Life Coach Brian Tregunna explains how to relax your mind with this fascinating anxiety management technique from the South Pacific.

The Hakalau, also sometimes called the learning state, comes from the Polynesian culture. It’s a process to place yourself in a state where there are no negative emotions, so that you have complete awareness of the world around you. It increases the ability to concentrate, take-in information and recall it. It’s incredibly difficult to access a negative state when using this technique, so it can be very useful in times of high stress or anxiety.

With the Hakalau there is only pure awareness. There is no room for negative thoughts or distractions. Whatever you are doing, you begin to do it 100%. Whether you are studying, giving a presentation or performing in any way, you can now do that task perfectly with no distractions from your unwanted negative emotions.

Just follow these simple instructions and practice the technique until you have learned how to totally relax your mind.

1. Sit comfortably in a room while facing straight ahead. Focus your eyes on a spot on the wall in front of you, just above natural eye level, without straining your neck.
2. As you stare at this spot just let your thoughts come and go. Focus all your attention on this spot. Zoom in with a laser-like focus.
3. Notice as you stare at the spot that, within a few minutes, your vision begins to spread out.  Allow it to continue to do that. You begin to see more in your peripheral than you do in the central part of your vision.
4. Pay more attention to the periphery than to the central part of your vision and staying like that for a few minutes, notice how calm and relaxed you feel.
5. Notice that you can see the corners of the room, the ceiling and the floor, all without moving your eyes.
6. Use your peripheral vision and imagination to develop 180 degrees vision. Then extend to a full 360 degrees of vision and relaxation.
7. Take your peripheral vision and imagination to the near, medium, then far distance behind you so that you can see, hear and feel places that are many miles away. Perhaps take an imaginary walk through the countryside or go to your local beach, purely through your imagination.
8. Notice what you can see, hear, feel, smell and taste. See how far you can go. You can travel to anywhere in the world or float up into the sky and into outer space. Your journey is potentially unlimited.
9. When you eventually come back into the room, you should feel totally relaxed. You may even fall asleep!