Fortunately, the mind can be used as a tool to create a feeling of relaxation in the physical body. In turn, relaxing your body frees you to use your mind more efficiently to affect positive changes in your life.

Sometimes it is helpful to “check in” with our physical self and take note of how we are feeling. We may not even realize certain areas are tense until we bring our attention there. This technique is designed to help you pinpoint areas of tension and release the stress from those areas until your whole body feels deeply relaxed.

The Sand Bag Technique

Find a comfortable resting position in a place where you are not likely to be disturbed. Feel free to lie on the bed or floor, or to sit upright or recline in a chair.

After reading the rest of these instructions, you should practice this technique with your eyes closed for better results.

Slowly inhale through the nose, and exhale just as slowly.

Bring your attention to your physical body. How are you feeling? Is your body calm? Do you notice any areas of tension? Acknowledge these areas and begin.

Imagine your entire body as a heavy bag of sand. Now, visualize each part of your body is its own individual sand bag, tied tightly to keep it closed. The muscles in your feet are sandbags, and so are your calves, your thighs, and each area of your body.

Bring your attention to your left foot. Feel the heaviness of the sand in that sandbag that is your foot. It is so heavy you almost couldn’t lift it even if you wanted to.

Now, watch the sandbag untie itself. Watch as the sand slowly spills out until the bag is empty. Feel the weight of your foot change as the sand pours out of it slowly and smoothly. Feel every muscle in your foot relax and become weightless.

When all the sand has emptied out and your foot is completely relaxed, notice the difference in feeling between your left foot and your right foot. Notice how the left foot feels light and airy while the right foot feels heavy and weighed down.

Sense the difference between that lightness of your left foot and the heaviness of the rest of your body.

Bring your attention up to the calf of your left leg and repeat this visualization. Watch the sandbag of your left calf untie itself and allow the sand to gently flow out of it until it is completely empty.

Repeat this process for each section of your body. Don’t leave anything out. The more muscles you visualize releasing the sand from in this way, the more relaxed your physical body will become.

By the time you finish practicing this technique, you’ll feel peaceful and relaxed in both body and mind.

This technique takes very little time, can be done while lying in bed before falling asleep, and will work for just about everyone.

The Daily Rewind Technique

A Daily Rewind is a swift and painless way to clear all the clutter out of your mind in preparation for sleep and dreaming. The technique simply involves a quick mental replay of the events of your day. You can do this in one of three ways:

1. Start at the beginning of your day and mentally replay the events of the day until you reach the end.

2. Start at the end of your day and mentally replay the events backward until you reach the beginning of your day. You don’t have to imagine everything moving backwards as if you’re rewinding a video. Just start with the last event before bedtime and review it, then proceed to the event prior to that one and review it, and so forth.

3. Write about the events of the day in a journal.

As you mentally replay the day’s events, you don’t need to recall every little detail or replay every action or every conversation in a minute-by-minute recount of the day. Replay each event calmly and objectively and then move on to the next event. The entire process should take only a few minutes.

Also keep in mind the point is not to get caught up in regret about how the day went but instead to simply acknowledge each event that occurred throughout the day and release it. Don’t get stuck replaying a situation over and over in your mind and thinking of all the things you could have done differently. As you replay your day, let go of any mental attachment, anxiety, or concern about the events. The goal is to perform a quick review of your day so you don’t spend the night tossing and turning, dwelling on the “should haves” and “could haves”. If you clear out the mental debris now, you’ll sleep deeply and peacefully.

Use this time to relax your body as well. As you mentally replay the day, check your body for any tension associated with the memory of the events. Consciously release the tension and relax.

This technique may also be used while listening to the Insight CD for deeply refreshing sleep.

The most important factor — one that was ignored in the movie — is that if you don’t align your actions with your intent, you will never achieve what you are trying to manifest. Simply thinking about your goals and focusing your thoughts and emotions on your intention isn’t enough.

If your goal is to lose weight but you eat 5,000 calories worth of junk food every day and never exercise, you are not aligning your actions with your intent and therefore you won’t lose weight, no matter how many hours you spend visualizing a slender, healthier version of your self.

If your goal is to get a terrific new job but you spend every day lounging on the sofa watching Law & Order reruns instead of filling out job applications and sending out resumes, you won’t find a new job, even if you spend a full hour every day mentally projecting your intent out into the universe.

If your actions contradict your intent, guess which one will win out in the end?

Before you take any action, ask yourself, “Will this action bring me closer to achieving my goal?” If the answer is no, you will need to decide whether or not you truly want to take that action. If the answer is that not only will the action not bring you closer to your goal but instead will take you in the opposite direction, you will need to determine which is more important to you — achieving your goal or taking that particular action instead.

Practicing that technique throughout each and every day will also help you learn how to differentiate between behavior that stems from a desire for instant gratification versus behavior that grows out of focusing on your true purpose and intent.

Each morning, focus on your intent and decide on at least one action you will take today toward reaching your goal. It doesn’t have to be something elaborate or dramatic. It may be as simple as placing a phone call, sending an email, or attending a class. Every step you take to align your actions with your intent will result in progress toward achieving your goal, while sitting in your living room just thinking about things you wish you had or things you would like to do won’t get you very far.

The self-help gurus involved in The Secret quickly realized they had failed to address this important point. In subsequent appearances on the Oprah Winfrey Show and Larry King Live, nearly every guest from The Secret made a deliberate attempt to emphasize that the Law of Attraction requires action, not just intent. If you doubt this, watch the episodes of those talk shows and count how many times the guests say “If you sit around and visualize, they’ll come take your furniture away!” That statement became their mantra, a way to address after-the-fact this extremely important aspect they had neglected to mention in the film.

We firmly believe in the old adage “You get what you focus on.” Whether it has anything to do with your intent creating quantum vibrations that resonate throughout the universe, we have no idea. We’re not quantum physicists. We think it has more to do with two other factors instead:

1. When you focus on something, you typically spend more time on actions related to whatever you’re focusing on. You devote more attention to that area of your life.

2. When you focus on something, you direct your subconscious to be on the lookout for anything related to that goal. As a result, you tend to notice things that otherwise would have slipped under your radar. You suddenly begin to experience synchronicities, events and opportunities that bring you closer to your goal, but is this happening because your intent is “vibrating outward into the universe at a certain frequency” or instead because you’ve programmed your subconscious mind to bring to your conscious attention anything specifically related to your goal? To us, the latter possibility is just as wondrous as the former, though it sounds far less magical to some people, probably because it doesn’t involve the use of the ever popular words “quantum” and “vibration”.

Another thing to keep in mind is that “the secret” was never a secret at all. Books like As a Man Thinketh by James Allen and The Master Key System by Charles F. Haanel covered the same ground (and covered it more thoroughly) long before The Secret became a self-help phenomenon. Rhonda Byrne, producer of The Secret, didn’t hide the fact that the inspiration for the movie came from reading a book by Wallace D. Wattles called The Science of Getting Rich, which was first published in 1910. The so-called secret has been popular, well-known, and easily accessible to everyone for nearly a century.

If the techniques described in The Secret aren’t working for you, we recommend reading one of the books mentioned above and applying the methods described in those books instead. Each of the books is a quick, easy read. They emphasize not only the need to direct your thoughts and emotions toward your goals but also the importance of fully embodying your intent through your actions as a way to bring about the results you desire, and they provide clear advice and techniques to help you align your day-to-day actions with your intent.

A large part of it is time management. We all have the same 24 hours to work with. It’s truly a matter of using every moment to its fullest. When you manage your time effectively, the unavoidable daily stressors become much easier to handle because you’ve removed so many of the smaller ones that can make the day so hectic.

Time management takes commitment and a bit of effort but there are many small and easy things you can do to get started. Each one may only add a few minutes to your day, but soon the minutes add up to hours, you find you have more time than you once thought you did, and everything seems to flow much more smoothly.

Add just one of these tips each week and you’ll quickly be on the road to less stress and a lot more time:

1. Plan ahead, but stay in the moment. It’s easy to become stressed just thinking about all the things we need to get done, but worrying about it only takes more time off the clock and gets us no further ahead of the game. Use tools to plan in advance, but try to be present in each moment when the time comes. Being focused on the task at hand will allow you to complete it more effectively and efficiently. The only way to get things done is to do them. Enjoy the doing. Make every moment count!

2. Get enough sleep. Sleep is vital to our health and well-being. Loss of sleep affects the body both physiologically and cognitively and can lead to compromised immune and endocrine systems, increased susceptibility to illnesses like diabetes and hypertension, and impaired alertness and motor performance.

Allotting yourself more time for a sufficient amount of sleep may seem counter-productive at first; however, when you function on a restful and complete night’s sleep, you will likely find the resulting increased mental clarity and ability to focus does indeed save you some time! A clear head can do wonders for time management.

If you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, try our Insight CD to help you sleep better and eliminate insomnia.

3. Learn to say “No.” If you over commit yourself you will constantly feel stressed. Be realistic when setting goals and making plans. Delegate where you can.

4. Write everything down and keep it together. Keep a notebook, calendar, or daily planner with you at all times and use it. Avoid writing things you need to do on small slips of paper that you might lose or forget about. If everything is logged in one place, the information is right at your finger tips whenever you need it.

5. Take advantage of the evening. Before hitting the pillow at night, take a few minutes to pick what you are going to wear the following day and set it aside. Everything — underclothing, shirt/blouse, pants/skirt, socks/hose, shoes, jewelry, the whole shebang. If you exercise in the morning before work, do this with both your workout wear and the clothes you need for work afterwards. These are simple decisions but not having to make them in the morning is a great time-saver, especially if you are not a morning person.

If you drink coffee, invest in a coffeemaker with a timer and prep it the night before. It takes less than five minutes to do before you go to bed. You can wake up to the aroma of freshly brewed coffee, roll out of bed, and pour yourself a cup!

6. Log it as you go. Affix a grocery list to the refrigerator or somewhere in the kitchen. Whenever you run out of something or find that you are missing something, write it down that very moment. When it’s time to go shopping you won’t find yourself sitting there with a blank sheet of paper thinking, “Now what was it we needed to get this week?” You’ll save yourself multiple trips to the store and also will eliminate the purchase of items you didn’t really need, reducing impulse purchases and putting less stress on your budget at the same time.

7. Double up on dinner. If you’re making dinner at home, make double the amount you need and save half in the fridge or freezer. You’ll have lunch or dinner for another day without having to cook or dirty the pans all over again.

8. Don’t handle your mail twice. It’s so easy to grab the mail out of the mailbox, flip through it for what’s vitally important, and then set the rest somewhere to deal with later. Then at the end of the week (or month) you have a big stack of junk mail to deal with and you have to find the time to sit down and go through it all.

Instead, take a few extra seconds and go through it right when you take it out of the mail box. Shred what needs to be shredded and file what needs to be filed right then and there so you won’t have to make time to sift through it all over again at a later date.