De-Stress and Energize with this Simple Cerebral Workout

It’s a simple analogy: Crunches are to abs as this move is to mental functioning that will stimulate your nervous system and help you to de-stress and energize yourself. As with crunches, consistency is key. “One session alone won’t do it, “says Robert Masters, Ph. D., author of The Way to Awaken: Exercise to Enliven Body, Self and Soul (Quest Books). “ But with repetition, your thinking and your senses will become sharper. You’ll be more alert.” Bonus Benefit: You’ll be more relaxed.

Steps 1 and 2 of this exercise are done with eyes closed, so have someone read the instructions to you slowly or tape-record them for yourself beforehand.

HOW IT’S DONE

Step 1. Seated comfortably, eyes closed, try to sense your nasal passages. To help, use a finger to alternately close one nostril, then the other. “Follow” your nasal passages as far as you can. Next, sense your eyes, and focus behind them. Imagine the location of your brain. Move your attention down to the brain stem and the base of the skull.

Try to feel a connection between the base of your brain and your eyes, as if a line run between them. Shift your attention to the center of your forehead, then to highest part of your brain, just under your skull. Imagine impulses traveling from each pupil up to that point. Connect these points in a triangle and send impulses along it. Follow the part with your eyes from left to right, then head up to the top of your head. Reverse direction and repeat several times.

Step 2.  Focus your awareness on the base of your spine. Imagine energy flowing up your spine and through the brain stem to the top of your brain, and back down. Bring the energy up to the brain, to a point directly between your eyes. Feel It circle there then let it rise to the top of your head; sense it circling just beneath your skull.

Imagine the energy swindling along your brain, energizing your cells. Feel it flowing through the spine, torso, legs, hands, and feet, intensifying as you become more aware of your nervous system.

Step 3. Slowly open your eyes. Look around and focus on light, form, and texture. Do things stand out more than usual? Is your hearing more acute? Be prepared for a definite change in consciousness.

“Stimulate Your Nervous System” was adapted from “The Way to Awaken: Exercises to Enliven Body, Self, and Soul (Quest Books) by Robert Masters, Ph. D.