Stretch Therapy Recommended Reading

[Kit_L]

Do the lying relaxation practise every day for three months; do not miss a day. Rather than "figuring out what your temperament is", learn to feel what's happening in your body, and how to create the state of deep relaxation at will, and you will not be at the behest of either introversion or extraversion. Both are reactions to what is happening around you. When you have a handle on your inner world, everything changes.

As for living a better life, the Dalai Lama was once asked, "what is your religion?". He looked at the reporter, and said, "my religion is kindness. Be kind wherever possible." He looked away from the reporter for a moment, and looked back and said, "It is always possible".

That was life-changing for me; it might be for you, too. This is the essence of a better life.

[Gareth O Connor]

I suppose "figuring out my temperament" is in the realm of concepts and the sensations of the body happen in the present

[Kit_L]

Consider everything you experience—if you are thinking about it, you are in the conceptual realm: words, ideas, arguments, discussions... Direct physical sensations, on the other hand, are in the experiential realm, and as you note the sensation in the body only happens in the continuously unfolding present – and that can be a very, very narrow window indeed, depending on your capacity to focus.

In my experience, and in the experience of many other people, insights which lead to genuine understanding/knowledge and sometimes a changing of one's world of view only happen when you're not thinking – like when you're under the shower or lying back on a couch, as many scientists and other thinkers have reported. This is why it is necessary, in my view, to cultivate stillness internally and to develop the capacity to do nothing.

I know this sounds paradoxical, but as others have said, from nothing something can happen.

 

[Gareth O Connor]

I do think that concepts point to something real beyond themselves,I'm not a nominalist.Sensing my own body has always been a difficulty,I've never liked physical exercise even though I run twice a week,in Jung's language sensation is not my superior function.

On 1/5/2025 at 6:35 AM, Kit_L said:

 

 

 

[Kit_L]

Please edit your post above, so I know which of my assertions you are commenting on.

And on re-reading this thread, the fact that sensing your own body is difficult for you, and your further assertion that "sensation is not my superior function" is all the stronger evidence for my recommendation, below:

On 1/5/2025 at 1:15 PM, Kit_L said:

Do the lying relaxation practise every day for three months; do not miss a day.

Please engage with this, and do this for at least a week before posting again. 

[Gareth O Connor]

The edit was by mistake

 

 

 

 

[Kit_L]

So please edit the post so I know what you were referring to. I'll be here for the next little while.

[Gareth O Connor]

"Considering everything you experience-if you are thinking about it,you are in the conceptual realm:words,arguments,discussions..."

That's the one

[Gareth O Connor]

I have experience with tuning into sensations,I have practised in the past,"somatic meditation" by a Tibetan Buddhist teacher called Reggie Ray.I've mentioned this because you are a long-time meditator yourself

[Kit_L]

Please disengage from posting, and do the practice instead. Post your experiences in a week or, better, two. These things take time to develop. Over and out from me.