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Hatha Yoga: The Yogi Philosophy of Physical Well-Being1902
The custom of this attempt of the excitable thoughts to take form in action,
and their repressing, often grows into a regular habit—becomes chronic—
and the nerves and muscles of the person so afflicted are constantly under
a strain, the result being that there is a constant drain upon the vitality, or
prana, of the entire system. Such people usually have a number of their
muscles in a tense condition, which means that a constant, though not
necessarily strong, current of prana is being poured out to them, and the
nerves are constantly in use carrying the prana. We remember hearing the
story of the good old woman who was taking a ride on the railroad to a
nearby town. So rare was the pleasure to her and so anxious was she to get
to her destination that she could not settle herself back into her seat, but, on
the contrary, sat on the edge of the seat, with her body well bent forward,
during the whole sixteen miles of the journey; she was mentally trying to
help the train along by giving it a mental urge in the right direction. This
old lady’s thoughts were fixed so firmly upon her journey’s end that the
thought took form in action and caused a muscular contraction in place of
the relaxation which she should have indulged in during the trip. Many of
us are just as bad; we strain forward anxiously, if we happen to be looking
at an object, and in one way or another we tense a number of our muscles
all the time. We clench our fists, or frown, or close our lips tight, or bite
our lips, or set our jaws together, or something else along the same line of
expressing our mental states in physical action. All this is waste. And so are
the bad habits of beating the “devil’s tattoo” on the table or arms of the
chair, twirling the thumbs, wiggling the fingers, tapping on the floor with our
toes, chewing gum, whittling sticks, biting lead pencils, and, last but not least,
rocking nervously to and fro on a rocking chair. All these things, and many
others too numerous to mention, are waste, pure waste.
Now that we understand something about muscular contraction let us
again take up the subject of the Science of Relaxation.
In relaxation there is practically no current of prana being poured out.
(There is always a small amount sent to the different parts of the body, in