A few more notes before I proceed:
You will probably have to think about what your doing at first. It'll take a few times to get the feel of what I'm trying to express. Some things are hard to put into words. Describing feelings and bodily sensations in a way that you'll understand by words alone may be a challenge for me.
When I talk about "feeling" some sensation, understand that you don't necessarily feel it because it's there. Inversely, it's there because you feel it. In other words, you create the sensation by virtue of allowing it to be so. It's just like the way you can think yourself happy. It's a function of will and expectation but it produces a real bodily sensation that can be very powerful. I often get strong feelings of acceleration during the process. They may be short lived but they are actually experienced as real sensations in the skin and viscera.
If you need to scratch, scratch. I've seen questions before concerning what to do about an itch that happens while you're trying to lay still during WILD or something. Just scratch it so you can get back to what your doing. It'll only hinder your efforts if you're distracted by an itchy nose that just won't quit. Try not to jump at every minor distraction but, do what needs to be done if it shows no signs of going away.
My ultimate goal is to be able to do all of this without having to consciously direct my attention to the various body parts as I relax. So far I can do most of it without paying attention to it but I still have to "direct my attention" a lot of times. So that's the way I'll describe it: by having you direct your attention, or "point of awareness", to where the focus of relaxation is at the moment.
Stretching:
This step is one that I often skip. I have better success when I do the stretching first but I sometimes get lazy or feel somewhat relaxed already and take a shortcut. This is exactly what it sounds like. I take anywhere from 5-15 minutes and stretch my body in every way I can, trying to catch every muscle group possible. Since I am single and don't share a bed I always do this in my bed, usually lying down and reaching from corner to corner. I do some stretches on my back, some on my sides and maybe a few on my stomach. If you share a bed you should probably get out of bed to do this part. Make sure you're ready to go to bed before you begin.
Think of those whole body stretch-yawns that you sometimes get when you first awaken or are really tired. I stretch in every way I can think to and from as many angles as I can. Within reason, of course. you don't need to become a contortionist. I hold the stretches for a few seconds each.
Make sure to include your torso (sides, back, shoulders and ribs) several times. You can do this by reaching your arm upward and bending your body the opposite direction. Twist your torso. Rotate your wrist, and arm to get every muscle group. Do the same with the other side, both legs etc... Try to stretch each muscle group several times throughout the process. Grab your foot and pull your leg back to get your quadriceps. Extend your ankle forward, straighten your knee and move your leg forward to get your calves and hamstrings. And so on until you've covered the body 2 or 3 times.
If you spend a little time doing this you will already be much more relaxed and comfortable than when you began.
Relaxation:
Here's where it really begins. Note that I often intersperse LD suggestions and RCs in with all of this but I'm only concerned with the relaxation aspects of the process in this manual. Once that becomes clear you can always tailor it to suit your current techniques and methods with relative ease.
Lay down on your back. If you have trouble sleeping on your back you should still try this that way first. It helps to keep the pressure points and weight off of your limbs. Personally, I can only sleep on my sides but I always do this on my back. Usually this will put me to sleep then I'll wake up only enough to change position to my side, where I'm more accustomed to sleeping.
Get comfortable before moving on. Now lay on your back with your arms to your side in a comfortable position. Make sure your neck is comfortable. If you want, take a few deep breaths and exhale slowly. No need to hold those breaths 'till you turn blue though. Some recommend that your hold them for a few seconds. Whatever floats your boat.
Bring your breathing pattern back to normal. Every time you exhale, feel your body sink more and more into the bed. There's no need to specifically focus on your breathing. Your awareness should be on your body: how it feels and how comfortable you are becoming. You become more and more comfortable and relaxed with each exhale. Let go of all tension and completely surrender your weight to the bed. Let go of all muscular tension anywhere in your body. You breathe in relaxation and breathe out tension.
As you breathe, continue to feel your body become more relaxed. Feel as though you are sinking a little more into the bed with every exhale. As you inhale, nothing raises but your chest. The rest of your body is still sunk down to the level of your last exhale. This process continues for a few minutes and your awareness remains on how heavy and comfortable you have become. You feel safe and completely supported by the bed. Your limbs feel heavier and may begin to tingle or feel numb. This is normal and desirable.
The face:
Most other methods suggest moving to the feet first. I always start with the face at this point. In my experience, the face is the most important step to relaxing the body. By this time you should be very relaxed. Shut out any outside noise or distractions, if you haven't already. Your only concern is becoming more and more comfortable and deeply relaxed.
For visualisation purposes, imaging a spot of cream on your forehead. This cream may be cool or warm, whichever is more comfortable. Everywhere the cream touches becomes more and more relaxed. Start with the forehead. Focus your awareness there and feel every muscle in your forehead become deeply relaxed as the imaginary cream is spread around and begins to run down. Allow that feeling to spread down to your temples, eyes, and nose. Relax your eyes and eye lids. Next let it spread down to your checks. Pay special attention to your checks, tongue and jaw. Let your cheeks feel as though they are hanging down and at the sole mercy of gravity. At every step of the process, let the sensations solidify before moving on. If you need to back up do so.
Now return to the full body. With every exhale, feel your body sinking more and more into the bed. Believe that nothing can become lighter except the rise of you chest and the filling of your lungs with air. Let your hands and feet become more comfortable than they've ever felt. Let your arms and legs be comfortable and relaxed.
Back at the forehead - allow the cream to run down your scalp, spreading relaxation as it goes. Let the feeling continue down the back of your neck. Return to the forehead and repeat the face. Let your cheeks and eye lids be completely loose and comfortable. Next, scan the body again then move to the legs and feet.
The feet:
My next major landmark is always the feet. Starting at the lower torso, move your awareness down the legs. Make sure they are loose and relaxed. Imagine them becoming even more so as you slowly scan down towards your feet. When you reach your feet, try to create a sensation where you feet start to feel tingly and numb. Let the feeling well up and begin to rise up your legs like the bubbles in champagne when the cork is popped. Feel the fizzy tingle. If you think about it and remain relaxed you can create the sensations. With practice you won't need to think about it so much. You just will it when you are deeply relaxed and it happens.
Bodily sensations:
At this point I often get sensations almost as if my bed were on a pivot across the middle. I can make my body and gut feel as if I were in a state of flipping feet over head or the other way around, so that I'd be stood up of it were allowed to come to fruition. This is one of the steps I choose to skip sometimes. And it will only happen when I'm relaxed enough to be "there". Some times I can feel it but just don't spend the time on it.
The next sensation is somewhat like the movement of a snake. Imagine your feet being wiggled so that a wave travels up your body. Your torso senses a side to side motion as the standing wave travels up and down your body. I feel it as a slow "S-curve" twisting back and forth in my torso. Again, this may be skipped but it one of easier ones for me to induce so I almost always go for it.
I'll usually do the body scan again, repeating any steps as needed. This re-check brings me back to my face. Sometimes I'll create a sense that my awareness is contained within a ball of energy located right in front of my forehead and my eyes are looking through it from within. Look forward into the blackness if possible, rather than allowing your eyes to chase hypnagogic imagery. You may have begun to have hypnogogary by now. If not, this may induce it.
Try not to strain your eyes looking. As silly as that sounds, it's easy to strain eyes as your mind tries to focus your pupils into the blackness as though you were physically attempting to "look". The trick is to see with your mind as though you were using your eyes. It sounds weird but you'll see what I mean the first time you feel eye strain with your eyes closed. You'll wonder "What the hell?"
When I'm really in the groove I can sometimes imagine a light or energy source at the back of my head, right near the top. I can sometimes spontaneously shift my apparent awareness and orientation to feel as though I'm momentarily in a copy of my body that is facing away from me and upside down with that same spot on its head up against mine. It feels as though I were standing then suddenly flipped upside-down. There's that kind of gut and head sensation of inverted gravity. This one was really hard to describe and may not make much sense.
Continue the various steps for body, face, feet and relaxing the arms and hands and you will get there. A little practice will have you able to do it with little trouble. At least that was my experience. I usually will continue until I fall asleep. Often I'll mix this in with WBTB+WILD or use it to prepare myself for some MILD suggestions before I fall asleep.
To be clear, however, I don't believe that any kind of external transposition is going on in what I've described. It's merely feelings created by intentional relaxation and induction of visceral sensations. The real intention is to become extremely relaxed and free of cluttered thought. Then you can use that deep relaxation as a canvas for your lucid inductions of choice or to simply reinforce your intentions and motivations.
The purpose of the sensation induction is to
I usually experience some degree of hypnagogic imagery and/or hypnagogic audio and some mild sleep paralysis at one or more stages in the process. Anyway, I don't know how well I've described any of this but maybe you'll get some ideas that will help in formulating your own relaxation or meditation techniques. Good luck and sweet lucid dreams.
