Exploring the Deep Relaxation Techniques Used in Rounding

• Vedic Meditation goes beyond relaxation to provide deep rest, unlike other meditation techniques.
• Rounding is an advanced form of Vedic Meditation that involves yoga, breathwork, meditation, and rest for profound rejuvenation.
• Rounding releases stress and promotes deep relaxation, benefiting both body and mind.
• Rounding retreats, facilitated by qualified instructors, are ideal for maximizing the benefits of this practice.

When was the last time you felt deeply relaxed and rejuvenated?After a massage, a long vacation, or a meaningful conversation?

If it seems like it’s been a long time since you felt rested for more than a few moments, you’re not alone. Finding moments of true relaxation can feel like a rare luxury in our busy lives. From juggling work deadlines to managing household chores and navigating social obligations, our days often seem like a whirlwind of activity.

Amidst this chaos, it’s essential to carve out time to recharge and unwind.  This allows our minds and bodies to find respite from the constant demands. As we strive to enjoy the journey rather than to simply be productive, we know we must balance activity with deep relaxation techniques with rest.

Most people have a go-to method to relax. It could be sinking into the pages of a book, luxuriating in a bath, or immersing in the tranquility of nature. While these activities offer temporary relief from stress, there’s a distinction between mere relaxation, rest, and the profound state of rejuvenation that can be achieved through meditation.

I teach a practice called Vedic Meditation—an ancient meditation tradition that goes beyond simply calming the mind and body to deliver deep, restorative rest.

In this post, we’ll talk about how Vedic Meditation works and how we can maximize the deep relaxation available through an advanced form of Vedic Meditation known as Rounding.

Can Other Forms of Meditation Create Relaxation or Deep Rest?

Meditation is a broad category, and Vedic Meditation is only one style.

Many people will seek the best guided meditation, deep relaxation music, or a relaxation meditation for sleep. While these methods can change your mood or state in the moment, they cannot remove stress from the body or necessarily bring the body into a hypo-metabolic rest state.

Deep relaxation hypnosis can cause a change of state to the place between sleeping and waking, which can be useful in therapy settings. Still, hypnosis on its own can only create a brief respite or distraction from stress sensations, similar to the way sleep affects our brains and bodies.

Vedic Meditation goes beyond relaxation and is a very effective method for creating lasting calm and stress resilience.

When we begin to practice more advanced techniques in Vedic Meditation retreat settings, we can maximize the rest and stress release in a short period of time.

Compounding Rest through Rounding

Rounding comprises a gentle sequence of practices aimed at profound relaxation and rejuvenation. A Round involves 4 steps:

1. Very gentle yoga asanas (poses)
2. Gentle pranayama breathwork
3. 20-minutes of Vedic meditation
4. 10 minutes of lying down easily

This sequence, known as a Round, is meticulously designed to address stress, tension, and fatigue embedded within the layers of the nervous system.

Through Rounding, the mind and body descend into extraordinary levels of rest, allowing for the release of deep-seated stress and the reconnection with pure Being—the place beyond thought, where Universal Intelligence resides.

Much like turbo-charging a meditation practice, Rounding amplifies the release of stress and enhances experiences of transcendence in a gentle, nurturing way that soothes the nervous system.

Rounding is accessible to all, regardless of yoga experience or physical fitness level. It offers a gentle and adaptable approach that can be incorporated into daily routines (depending on what your instructor recommends) or enjoyed on a 3+ day retreat with a qualified instructor.

How Does Rounding Create Deep Rest?

As we go through our daily routines, we accumulate stress that often compounds faster than we can release it through sleep or rest. This backlog of stress is the reason it can be so hard to feel present, calm, and energized throughout the day.

As we meditate, the body is able to address that backlog of stress. Regular practice leads to releasing the stress of the day as well as beginning to address stress accumulated in the past – from last week to our first hours of life.

It takes many years of regular twice daily meditation to release all of the backlog of stress that our bodies have accumulated over a lifetime.

When we attend a Rounding Retreat, however, the body is able to release up to 6 months of stored stress from the body in a matter of four days.

During our daily meditations, stress can be released in the form of thoughts while we repeat the mantra.

During a Round, we can begin the release of stress from the body in the first 10-15 minutes of asanas and during the breathing technique. This means that when we sit down to meditate, there is less stress in the body to deal with. We can access less excited states more easily, and the rest states we can reach are even more profound. We then lie down for ten minutes and continue the rest while our mind slips in and out of sleep, transcendence, and waking states.

This is why Rounding multiple times in a row in a retreat setting is so effective in releasing stress and creating deep, transformational rest. As we spend day after day in the less-excited state of regular Rounding, we can keep the body in a continually rested and continually stress-releasing state.

Rules of Rounding

Rounding must be taught by a qualified Vedic Meditation instructor, and multiple Rounds in a row should only be performed in a retreat setting, in-person, with instructor supervision.

Rounding retreats are not held virtually, and we don’t opt to do multiple Rounds in a row in a home environment. The level of rest and stress that can occur means it’s best to have the supervision of an instructor to normalize and advise participants through their Rounding program.

Join a Rounding Retreat with Susan

I host 1-2 Rounding retreats per year near Los Angeles and New York for Vedic Meditators. To learn to meditate and qualify to attend a retreat, schedule an introduction talk with me by emailing susan@meditatewithsusan.com.

Once you’ve taken the Learn to Meditate Course, you can attend as many Rounding Retreats as you like annually held by myself or other qualified Vedic Meditation instructors.

If you’ve already learned Vedic Meditation, click here to join one of my Rounding Retreats.