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Hot Tubs, Relaxation, Dualism

It might very well be true that if we learn how to relax the mind, then the body will follow.  But the reverse of this is also certainly true, and sometimes the fastest way to calm down emotionally is to engage in some kind of physical activity.  It’s said that we can’t think ourselves into right action, but we can act our way into right thinking.  Some of the best wisdom of the ages recommends that we do something, take an action, when things are overwhelming, or when we realize that we are not feeling like ourselves any longer.  Sometimes the best action to take is to relax.

Most people don’t think of relaxation as an action at all, but a lack of action.  This can sometimes result in a whole culture finding itself unable to relax, because no one can remember how, because we’ve forgotten that it most certainly is an action.  There are short cuts to relaxation, and some of them are even very healthy, with massage, hot tubs, spas, or other therapies that can help the body to stop moving with the worried mind, and start to respond to the moment.  The body is usually more honest than the brain, anyway, because it doesn’t have to prove that it exists, and sees things as they are right now.

Action in contemporary times is often translated to any kind of strenuous activity.  Somehow we’ve mixed strenuous into everything, and action and activity don’t need strain.  Some of the best things that have ever happened to us have come at moments when there was no trying, no effort, and certainly no strain.  We know this, and we can see it in the ancient wisdom, where the notion that we can do without doing, and this is the best way to get things done.  The notion of equating work with difficult effort comes from an old argument that has haunted philosophers over the ages, where there is a dualism between the mind and the body.  At our best moments, there is no separation, and the fastest way to get back to the feeling of oneness is to make the effort to relax, and to take the action to relax, and to let ourselves have permission, to finally, relax!

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1. Healthy Exercise, Healthy Relaxation in the Hot Tub