How a »SILLY« invisible feather can HELP you relax
Like most discovery stories, this one starts with reading a children’s book, or rather, with a little magic that once came in it’s stead. About a year ago, when I was getting my kid ready for bed, he first asked me about meditation. Naturally, he was interested to find out what sorcery his Dad is up to every day, all alone in the bedroom (it does sound weirdly omnious, now that I think about it that way). So that night, instead of reading a book, we tried one of the Meditations for Kids on Headspace. It was a progressive relaxation meditation (where we go from body part to body part, slowly shutting each of them off), re-designed to fit children’s imaginations: an invisible »magic« feather touches different parts of the body, starting with the toes. By touching each muscle group, it shuts it off, allowing the muscles to relax for the night. Neat, right? My kid thought it was silly and not magic at all, but fell asleep half-way through.
Adults like to do silly things, he noted the next day. To be honest, he’s not wrong. The idea of a magic, invisible feather stuck with me. It seemed like a useful tool. Intrigued, I tried to find out the technique’s history, it’s evolution, and found nothing. Although the »floating feather« technique was kind of close (where we imagine a feather slowly rising as we breathe in, and slowly descending, almost touching the floor, as we breathe out), but it wasn’t what I was looking for. So instead of researching the technique further, I started practicing it on myself. At first, it was just a silly idea, just one of those wizard things that Dad does. I knew the magic feather concept worked well as a relaxation meditation for sleeping, but could it be useful for other situations as well? My intuition said yes.
»The magic feather is a powerful tool that’s best served shared«
A year or so of playing / experimenting with this technique later, it’s become a part of my everyday. Now, as I sit behind the computer, and I feel my neck muscles tightening, I imagine the magic feather comes flying in, touches the muscle group that feels tight, and like magic, the tightness dissolves. Same principle with the nerves on top of the head, tongue, temples of the head, chest, anything. And anytime. It even helps out with itching, sore muscles and cramps. When getting ready for sleep, as a simple test, try finding which parts of your head feel tightened, and relax them, one by one, by using the magic feather. This will teach you how to recognize and locate unease and stressed areas better, as well as how to release the friction, instead of holding on to it. Let me know your findings. The magic feather is a powerful tool that’s best served shared.
»Pirates, astronauts and dinosaurs«
Most importantly though: does the magic feather help my son get to sleep easier, still? He’s a 5 year old that wants to read about pirates, astronauts and dinosaurs, so of course not. Although we do try other meditative tasks sometimes, for now, they mostly »sound silly« (since now he knows Dad’s no sorcerer, haha). But I hope an imaginary feather, that flies around and touches your muscles to help them relax, is just silly enough of an idea, that you yourself will try it. We adults like to do silly things, remember?