Today we're going to practice a progressive relaxation exercise from a book called The Alpha Connection to Mind and Body from Wally Minto.
Get comfortable and take a deep breath and while exhaling allow relaxation to flow through your body.
Now double up your fingers making a fist,
Tighten up through your arms and shoulders and neck.
Lift your shoulders up tightly against your neck.
Take a moment to become totally aware of the feeling of this tightness.
Very slowly begin relaxing down through the neck,
Being aware of the sensation as you let go of the tension in each area and replace it with relaxation.
Gradually drop the shoulders down being aware of the release of the tension and relaxation taking its place.
Now move your shoulders around a little and imagine dropping them down another inch or two and be aware of this additional relaxation.
Begin gradually relaxing on down through the arms being aware of how it feels as you let go of the tension and let relaxation take its place.
Relax on down through the elbows and down through the wrists.
Now relax down through your hands and fingers all the way to the tips of each finger.
Be aware of how differently your fingers feel now that relaxation has taken the place of tension.
Use your creative imagination and imagine this feeling of relaxation flowing down through the rest of your body,
Down through the chest and abdominal area,
Down through the hips and legs,
All the way down through your toes.
Now tighten up through the area of your head,
Slightly contracting and tensing the scalp,
Forehead,
Eyelids,
Around the eyes,
The face and jaw muscles.
Be aware of this tightness.
Slowly begin to relax the scalp and forehead down through the temples and eyes,
Relax on down through the face and jaw muscles.
Be aware of how it feels as you release this tension and replace it with relaxation.
Use your creative intelligence and imagine this relaxation going on down through your tongue,
On down through your shoulders,
Arms and hands,
On down through the chest and abdominal area,
Down through the hips and legs,
All the way down through your toes.
Take a deep breath and tighten up the muscles in the chest and abdominal area and then while exhaling,
Gradually allow the chest and abdominal area to relax completely.
Be aware of the feeling of relaxation as it replaces the tightness.
Imagine this feeling of relaxation flowing on down through the body,
All the way down to the toes.
Using your creative intelligence,
Imagine relaxing internally,
Imagine all the organs,
Glands and even the cells functioning in a normal healthy manner.
Now tighten up through your hips and legs,
All the way down to your ankles,
Feet and toes,
Becoming totally aware of this tightness.
Gradually begin relaxing down through the hips,
Always being aware of how it feels as you let go of the tension and replace it with relaxation.
Continue relaxing on down through the legs,
Knees,
Calves,
On down through the ankles,
Feet,
All the way down through your toes.
Go a little farther with your creative imagination and imagine that you have pulled plugs out of your big toes and any tension remaining in your body is like water.
Imagine that it begins to drain out through your big toes.
As you imagine the tension draining,
Allow a feeling of relaxation to flow downward throughout the body,
Starting in the scalp,
Flowing down through the forehead,
Temples,
Thighs,
Face and jaw muscles.
Imagine this feeling of relaxation flowing down through the tongue and neck,
Down through the shoulders,
Arms and hands.
Allow the feeling of relaxation to flow on downward through the chest and abdominal area,
Down through the hips,
Legs and calves,
Ankles and feet,
All the way down through your toes.
Now spend a few moments imagining a state of physical,
Mental and spiritual well-being,
Whatever that may mean to you as an individual.
Before you open your eyes,
Stretch your arms and muscles throughout your body and then open your eyes,
Full of energy,
Feeling fine and in perfect health.
In the future,
Whenever you become aware of tension in any part of the body at that moment,
Tighten those muscles and then slowly relax them.
This can be done without closing your eyes and in most cases without interrupting what you're doing.
Gradually,
You will develop a brain cell pattern that recognizes beginning tension in that area of the body and another pattern that allows relaxation to take its place.
In this exercise,
You concentrated on only the large muscle groups.
In doing the exercise in the future,
You may be as detailed as you desire,
Doing just one finger at a time if necessary.
It is simply a process of tightening a muscle or groups of muscles and then gradually relaxing them completely.
