One readily recognizable checkpoint is your hands and arms. If there is any rigidity there, you'll know you aren't relaxed. You shouldn't be "hugging" the pillow and you should not have your fists clenched. When the arm is relaxed, there's a slight crook at the elbow and wrists, and the palm of the hand is slightly cupped. The fingers are slightly curled.

The way to relax any part of the body is to concentrate your attention upon it. By this time, you should be aware of the reason. The conscious mind can hold only one thought at a time. If it is concentrated upon relaxing the muscles, it can't be concerned with anything else. As the muscles relax, the mind relaxes.

It is impossible to be physically tense and mentally relaxed, or mentally relaxed and physically tense. Relaxation and tension work in unison between the mind and the tissue.

For example, if you wish to relax the right arm begin by concentrating your attention upon the hand. Picture it in your mind, if you can, and say to yourself: "The fingers of my right hand are relaxing . . . going limp . . . relaxed . . . becoming more limp . . . more relaxed." Let the muscles go. Let the hand rest heavily.

Special Instructions for the One Reader in Ten Who

Cannot Achieve Easy Relaxation

Say to yourself, "I feel my hand becoming completely limp . .. relaxed ... heavy ... more relaxed ... more limp . . . more heavy."

When your hand becomes limp, heavy and relaxed —and it will become limp, because you will accept your own self-suggestions—focus your attention upon the wrist. "My wrist is becoming relaxed .. . limp . . . heavy . .. more relaxed . . . more limp .. . more heavy . . . growing heavier and heavier . . . more limp . . . more relaxed."

Take your time. Do not hurry any phase of relaxing the muscles. Assist yourself in relaxing by occasionally taking three deep breaths, counting to yourself as you inhale, "One . . . two . . . three . . . four . . . five . . . six." Exhale, relaxing more, "One . . . two . . . three."

Bring your attention up to the forearm—the elbow —and finally all the way up to the shoulder. Suggest to yourself the feeling that your hand and arm are heavy —heavy as lead weights, so heavy and relaxed that you couldn't move them even if you wished to. Do not make the effort at this time to prove that they are so heavy you cannot move them.

Accept it as a fact. If you can keep from consciously challenging this feeling, you have taken a long step toward relaxation and self-suggestion under self-hypnosis.

If your legs feel cramped, your back taut or your neck stiff, use the same method of concentrating your attention upon that part of the body and suggesting relaxation until it becomes relaxed.

Leg cramps, stiff neck, or back pains that keep a person from relaxing or sleeping are sometimes caused by the conscious mind holding the muscles in readiness. When the muscles are overextended or exhausted, they signal pain, asking for relief. This alerts the conscious mind even more, for it now becomes concerned that it can't go to sleep, even though it needs and desires sleep. The anxiety creates more tension, and it becomes a vicious circle. Concentrate the mind upon relaxing the muscles. The more the muscles relax, the more the mind relaxes.

Now, just to be certain that you understand the method of relaxing, let's go over it once again, this time with the right leg. Three deep breaths are all that is necessary for the person who can relax to induce self-hypnosis.

Turn your attention to the right foot. Visualize it, concentrate upon it. Suggest to yourself that the foot is becoming relaxed and heavy. Let the foot hang heavy, loose and limp. Tell yourself, as you do so, that "relaxation is creeping up from my foot through my ankle . . . the ankle is becoming relaxed . . . loose . . . limp . . . heavy . . . more relaxed . .. more heavy . . . more and more relaxed .. . completely relaxed.”