Part 6 (1/2)

PROGRAM OF EXERCISES

As all training is a reaching upward towards an ideal so an exercise is a single step and the first exercise should be the most primary action.

The primary condition of all growth is a certain joyous awakening, an expansive enjoyment of life.

Take a joyous thought and express it in active laughter.

No matter how dull or weary you feel when you first awake, joyously accept the new day. Use the following exercises and actions as you would a cold wet towel on your face or hands. Look on the sunny side at once and laugh. We can possess a feeling only by expressing it; we enter into possession of the day only by using it.

It is easy to look at the light, easy to breathe, easy to stretch, to expand, easy to remember something joyous, easy to smile and easy to laugh.

If your body feels weak and sluggish, and you have great indifference to movement there is all the more reason for promptness. If you will joyously extend your arms, expand, breathe deeply and laugh, you welcome life and joy and give them a chance to take possession of your being and body and you will soon feel courageous instead of gloomy, strong instead of weak, rested instead of weary.

None of these exercises require a great expenditure of vitality.

Performed, as many of them are, lying down, however energetically you may do them they will bring little or no weariness. Though the exercises do not require much vitality they should be practiced vigorously to accomplish the best results.

1. PRIMARY EXPANSION AND EXTENSION

On waking, take a courageous, joyous att.i.tude of mind. Chuckling deeply, actively expand the whole body, take a deep breath and co-ordinate harmoniously as many parts as can be brought into sympathetic activity. Stretch the arms upward and the feet downward as far as possible, and repeat at least twenty times.

An old writer gave dilatation as one of the primary characteristics of life. A certain distention of all parts of the body is the beginning of the renewal of energy and a primary manifestation of life. We must give room to the life forces, feel the diffusion of energy into every part.

The sense of constriction, due to lying in a cramped position, can be easily removed by this primary exercise.

The chief elements in this primary distention of the body are found in the stretch and expansion of the torso, in deeper, fuller breathing, in the sense of diffusion of life, in greater satisfaction and in laughter.

These elements should be practiced on waking up.

The stretch should be in the nature of an indulgence, an instinctive longing on first awaking, a longing in common with all animals. It ought to be enjoyable and a help to sustain the laughter.

Count one for the active movement, or stretch, two for the staying of the active conditions, three for the gradual release of activity, and four for complete relaxation.

The exercise, as most of the others, should be repeated twenty to twenty-five times, counting four for each of the preceding movements.

This will require eighty to one hundred counts. Each of the four actions of the muscles should be carefully distinguished and accentuated.

Counting four in this way for an exercise and for each of the first steps obeys the law of rhythm, accentuates all the elemental actions of the muscles and establishes primary conditions of healthful activity in all the vital organs.

The simultaneous elements or actions in this first exercise are of such importance that it is well to practice each one separately, either before or after the general exercise.

This distinct practice prevents the slighting of any of these elemental conditions, restores harmony and stimulates normal functioning of all organs. In fact, all these actions are really necessary conditions and should be present as elements of all exercises.

The following exercises (2-5) are important, individual accentuations of the essential actions of this general exercise, and the conditions of all exercises.

The student should carefully study his tendencies to omit or slight any one of these elements and accentuate carefully not only every step separately, but observe with especial care the one most needed.

2. INITIATORY EXHILARATION

Sustaining the extension and full breath, laugh heartily, with little or no noise, chuckle to yourself persistently for several minutes. Centre the laughter in the breathing and the torso.