try floating face down

Try floating face down in water. One of the earlier things to try was floating in the ocean. And in this suggestion, we follow on from that earlier thing to try. And here, the only real difference is that one is facing downwards into the water, rather than floating on one's back. Of course, floating on one's back, one can continue to breathe. Whereas, when facing downwards, one needs to take a big breath, and just hold one's breath for as long as possible.

As with floating in the ocean, try to find some warm water. And for this exercise, it is useful if the water is quite calm, perhaps a swimming pool, or a lagoon; in any case, somewhere where you are not going to be thrown around by waves too much. If you can be naked, all the better.

Enter the water. And it should be deep enough that when you are floating, even if your arms and legs sink into the water, they won't touch the bottom – so over a metre of water depth. Then simply take a big breath, and allow yourself to float with your face in the water, your arms and legs relaxed, doing nothing. You can try it with your eyes open or closed.

But with this little thing to try, it may also be useful to imagine yourself as a corpse, a dead body. This is the end that we will all come to. And, in a way, the spiritual journey is about dying psychologically, before the physical death occurs. And the state of relaxation of the mind is really the same as in death. There is absolutely nothing to be done. One is just hanging there, in this case in the water, totally relaxed, no tensions in the muscle. And perhaps the mind might go quiet. Certainly thoughts are not needed.

So imagine yourself to be dead: just a body in the water. And stay in this position for as long as you comfortably can, before you need to take another breath. You'll probably manage a minute or more without any trouble. The body doesn't need so much oxygen when it is pretending to be dead.

And then you can also notice, perhaps during or after trying this: how does your mind react to the imagined sensation of being dead? Does the mind become perturbed, resisting this? Or is it a relief – deep relaxation, no more problems.

Watch your own mind as you try the simple thing of floating face down in the water.