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get a sense of what you're doing to add all this tension to your body and then — in a single moment, all at once — simply choose to stop doing it unscrunch yourself I invite you to repeat this experiment a few times, paying attention to the 'move' you make when you unscrunch
notice what it's like to stop doing something you're already doing notice how it's markedly differently from *doing* something else to use more flowery language, what you're noticing is the cessation of doing, rather than layering on more doing
see if you can get a handle on "the thing that it's like" to stop doing all that tension now here's the fun part keep reading as you normally would, without scrunching, and then make that unscrunch move again and then *gently* assert 'unscrunch' again, and again, and again
you might notice a *further* easing of tension beyond your previous baseline you're learning how to stop doing tension that you don't even realise you're doing we often fail to notice what's familiar, so you probably don't notice how much tension you hold most of the time
I say 'a few times', because our longstanding habits are powerful and reassert themselves quickly without us noticing so consider that unscrunching is not something you can expect to 'do' once and retain forever it's more like a choice you keep making again and again
I should point out a trap, here where this may work at first, it's all too easy to try too hard and confuse the 'cessation of doing' move with 'doing something else' walking around *trying to relax* is emphatically not the same as walking around *ceasing doing tension*
we are so used to trying hard that the easy, simple moves can be not only inaccessible, but unnoticeable if you get stuck, just repeat the scrunch/unscrunch experiment and notice how uncomplicated the 'unscrunch' move really is
also i'd like to stress that this little teaching tool is my own adaptation of something I learned from a wonderful AT teacher based in Sweden called Kajsa Ingemansson it's important to me to acknowledge provenance of ideas where i can https://t.co/yesSG4oWMp
this is now also a note on expanding awareness https://t.co/XXhZpqsay0
it has also come to my attention that 'cessation' is also used in Buddhist contexts that points to a kind of complete dissociation/brain shut down experience? this is emphatically not the thing I mean by 'cessation' above - I'll just use 'cease to do' language in future
@m_ashcroft Turns out I know the move (years of spiritual practice) but never singled it out in awareness. Extended fluid application seems to get me to the threshold of emptiness in seconds; stopping there as that is not where I am to be at this time.