Relaxation Exercise

In times of trouble and stress, we are open to calls from energies that might not be the best to answer. It can be hard to gauge, when your shoulders are around your ears, your knees locked, and while biting your tongue, if this call will lead to advancing or retreating, and how or which should be done.

I was going to go with da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, but today... Many of us are, in light of the leaked Supreme Court Roe V Wade preview, really pissed off and tense. (Did I say I was not going to get political? No, I never did. We live in this plane, and these things affect us.) We have a lot of work to do, and many of us feel like our heads are about to pop right now. We need to tend to our bodies to defend our bodies.

Assume the phrase "to the best of your ability" for each of the following actions. Though this is a relaxation exercise, it is an exercise. Consult health people you trust regarding this and other such things.

Let's begin. Lie down on the floor or other flat surface. Pillows where you need them for support.

Feel your head. Be in your head. Your hair, or hair-space, feels tight. Maybe your eyebrows have not yet come down from where they flew on first hearing the news. Now. Tighten your scalp. Tighten. Breathe in. One. Two. Three. Breathe out - letting your scalp relax. Three, two, one.

Your face. Your beautiful face is frowning, or grimacing, your eyes are small with anger or sadness or fear, or it all. Tighten your beautiful face - try to bring it all to the tip of your nose. Tighten. Breathe. One, two, three. Breath out, letting your beautiful features relax into their natural places. Three, two, one. Open your mouth, your powerful mouth. Wide - stick out your sharp tongue. Farther, so the heavens can read the words you want to shout. Breathe out like a dragon - ONE TWO THREE, hiss. Pull your tongue in slowly, slowly, to remind yourself and the world that you are not done speaking. Breathe. One, two, three, deeply.

Your neck which feels like it has endured the yoke of oppression. So tight. Tighten it more. For a moment. Breathe, One, two, three. Release and relax. Three, two, one.

Those shoulders. Mighty, bearing so much weight. Tighten them, too. Up, up, Hold it. Feel the muscles inside like springs. Slowly release, and push them down, breathing in, One, two, three, and out, three, two, one.

Like Kali, I have been feeling like I have four arms and still so much to do. My arms are all tired, all sore, from battle. Stretch your arms out to your sides, making yourself a letter t. Breathe freely as you reach, reach, try to touch the walls or horizons. Stretch, and while you stretch, stretch also your fingers, those wonderful, creative, destructive, powerful fingers. Rotate your wrists forward, then backwards. Take a very deep breath and exhale slowly as you let your fingers, then wrists, elbows, and upper arms relax back down to the floor like sleeping snakes.

The core of your body contains your heart, which has been heavy. Your lungs, which have been tight. Your stomach which has been queazy. The muscles in your back and stomach area are also tight - holding in all this anguish. If you can, tighten your back muscles. One, two, three. Release. Tighten your stomach muscles. One, two, three. Release. Work slowly. Work carefully. Love your body. No pain.

There are different muscles and organs in our next area, depending on your makeup. This area is under attack. I leave it to you to find relaxation for this area - it is no one else's business how, as long as everyone involved is of legal age and ability of consent.

We stand on mighty legs, figuratively, if not literally. Every day we stand up for ourselves and others. We are tired! Tighten your thighs and buttocks. Breathe in. Hold. One, two, three. Exhale slowly, releasing your muscles, letting them fall gently.

We are nearly to the end now.

Feel your calves and feet. Tight, tense, tired of having to march for basic dignity. Bend your ankles up, as if trying to point your toes at your chin. This should pull the muscles of your calves tighter. Hold, and hold. One, two, three. And slowly release your ankles, and move them as smoothly as you can in the other direction. Don't force them, but point your toes down as far as you can. And hold. And breathe. And release to a natural position.

Curl your toes as tightly as you can. Squeeze them into tight piggy-circles. Hold it! All piggies with their heads down. And then release slowly, they unfurl, they are free, and spread the piggies - giving them personal space, and hold. One. Two. Three. Release. No one is going to market today, no one is being sacrificed. Relax them. Exhale.

Inhale. Exhale.

Keep breathing.

This does not solve the problems we face. Only work will do that. But it can help to keep us in fighting condition. In loving condition.