This technique is called Clenching and Relaxing and its a very good technique for getting
out of your head out of your thought processes and connecting with a direct and immediate
present-time experience of the body.
For tinnitus this can be incredibly helpful because it takes our attention away from the
ringing in the ears and it locates our awareness in the body.
Its a little bit like having a bubble of attention that we are now going to expand to include
all of the body, thus taking away the hypersensitive focus on the perceptions of the head.
So we are clenching and relaxing.
You can do this sitting or lying down.
All you do is you work through each part of the body applying three steps: 1: the first
step is to FEEL in glorious technicolour.
So you feel the weight the position the temperature the size the quality, I'll go through this
in a minute to show you what I mean.
So you feel in glorious technicolour.
Then once you have felt that part of the body then MOVE IT, so you can clench and relax
the muscles, or you can wriggle the muscles, and this makes it very obvious how the feeling
is in that part of the body.
This technique is all about connecting with the feelings of the body.
Then once you have moved that part of the body you then notice if there is any reaction.
So first its FEELING second is MOVING and the third step is noticing if there is any
REACTION to the movement.
This is incredibly good for grounding the mind and body and that can often bring your
adrenaline levels down which can be quite useful for causing your perceptions that can
be hypersensitive with tinnitus to settle back down.
So your hearing is no longer listening out for danger or registering something as a threat
because you are in well-being mode inside the body.
To do this I'd like you to sit comfortably or lie down comfortably and take your awareness
to your feet.
First of all notice if you can feel your feet?
Can you feel all of your toes?
Sometimes its very easy to feel just the big toes sometimes you can feel the little toes
sometimes you can feel each toe on both feet.
Just have a quick scan right now and notice whether you can feel all of the toes.
Notice if you can feel the heels and notice if you can get a sense of the shape of the
foot.
This experience of the feet sometimes the feet can feel small or large sometimes they
can feel heavy or light its really interesting to note just how they are right now.
See if you can get a sense of the positioning of the feet.
Do they feel symmetrical?
Is one pointing out more to the side than the other?
Notice if your feet are feeling at the same height as each other.
Can you feel the temperature of your feet?
Are the feet tingling inside?
Are they feeling smooth and calm or are they feeling slightly jumpy and electric?
Maybe they are feeling a bit numb and its hard to get a sense of them.
Notice also if you can feel whether they feel roughly as heavy as each other.
Once you have got a handle on your feet I'd like you to move into the second part of this
technique (MOVING) and to actually clench and relax your feet.
So if you tighten them up and maybe just wriggle your toes and then just let them drop and
then notice what are you left with?
Is there a slight achy feeling and a bit of tinging?
Has the temperature changed slightly?
Maybe they have just vanished again.
Some people can't feel parts of the body.
That's very common.
Don't worry about this but if you keep working on this using this technique regularly you
can start to flesh out the feelings of the body more and more.
Its a little bit like doing a very beautiful painting of the body but instead of using
colour reds and blues and greens you are going to be filling it in with a sense of feelings
so cold hot tingly tight loose calm strong clear and you are going to gradually fill
in the shape of the body with an awareness of how it feels.
This is the aim of this technique to fill in your body with feeling.
The more you visit it the more you hang out with it the more you focus on it and notice
the feelings the more accessible they become and the more our whole system has the potential
to drop into a much calmer clearer and grounded state.
So after the feet we just move to the next part of the body which is the calf muscles.
So I'd like you to focus on your calf muscles and notice if they feel like they are the
same size as each other.
Maybe one calf muscle feels a little bit bigger.
Maybe one calf muscle can feel the squeeze of the trousers around them or the pressure
of the contact with the couch or with the clothing.
Notice if you can feel one calf muscle more easily than the other.
Maybe one calf muscle feels more spacious and like it has a calm energy inside of it
and the other one may feel tighter and maybe feels slightly trembly or shaky.
Do your calf muscles feel equally high off the ground?
Do your calf muscles feel heavy or light?
Notice whatever comes up in your calf muscles and then when you have got a sense of them
I'd like you to clench and relax them.
So a very good way of doing this is to lift the toes up and feel the calf muscles tightening
its like you are pulling your toes up towards your head.
Or alternatively you can point your toes down towards the ground.
This tenses the calf muscles in a different way and then let go.
Just notice if there is any reaction.
You may feel a sight ache or a slight flowing sensation.
Sometimes you can get a sense of warmth or tingling.
You may feel a slight floatiness.
There are so many different experiences you can have with body-based awareness.
It can be absolutely fascinating what comes up.
Then after your calf muscles I'd like you to focus on your knees.
Can you feel where these really important structural places are, the corners of the
body, these moveable joints?
Can you feel where they are?
And can you feel where they are in relation to each other?
Do they feel tight small and body?
Do they feel fluid warm and expansive?
Are there any aches or pains in there?
Can you feel the contact of the knees resting on a cushion or can you feel that they are
kind of suspended in the air?
Once you have got a sense of your knees I'd like you just to push them down towards the
couch or maybe just to, if you are sitting you can just bend your legs against the hinges,
so to speak, and then relax.
And just notice if there's any reaction.
When you come to the upper leg muscles these are very big muscles and its very helpful
to get a sense of actual shape of them.
See if you can feel these cylinders.
Do they feel hollow and empty inside?
Can you feel the muscle inside?
Can you feel the flow of arterial pulse inside?
Do you have a sense of where the bones are inside the muscles of the upper legs?
Sometimes your legs can feel very long and thin, other times they can feel a little bit
like chicken drumsticks where the upper legs are quite expanded and broad compared to the
lower legs.
See if you can get a sense of how wide or narrow your upper legs feel.
Then if you can just clench and relax them you kind of need to use your buttock muscles
as well, its very hard just to move your upper leg muscles in isolation, but keep the focus
on your upper legs and just tense and relax these muscles and then notice if there is
any reaction.
Notice if there is any feeling of floatiness or if there is any warmth coming through.
All the while just getting in touch with this part of the body moving it and then noticing
any reaction.
Then we come up to the torso the trunk of the body.
At the base of this you've got the buttock muscles and its incredibly helpful to feel
any tension stored away inside these muscles.
So once again see if you can get a sense of the shape of the buttock muscles.
Can you feel how you are sitting on them or lying on them?
Do they feel evenly in contact with the chair or the couch?
Do they feel achy?
Do they feel comfortable?
Can you feel the clothing around this part of the body?
Can you feel the sitting bones pressing down into the muscles?
You may even get a sense of the base of the spine and how the buttock muscles spread out
from it so you can feel the sacrum the V-shaped bone going down to the coccyx at the base
of the spine.
Can you get a sense of the muscles attaching to that?
Once you have tuned into these muscles then clench and relax them and then notice any
reaction.
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