It consists of six basic techniques and exercises that you create yourself according to the KEY principle:
- Hands moving apart.
- Hands moving together.
- Levitation of the hands.
- Flight.
- Automatic swaying of the body.
- Movements of the head.
- Techniques created by you.
Reminder. Each time, the duration of the training session may gradually decrease, and after about five sessions with the KEY, stable self-regulation skills are formed.
Already while you are selecting your KEY and practising in the self-regulation mode, you can move on to the second stage — actual self-regulation. At this stage you can work through psychological problems and apply various health-promoting or other methods. If you have questions, you can contact the Center for Protection from Stress.
Body position and techniquesThe techniques can be performed standing, sitting or lying down — whichever is more comfortable. Standing is more interesting because you can immediately see what is happening and how the technique works. Standing exercises demonstrate how effective the method is: they allow you to reach a comfortable state (and, if you wish, a very deep level of relaxation) without having to search for a special comfortable posture.
Technique 1. Hands moving apartHold your arms freely in front of you. Keep your head in a comfortable position. Give your hands a mental command to start moving smoothly apart to the sides as if automatically, without muscular effort.
Choose an image that helps you achieve this movement. For example, you might imagine that your hands are repelling each other like the same poles of two magnets, or use any other image that feels natural. You can begin by moving your arms apart with an ordinary mechanical motion, and then continue the movement ideoreflexively.
For your will to take effect and your hands to start moving apart, you must remove the barriers between your will and your body, that is, create a connection between consciousness and the organism — find a state of inner balance. To do this, you need to relax internally and feel comfortable.
In searching for the state of inner relaxation in which the desired ideoreflex movement appears, you are learning to control your own state.
Controlled ideoreflex movement “Hands moving apart”.Act in whatever way feels most pleasant: experiment (tilt or turn your head slightly, take a deep inhalation or exhalation, hold your breath for a moment, and so on). The main thing is to find the feeling of inner comfort at which your will begins to influence the automatic movement. The appearance of the desired ideoreflex movement indicates that you have found the required state. If the movement does not occur, the state has not yet been reached.
You can do the exercise with your eyes open or closed — choose whichever is easier.
This is a very simple way to test yourself for muscular and emotional tension. If your hands remain motionless, it means you should do a few ordinary physical exercises to remove neuromuscular blocks and then try the ideoreflex technique again. If your arms get tired, lower them, shake them out, and then repeat the exercise. If it still does not work, do not force yourself; move on to another technique.
Technique 2. Hands moving togetherFirst, spread your arms out to the sides in the usual way. Then tune in to the automatic movement of your hands as they slowly move back towards each other. It may turn out that this technique is easier for you.
If the technique begins to work, repeat it several times. In this way you develop the desired state of “inner connection”.
After that, regardless of how well it went, try the first technique again — moving the hands apart.
Sometimes, while performing these movements, you may feel as if some force is pulling your hands. The appearance of vivid bodily sensations indicates a deepening of psychological relaxation and a growing connection between mind and body.
The movements of the hands apart and together should be repeated several times, aiming for an almost continuous motion. When your hands seem to “get stuck”, you may gently nudge them, smile or take a breath. Smiling relieves tension. Remember: with the help of ideoreflex movement you are hunting for a feeling of inner lightness. Practise as if you were dancing or singing — it is a “hunt for lightness”.
If you have reached the desired state of inner relaxation but your arms are tired and you do not feel like moving them anymore, lower your hands and remain in this state for a while so that you can remember it better.
Technique 3. “Levitation” of the handLet your arms hang down. You may look at your hand, keeping your gaze steady, or close your eyes — choose whichever is easier, but do not let your eyes wander, otherwise you will lose the emerging harmonising state and your inner contact with yourself.
Tune in so that your hand starts to rise, to “float up”. Remember how, in weightlessness, astronauts’ arms and legs “float”.
This levitation technique may work at once, or immediately after the previous techniques, or after a short warm-up. If it does not work, again perform the movements of the hands apart and together, and then try once more to let the hand float up.
Once you have become familiar with this technique, you may enjoy checking yourself from time to time: will the hand rise or not? It is like a new engaging game that relieves stress. Later you will be able to control stress even without using these techniques.
When the hand begins to float up, a whole range of new and pleasant sensations appears. The first time this feeling is so unexpected that it spontaneously brings a smile. If the technique still does not work, look for another movement. If it starts working after other techniques, repeat those techniques once more. What has worked before helps to launch what previously did not.
Technique 4. “Flight”If one hand has already begun to float, after a few seconds allow the same kind of “floating” for the other hand. Let your arms rise like wings.
Support this with pleasant imagery: imagine that your hands are wings, and the wings are carrying you high above the earth. The sky is clear, the Sun is warm. Allow your breathing to open up; breathe freely. Let yourself experience the state of flight — that wonderful feeling of inner freedom we so often miss in everyday life.
You can recall dreams of flying or any other pleasant experiences associated with the joy of release.
The “Flight” exercise is the central exercise of the KEY. It develops the experience of inner freedom. Tune in to an inflow of fresh energy and health by deliberately thinking about it.
The first time, this feeling of freedom may overwhelm you and cause euphoria. Later the joyful sense of being “winged” becomes more familiar and balanced, while your confidence in your own abilities naturally grows with each training session.
Technique 5. Automatic swaying of the bodyWhen you perform the KEY techniques, spontaneous swaying of the body usually appears together with relaxation. This is natural: a relaxed person tends to sway slightly.
During these automatic oscillations you may lower your hands and simply rock on the waves of this harmonising biorhythm, like a child on a swing. When you find your own rhythm, the rocking of the body becomes smooth and graceful. You may keep your eyes closed or open, whichever is more pleasant.
This technique also trains coordination. A person with good internal coordination is more resistant to stress, less influenced by external pressures, more independent in thinking, and finds a way out of difficult situations more quickly. Therefore exercises that develop coordination also build stress resilience.
If the automatic swaying of the body does not appear as a result of the ideoreflex techniques, you can initiate it deliberately with gentle mechanical movements — lightly pushing the torso in a comfortable direction (for example forward and backward or in circular motions). Your arms may hang down, be folded on your chest, or be held in any comfortable position.
After several repetitions, the exercise starts to come easily. The main thing is to find a pleasant rhythm of swaying, a rhythm you do not want to leave because in it neuromuscular blocks are released, nervous tension disappears, and a feeling of deep mental and physical peace and inner balance arises. Thoughts begin to flow evenly and calmly, without “catching” on you.
Against this background it becomes easy and natural to think about even the most complex matters, and long-standing psychological problems can resolve themselves in a very organic way.
Remember: this is how a mother gently rocks her child; similar rhythmic movements often arise spontaneously in people during prayer; we are rocked in the same way in a train or a car. No one ever falls because of it. If you are afraid of falling, place your feet wider apart or stand with your back against a wall or a sofa.
If you notice some loss of coordination while swaying, training with this technique will gradually improve it: whenever you feel yourself being “carried” to the side, give these movements a graceful form by small volitional corrections, turning them into a kind of dance. In this way you train your ability to control your state through voluntary regulation.
Very soon the fear of falling disappears. A person who is afraid of falling and a person who is no longer afraid are in fact two different people; the trajectory of life changes for the better.
Technique 6. Movements of the headStanding or sitting, lower your head, relaxing the neck muscles, or, if it feels more pleasant, tilt your head slightly backward. Drawing on your experience of ideoreflex movements of the hands, call forth ideoreflex turns of the head in a comfortable direction.
If this does not work, begin with slow mechanical rotations of the head in a pleasant rhythm — a rhythm in which you want to continue moving and the tension in your neck gradually decreases. You may then find a moment when you can “let go” of your head and it will continue to move more automatically, almost ideoreflexively. Painful or tense points should be bypassed; if they are very active, gently massage these areas.
When, in the course of moving your head, you find a pleasant turning point at which you sometimes want to keep your head, fix this position. This pleasant turning point is the point of relaxation. You know it from everyday life: in moments of fatigue or deep thought we also spontaneously tilt our heads forward, backward or to the side and sit motionless, relaxed, staring into one “invisible point”.
You can help yourself to find relaxation through movements of the eyeballs — horizontal or vertical — choosing the variant that feels easier and more pleasant.
Useful tip. You can approach an ideoreflex movement through ordinary mechanical movements that require minimal effort and can be repeated almost endlessly without fatigue. Perform several arbitrary movements or simple physical exercises and listen to yourself: which of them would be easiest to repeat? Then try to automatise this movement, transferring it into the ideoreflex mode.
You can also just relax and stand like this for a few seconds, listening to your body. Open or close your eyes depending on what feels better. Then nudge your arms toward a familiar movement — remember, for example, how you swim, play the violin or tennis, walk on skis or paddle a kayak — and then move on to the ideoreflex techniques.
Exiting the state of self-regulationRemember: it is very easy to exit the state of self-regulation — it is enough simply to wish it.
If you would like to stay in it for a few more minutes, do so; your body needs it. When you are ready to finish, tune yourself to the idea that your head is clear and your body is filled with fresh strength and vigour. You can recall something that usually invigorates you — a cup of coffee, a contrast shower, a ski walk. Stretch, make a few brisk movements, and you will feel fresh and energised, like in the morning after sleep, even if you have already had a long and stressful day.
Such an activating exit is appropriate when you need a lively, alert state. Do not use it immediately before sleep; otherwise you may again feel ready to “work the second shift”.
For those who want to get rid of insomnia, it is not necessary to practise the KEY right before bedtime. Its regulatory, health-promoting influence during training sessions will improve night sleep on its own. If, however, you do practise shortly before going to bed, then, when exiting the state of self-regulation, tune yourself to a pleasant sleep and finish the procedure in a relaxed, drowsy state, with a natural desire to fall asleep.
Conclusion. The moment of truthDuring the first two or three days of training, after performing the ideoreflex techniques you should simply sit quietly for a few minutes in a passive, neutral way (a small technological secret: do not close your eyes at once, only if they start to close by themselves).
In this state a feeling of “emptiness” in the head appears. This is a rehabilitative state — like a “reboot mode” in a computer — in which psychological unloading occurs and new energy is accumulated.
«Метод "Ключ". Разблокируй свои возможности. Реализуй себя!», Алиев Хасай Магомедович, издательство «Питер» 2009, ISBN 978-5-388-00906-7.