Questions and Answers

Q: What if the phone rings in the middle of the Calm Technique?
A: Answer it. Before you begin the Calm Technique, you should always ensure there is nothing to disturb you. It's most annoying. However, should you overlook taking the phone off the hook or something like that, an unanswered telephone will do a lot more to upset your equilibrium than getting up and answering it.

Q: What do I do about an itch or a cramp during the Calm Technique?
A: You have two choices. Ignore it and maintain your attention only on your Calm Expression, or scratch. You will find that minor itches and discomforts grow in intensity the more you think about them. Usually, they are just tricks of the mind intended to distract you from your task. Don't get obsessed about ignoring them, but ignore them if you can.

Q: What is the ideal time of day for the Calm Technique?
A: Always as early as possible in the morning, preferably in the peace and calm before the world wakes and goes about its business. As soon as you are washed and awake, begin the Calm Technique. You'll find that rising half an hour earlier than you normally would will still leave you feeling rested.

Q: What is the ideal length of time for the Calm Technique?
A: This is best decided through experience. In the beginning, fifteen to twenty minutes is the recommended time. If you don't have fifteen minutes, make it ten. A short session is better than none at all.

Q: How can you tell when the twenty minutes are up?
A: Use a clock (careful of the alarm) and take a peek occasionally. Better still though, is to trust your intuition. Your body clock works most accurately of all.

Q: Does it matter if you go longer?
A: In the early stages, it is best not to continue the Calm Technique for more than about thirty minutes. As you become more familiar with it, then certainly extend your meditations as you feel necessary.

Q: What if you get tired, or go to sleep?
A: If you feel sleepy, try the Calm Technique with your eyes partially opened. If you do happen to doze off, you'll usually wake within a short time. It's not as if you'll sleep all day and miss a day's work.

Q: How do you know if it's been a good meditation?
A: The fact that you did it makes it a good meditation. However, there will almost certainly be times when nothing much will happen and you'll go through a rather dull period. These are the times when you must persist (remember the exercise analogy) because the rewards are greater for those who persevere. Sometimes, usually after a dull stretch, things get even better than they were before it.

Q: I've been told that some people just aren't the type who can meditate. What sort of people are these?
A: Lazy people. Or people who haven't read The Calm Technique.

Q: How old do you have to be to start using the Calm Technique?
A: Whilw there is no age limit for using the Calm Technique at all, common sense says that it should be reserved for those who are old enough to appreciate what it can mean. It is possible to teach certain forms of meditation (even the Calm Technique) to small children. But why?

Q: Is it possible for several people to do the Calm Technique together?
A: A group meditation encourages a wonderfully peaceful environment which is one of the rare pleasures of life. Even though the Calm Technique is a personal and solitary event, performing it in the company of others creates a group dynamic which has to be experienced to be believed. Do it whenever you can.

Q: Surely stress has a place within one's physiology?
A: It certainly does. Not only are certain amounts of stress and tension quite normal in daily life, but they're essential to the performance of many natural functions. Imagine running in the Olympics without any pre-race anxiety. Would you feel comfortable with a general who felt totally at ease about the battle he was just about to commit you to? We all feel safer when air traffic controllers work with a moderate level of stress. And should you ever be confronted with a real 'fight or flight' situation, you will be only too pleased for that stress.

But what concerns us and the Calm Technique is accumulated and unrelieved stress. Stress that is ever present, that feeds on itself, that depresses and debilitates. Whether it is obvious or not, it is a fact of life that the majority of Western people suffer from from stress-related conditions and disorders. The Calm Technique is a major step towards relief.

Q: What about in those times of great stress when you have real problems?
A: Those times of great personal problems and stress are the times when you need the Calm Technique most of all. Unfortunately, they are usually the most difficult occasions to practise it. You have things on your mind, things you have to do, things that distract you. Nevertheless, these are the times when you have to persist. Do the Calm Exercises. Devote a bit more time to each Calm Technique session. I usually find it takes me about fifteen minutes just to start meditating on such occasions, so perhaps you have to dedicate more than thirty minutes to the full exercise, maybe up to forty-five minutes or an hour.

-- This excerpt was taken from The Calm Technique by Paul Wilson