Preksha Dhyana Self Awareness by Relaxation

Author(s): Mahapragna Acharya
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

Page 26

strenuous work with his muscles, does. This is because the total amount of nervous, energy required is proportional to the number of motor units and not the size of the muscles. Almost equal amount of nervous impulse is necessary to contract a small facial or vocal muscles as a large leg muscles. Thus a stenotypist who puts a large number of small muscles to work expends much more energy than a blacksmith; an orator uses more than a labourer does. That is why silence is so valuable in conserving and preventing the avoidable waste of energy.
What happens when you speak? An idea which forms in your mind, must first be instantly translated into words with accurate grammar and syntax. In order to allow you to speak, precise orders must be sent out to the muscles of the vocal cord to contract, relax and vary the amount of air used. Contractions of the muscles of tongue, lips, and face require thousands of small motor nerves, each expending its own quota of energy, to participate in the act of speaking. In fact, a speech lasting perhaps a couple of hours may completely exhaust an average person. You can prevent this colossal waste of energy only by observing SILENCE.
But it is not enough to stop speaking aloud. Total silence really means that the mental process of spuech must also be halted as this can be exhausting as a loud talk in terms of nervous energy. This is because almost every motor unit named above, except the vocal, has to go through the same notions as are necessary for loud speech. Thus internal silence is as essential as the external or vocal silence.
1. A motor-unit is of composed muscle and the nerve-tissues innervating
it.
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