly routine, and somewhere, somehow in your schedule, you have to find a place to repeat the action of relaxation. Your mind has to be fed constantly for calmness. Your battery has to be charged on a regular basis to achieve the maximum benefit.
I also want to share the value of repetition here as far as goals to learning. When we acquire new knowledge, or when we want to learn a new topic or we want to modify an old, existing habit, reading it once, listening to it once, comprehending it once will bring very, very limited results. Your habits have been installed in you over a long period of time, and those paradigms have become very, very solid.
So, in order to break the paradigm, the easiest thing that I have found to work for me is to see the paradigm as a brick wall. If I bang my head against the wall, I can pretty well predict the outcome. Instead of breaking my head against that wall, I take one brick out at a time until I have enough of an opening to walk through the wall. The wall might still be there, but I have found a large enough escape hole to get out of it.
Now this wall is still behind you and that wall will always be calling you, “Hey, come back. Where are you going?” So in order to keep that wall of a paradigm quiet, and to keep you from falling back into that old paradigm again, you have to repeat your newly learned habit. You have to reinforce the new parts, which you just installed in your mind because if you don’t, the old paradigm will be so strong that it’s going to suck you right in. And that’s why repetition is so important.
Now, remember, I said in the start of this session, that I’m going to share with you what happens when you are totally engulfed. You have a desire to learn something and you cannot comprehend it. What occurred? This is the answer:
When we listen to a new topic or even an old topic, we will listen to a learning step or a process and it installs in our head at a very slow rate. From that, I increase my awareness to the next level. But what happens? All of a sudden I’m listening to a tape or I’m reading a book or I’m sitting in a seminar and I am listening to the speaker. Then all of a sudden, either the speaker says a word or I hear something on my tape, or I read something and that new IDEA hits me right in the middle of my eyes. All of a sudden, I get it! And right away, I begin thinking about this IDEA I just got.
Meanwhile, the speaker is still talking. The recording is still going. I might even still be reading the book. But I stopped listening or comprehending what I was reading the minute the new idea hit me right in between the eyes. Only after I have evaluated that thought, now I go back to the listening again, or reading again, or hearing that speaker again, but in the meantime, something has occurred. I was off somewhere thinking while the education was still coming to me.
Now there’s one other thing I want to add to this puzzle.” Our listening frequency at which we listen is different than our thinking or our reading frequency. So, all these learning activities happen at a different level. If I am on a listening frequency where I am listening to the audio program, the minute my mind left, I went to some other frequency, where I’m now on a thought process frequency. So listening frequencies are out of the order and I’m not going to listen to it.
That is the reason you have to go back and repeat and repeat. Every single time you repeat it, your mind is going to leave you at the different point. Sooner or later, you might be able to comprehend a big part of the material.
I know people who have been reading and comprehending the same material for long period of time. Do you think that they are stupid? Do you think they are slow? Do you think their IQ is low? I don’t think so.
In reality what happens is that every time they read and every time they listen to the same material, their awareness increases. A new thought process comes in. New comprehension comes in as a result of that. And then, when they have left that experience of listening or reading, they re-grab that experience again. And every single time they repeat the process, their understanding and knowledge increases with repetition.
Let me share about my dear friend and mentor, Bob Proctor. He was given a book written by Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich. He received this book in 1960. Still today, whenever he has the time – when he’s flying, when waiting at the airport, for instance – he’s still reading the same book again and again. Do you think in 40 years he has not comprehended the book? I’m sure he has, but the idea is that there comes a time when new knowledge hits. Something shows up, that you weren’t ready to grab before. Some new thought process comes in where you find a new application of the same material. And that’s the reason he has been doing this for 40 years.
I’m sure if you want to make a big difference in your life, if you want to change the present results, if you want to improve yourself, you can at least listen to a singular program 20 or 30 times. You don’t have to do 46 or 47 years as Bob is doing. (I’m sure he is going to continue, too, until he leaves this earth.) You don’t have to do that. You owe this to yourself. Even in a car, you have to change oil every so often. You have to tune it up every so often. You have to keep feeding it gas. How about feeding this information into your brain, which is going to bring a lot more result?
So let’s enjoy relaxation and repetition in this context. And that’s the reason I left this session to be discussed at the end, so you can apply this R&R principle to every, single session we have gone over so far.
Now let’s go over the exercise portion of this session on R&R.
Did you know that your body talks to you? Did you know that over the years, we often have ignored it when the body is trying to tell us something? So when you are tired, your body is trying to tell you that you are tired. The body is looking for attention, so pay attention to it and take a break and go into relaxation. You will do lots of good to your body, your health and your well-being.
Relaxation should be part of your routine, and it helps the people who surround you as well because the more restless you are, the more crazy you are going to act and the more you are going to drive them nuts. So if you want the most productivity from them, YOU need to be relaxed and calm first. Make a habit of having some form of relaxation in your life.
For me a weekly massage for an hour does the job. Every morning I go for a walk, which brings relaxation to my body. So certain forms of exercise are really more relaxing than tiring. Not only that, when but when I’m in the forest preserves, when the weather permits, I also get to experience calmness. When I am there, I talk to only one person and that is me.
Relaxation has to be part of your daily life.
There are a couple other simple techniques that you can use to bring calmness to you mind and one is a simple breathing exercises. Now, this is not about a breathing session, but all you have to do is to watch a little baby, two or three months old, and watch the baby’s tummy going up and down like a pump. That is real breathing.
When we go through the chaos of life, our breathing become shallower and shallower and shallower and we call that nervous breathing. So you have to take a deep breath inside where you can feel your stomach or belly extending. That is the type of breathing I’m talking about. Go ahead and do it right now. You don’t even stop listening, because when you go into this breathing, you’re listening comprehension will only increase as you are sucking that much more oxygen in.
The other way to create calmness in your mind is meditation. There are enough tapes and books out there that you can take any one of them and apply some meditation in your life.
There is one other simple exercise that you can do to calm your mind and that is to stay silent for a certain period of time per day. Find a quiet spot where you can sit and totally be “thoughtless.” Now when I say thoughtless, this is very important that I share this with you. If you’re not used to this and you are sitting peacefully, all the turmoil of daily life is going to come and bang on your head. Now, the way people make a mistake here is that they refuse to open the door of their mind to let that knocking problem come in. That means you create more resistance. So, the best way to handle those thoughts are to let them come right in and then let them go right through to the exit door. And pretty soon if you start exercising this, you will find out that you can sit peacefully by literally having no thoughts. Your mind will become clear like water. These simple exercises will bring great calmness to you.
Now let's go to the repetition part of the exercise: with this program, The Essence of Life, I would like you to make a habit of listening to this program every single day for at least 30 days. Listen to just one chapter each day if that’s all you can do. Once you are done, I guarantee you that your grammar will be screwed up and your accent is going to change, but the objective of the program is what you are going to accomplish and that is to make some dramatic improvement in your life. This is my guarantee to you. Simply listening again and again will not only help you increase your awareness, but you will bring joy, happiness, and ‘quantum leap growth’ into your life and also to the lives of people around you.
This is Doctor A and thank you for joining me.