Autogenic Training

My coach lent me a book called preparing the mind. it's all about Autogenic Training or AT. the simplest way to describe AT is to call it self hypnosis. though that is an inaccurate description. it's more of a calming technique because the idea is that if you do it properly it's supposed to help you re-energize, and do everything perfectly.

so far I've been able to relax my muscles, make my arms and legs, and solar plexus (area below the rib cage aparently) feel warm, focus on my breathing and feel my own heart beet without taking my pulse which is a bonus because I suck at finding my pulse.

I still can't get the hang of making my limbs feel heavy, and have had only limited success at making my forehead feel cool. I also need to learn the part about coming out of it and feeling energized because so far most of my attempts have ended with me falling asleep. I have yet to feel the boost of energy or feel extremely refreshed. then again I have yet to try it when I feel physically exhausted.

My other big problem is that I'm supposed to practice it 3 times a day at the same times every day and only practice for 2 or 3 min. right now getting to a point I feel comfortable calling a good result takes more than three minutes. I just tried it a few min. ago in learning lab and it took me 7+ min. to go through my slightly messed up version of autogenic training.

I think my problem is that I don't feel right about moving on to the next stage until I achieve the desired result for earlier steps also it's easier to feel my heart beet after going through the other steps. I end up spending a lot of time on the part about making your arms and legs feel warm. however once my arms and legs do feel warm, making my solorplexis, feel warm is really easy and once that happens I start feeling my heart beat without even thinking about it.

but I still have problems with the "my face is cool", "my body is heavy" and "my body feels re-energized". those just aren't working out yet, but never fear I'll get there yet.

gotta work on reducing the time required to a minimum, preferably less than 60 seconds. that way I can make use of this in 15 touch bouts. I also need to work on memorizing the autogenic phrases.