Tense all of your muscles for a few seconds while laying down. Slowly release your muscles from toe to head. Exhale.
Or
Learn to meditate
this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2025
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Just tried this, feel like I'm being chased by a tiger now, heart is going like fucking crazy
Well? Did the tiger get you out not? The suspense is killing me.
Managed to evade the tiger, but no joke I felt like I was being chased. Got so wound up I ended up getting on Grindr and finding a hookup lol
This is the opposite of what the Buddha wanted...
Good
So, you chased the tiger back and you caught each other.
Your brain is usually the most effective location to use to relax your entire body. Joking aside, the brain actually does exert powerful control over the entire body via nerves, hormones through the lymphatic system and blood flow, all largely driven by the underappreciated limbic system.
If you can get your brain under control, the body will often follow. Meditation is one sometimes clinically suggested option.
The brain.
Try the breathing techniques or meditation others have mentioned here.
Practice relaxing:
Sit or lay down, close your eyes. Normal steady breathing. As things enter your mind just imagine that you're tossing it aside to be dealt with later. Doing that somewhat clears the mind. Gets better with practice.
I just verified this. Relax your anal sphincter and it will send a wave of calmness over your body.
^Disclaimer:^ ^May^ ^be^ ^immediately^ ^followed^ ^by^ ^blind^ ^panic.^
!foundsatan@lemmy.world
The medulla oblongata. If you relax that, every other structure in your body relaxes as well. At least until rigor mortis sets in, anyway, because you'll be dead.
You don't really want your entire body to relax. The heart needs to keep pumping, of course, and the diaphragm moving for respiration. And the intestines need to keep doing their digestion.
Try relaxing your face
Try the 4-7-8 breathing method.
Inhale for 4 seconds Hold for 5-7 seconds Exhale for 6-8 seconds.
The key is the exhale time has to be a second longer than the whole. For me this relaxes my entire body.
The diaphragm, something I learned from tai chi. If you manage to find the top middle section which lets air through, and focus on de-tensing it, the rest follows. It's tricky though, especially under stress.
I am sitting down and tried to feel out what control I could exert over this. I think I might have found it pretty quickly, because as I tried relaxing it it seemed like my posture was trying to change into "crumple via gravity".
You're welcome!
All I know is deep breathing does that.
Try the Star Trek communities, ask a Vulcan.
Not sure about any body hack like what you're asking for, but there are free mindfulness audio clips you can find online that are made to help sleep. It's audio narration to leave on and it talks through relaxing your whole body. Makes for a nice guided meditation.