About Face
About five years ago, I met an elderly gentleman who, according to his wife, could fall asleep within one minute of closing his eyes. And he could do it in any situation. Since I often took a long time to fall asleep, I was intrigued and I asked him how he did it.
He told me he learned his “trick” when he was a soldier in World War II. Because sleep was imperative but sleeping conditions were abysmal, he had to find a way to get to sleep no matter what. He tried several things and finally discovered one that has worked for him to this day: When he closes his eyes, he puts all his concentration on relaxing his facial muscles. He consistently falls asleep within a minute of beginning the process.
I was disappointed in his “trick.” I was expecting something more original. I’d done all sorts of progressive relaxation in the past and had never found it particularly effective for calming my mind.
I dismissed his technique for a long time, but one night when I was lying awake in the middle of the night with my head full of all sorts of scary negative thoughts, I figured I could give the face muscle thing a try. I’m glad I did.
It works! Whereas relaxing other body parts doesn’t do diddly to make me sleepy, relaxing my facial muscles puts me out every time. All I have to do is remember to do it.
Have I consistently used this method since I learned it? Heck, no. I often forgot it when I got all wrapped up in negative thinking.
A couple weeks ago, I began using the technique again, consistently. In spite of all the turmoil going on, I was able to drift off easily and quickly night after night.
From a biological standpoint, I have no idea why this technique works so well. From a resistance standpoint, though, its effectiveness makes total sense. When you put all your attention on releasing tension, on letting go, you remove blocks to being fully relaxed. When you’re fully relaxed, you can sleep.
In the last few days, I’ve discovered that this simple technique can be extended to releasing vibrational resistance as well as muscle resistance. Done with the eyes open, any time of the day, relaxing your facial muscles puts you in a softer state, one that is more allowing. When you’re in this more allowing state, it’s much easier to find aligned thoughts.
I never realized how tight my face tends to be until I started doing this process. Tight muscles tend to be so habitual that we stop noticing them. This can be true of negative thought/emotion as well.
Relaxing Into Aligned Thought
The way I’ve been using what I’ve started calling my “about face” technique is this:
1. I notice a negative emotion.
2. Instead of looking for the negative thought that caused the negative emotion, which is what I used to do, I put all my attention on my facial muscles. Well, okay, maybe not ALL my attention. If I’m driving or doing something else that needs concentration, I put as much of my attention as I can on my facial muscles. I concentrate on relaxing my face.
As soon as I do that, I magically get access to many positive thoughts. It’s as if relaxing my face opens a door to aligned thinking. I don’t have to look for better feeling thoughts. I relax my face, and voila, all sorts of good feeling thoughts pop into my head.
I don’t know why this seems to work this way, but it feels like there’s an energetic connection between relaxing MY physical face and relaxing the face of the situation I’m in. It’s as if the resistance in my vibration is hooked into the tension in my facial muscles, and when I relax those, the vibrational resistance falls away and alignment rushes in.
Now, I have this awesome “magic switch” to transport me into the Vortex: relax face, get flooded with great thoughts, pop into the Vortex. Way cool!
This little trick has been helping me A LOT the last few days. It’s helped me stay in a state of relaxed knowing, of happy security. It’s helped me remove my attention from the negative aspects of my “what is” reality.
If you haven’t tried this, I recommend you do. I think it’s a wonderful way to pivot from negative to positive vibration.
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Photo is proof that even my bouncy, wag-full dog, Ducky, drops off to sleep in an instant when she relaxes.
Tags: Alignment, negative thoughts, positive thoughts, Relaxation, Resistance, vibrational alignment, Vortex
June 21st, 2010 at 2:55 pm
Thanks for writing this at this time – I’m going to pass it along to my daughter, grandson and his wife. We are going thru a very stressful time and my granddaughter-in-law yesterday told me that she hasn’t been able to sleep in at least a month. My grandson is going through a custody battle with his ex-wife for their 3 yr old son. My grandson has had residential custody since the boy was 5 months old when his wife walked out on them. He is enlisting in the Air Force and they went to court asking that his new wife (who has been his son’s care giver for over a year) be granted the residential custody while he is in boot camp and tech school – they all live with my daughter and son-in-law. After about 30 minutes (each attorney got a whopping 10 minutes to present their cases) she gave his ex the residential custody when he leaves. Saying he needed bonding with his birth mother!!! Give me a break! I could go on and on for hours but this isn’t the place for that. Thanks for “About Face” today and listening to my saga. Ande I think you are great and someday some of those stupid publishers will see that you are! Give hugs and kisses to Ducky – can’t wait to see you all next month.
June 21st, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Oh Sally, I am sorry. I could get started on judges and lawyers too, but that is all upstream and away from what we desire, so I’ll say that this is contrast that is clarifying desire and building up the energy of what you truly want. I suggest that you and the rest of your family do your best to take your attention off the decision and the “fact” that the boy is being returned to his mother (which I KNOW feels AWFUL and it’s WRONG for sure). The reason for the shift is that by continued attention to something that is wrong, even if it clearly feels wrong as this does, just perpetuates it. I know this because I’m living it myself. So not only does relaxing the face help, but once that’s done, tell your daughter, grandson, and his wife to picture, with feeling, the joy of seeing that court decision reversed. Imagine the wife welcoming the boy back home where he belongs. Tell them to talk to each other AS IF the boy will be staying home with them. Talk about outings or things they’re going to do with the boy as if they’re going to happen.
One small story. When Tim and I reunited from across the country, he was still officially married to his ex-wife even thought he marriage was essentially over. After some contact between us, I saw what our feelings were, and I told him that he had to start proceedings and get completion with her before we could continue together. He agreed, and we said our goodbyes to each other. At first, I was devastated because I thought it would be years before he’d get a divorce and be able to move. Then I got a hold of myself and I began to imagine him being here with me. A week later, he and his ex had talked it through and had started the divorce process, and he left to come here to be with me.
What IS now can change in an instant. I keep reminding myself of that now too, given my financial situation. And I’ve lived the evidence of it.
Thank you for your kind words. Ducky sends kisses (sloppier versions) and wags back. And we’re very much looking forward to seeing you next month!
June 22nd, 2010 at 1:12 pm
This sounds great, but I’m not exactly sure how one goes about relaxing face muscles. Is it just a matter of focusing on them and they automatically relax? Or do you tense them, then relax them like you do in progressive relaxation of the body?
Patrice´s last blog ..Why the Law of Attraction Has Not Worked For Me
June 22nd, 2010 at 1:29 pm
Ah, good question, Patrice! What I do is kind of stretch out my face, open my mouth wide and widen my eyes and then imagine all the muscles in my face letting go and I allow it all to relax. Then I focus on my forehead, eyes, mouth, jaw and see if they seem relaxed, oh, and my tongue, which I often find is stuck on the roof of my mouth for some reason–probably left over from qi gong meditations where I was instructed to put my tongue there. And usually by the time I’ve done that, if I’m working on going to sleep, I have a few conscious thoughts about lying in the bed in the home we plan on building on our acreage and the next thing I know I’m waking up to pee or roll over during the night.
If I do it during the day, by the time I peel my tongue off the roof of my mouth, I’ve gotten access to a thought that feels good. Hope that helps.
June 22nd, 2010 at 3:04 pm
Great technique. I’ll definitely try it. Just reading this caused me to realize there’s plenty of room for relaxation of my visage.
I had a friend in Oregon who, before being photographed, always made all sorts of wild faces to stretch and relax his facial muscles. He insisted that it helped him have a much better photo. It looked hilarious, but it did seem to work. His name was Bob Hanson, but my daughter (young at the time) always called him Bob Handsome.
Karen´s last blog ..Gone But Not Forgotten
June 22nd, 2010 at 5:49 pm
Maybe making faces would be fun too. I love it. Bob Handsome.
June 24th, 2010 at 6:16 pm
Thanks, Ande. I do a lot of that already, but more when I’m meditating and getting my body to relax. I’ll definitely incorporate those suggestions into sleep time!
Patrice´s last blog ..Why the Law of Attraction Has Not Worked For Me
June 24th, 2010 at 6:19 pm
Do try it if you have sleep troubles, Patrice. Last night, I’d gotten myself into a negative place before bed. I put my head on my pillow, relaxed my face and thought about my bed in the Waggery, and the next thing I knew it was 5 a.m. and my bladder was talking to me.