According to Kahuna tradition, it is physically impossible for negative emotions and undesirable actions to arise or take place if our muscles are relaxed.
The sentence above is profound and has the potential to be life-changing. The Kahuna teacher, Serge Kahili King, says that we can still have negative thoughts if our muscles are relaxed, but we won’t react to those negative thoughts in our old habitual patterns. Instead, in a state in which our muscles are relaxed, we can find a new and better way forward to break old bad habits or addictions.
When I first read this Kahuna teaching, I recognized it as a profound key to a better life for each and every one of us. I’d already been introduced to a similar idea by Lisa Erickson, from her free online heart opening meditation podcast on her website, Enlightened Energetics. In it, she explains the need to open up the back of the heart chakra in order to be receptive to receiving spiritual and loving help. This aspect of Lisa’s heart chakra meditation practice felt the most powerful to me, perhaps because I was so obstructed. I have upper back scoliosis, and those of us with scoliosis tend to have muscle tension on one side of our backs, in my case, my right trapezius muscle.
By trying to relax our muscles, we can gradually eliminate negative emotions or energies from our bodies. This is liberating and life-changing. The most straight-forward method is to mentally relax our muscles. This can be done using breathing practices in which we exhale tension with the out breath as we focus on the particular region of muscles holding the tension.
This is why mindfulness practices and relaxation practices are so important. By holding tension in our muscles and anywhere else in our bodies, we are holding on to negative energies, thoughts, and worries that are only causing us stress and an inability to live freer lives.
Below, is a list of some of the modalities that are useful to promote muscle relaxation in our bodies.
- Yoga
- Massage
- Meditation and mindfulness practices
- Breathing exercises
- Hot tubs, hot baths, hot mineral spring soaks, salt baths, sauna
- Sports, running, walking, dance, martial arts, movement practices
- Creative expression, painting, art
- Biofeedback
- Reading
- Singing
- Gratitude practice
- Aromatherapy, lavender scent
- Sound therapy
- Hypnosis, or self-hypnosis
- Psychotherapy, group talk therapy
- Acupuncture
- Sex
Each thing on the above list helps release the tension that we hold in our bodies, helps to relax our muscles. Each thing helps calm us, sleep well, helps us heal, and become physically healthier. Each thing helps to relieve stress.
Finally, this subject would not be complete with out pointing out that some tensions are held hidden in our bodies from life’s burdens, early hurts, or abandonments. Through movement and the other practices on this list, we can work towards releasing those deep unresolved tensions harboring negative energies that can be obstacles to moving forward in our spiritual practices. Inner work helps us achieve spiritual realization.
We should have as a goal to be in a constant state of having relaxed muscles, a body free of stress or tension. Life will become more magical.
Book: Kahuna Healing by Serge Kahili King p. 128: “The Kahuna may also teach techniques of muscular relaxation, for when the muscles are relaxed, it is physically impossible for negative emotions to arise and for unwanted actions to take place.” The paragraph continues, “Negative thoughts may still occur, but with the muscles relaxed, the habitual reaction to them is switched off and the subconscious (ku) is more receptive to the installation of a new habit pattern. This is precisely what happens in hypnotherapy.”
One Seeker's Story 