Progressive Muscle Relaxation

This meditation helps alleviate mental and physical stress by guiding you through a series of tensing and then relaxing prompts. You'll focus on the full body for this meditation. This is useful when you are anxious, fidgety, can't sit still, irritable, or overwhelmed.

Transcript

Welcome to Wild Mind Wellness. Today I will be guiding you through a progressive muscle relaxation. This is a useful meditation exercise for any time you're feeling anxious or stressed. Stressed out, Maybe you just kind of feel the jitters throughout your body and you need help. Regulating back to a place that feels a bit more solid. So getting started, Find yourself in a comfortable seat. And just take a few moments to settle in. Taking some deep grounding breaths in through the nose. Out through the mouth. Make sure your body is fully supported on the surface beneath you. Whether that's a bed or a chair. Just make sure you can really feel supported and fully relax your body. Now to get started, Let's just take a moment again to really ground ourselves. Landing right here, Right now. Anything that came before this is in the past. Leave everything else in the future. Right now is just you, Your time, Your breathing. Taking a couple rounds of breathing together, I'll count us in for four and out for four in three, Two, One. 2, 1. In 2, 3, 4, 5. Out 2 3 4. In 2, 3, 4. Out 2, 3, 4. In 2, 3, 4. Out 2, 3, 4. Last one. In 2, 3, 4. Out 2, 3, 4. Let your breath fall back into its natural rhythm. Anytime your mind wanders. Please know that's perfectly normal. Minds wander, They think, That's what they do. There's no need to get frustrated or angry with yourself. Just notice anytime your thoughts have wandered off. Label that, Oh, I'm thinking about something else. And bring your attention back to your breath. There might be some days where you do that. What feels like a million times in a meditation, And there might be times where you only need to redirect your breath. Your attention to your breath a few times. So let's get started. We're going to start at the top of the head. And what I want you to do first is take all the muscles in your neck, Shoulders, And face, Head, And really squeeze them tight, Tight, Tight, Tight. Really squeeze, Get lots of tension in there. Maybe you clench your jaw, You really furrow your brows together. Really put a lot of tension in there. And then exhale, Sigh it out. Feel all the muscles relax. Let the muscles on your forehead fall soft. Relax around the corners of your eye. Your tongue falls from the roof of your mouth. Your jaw softens. Feeling a melting sensation, Any tension in your neck or shoulders. Now we're gonna move to the arms and hands, And I want you to squeeze them really tightly, Making fists, Squeezing your arms, Really bringing in all that angst, All that energy, All that stress into those muscles, And then release with an exhale. And now starting again at your head, All the way down to your hands this time, Just really melt those muscles. Your arms fall heavy. Forehead is relaxed. Hands are soft, No clenching of your fingers. Just notice any shifts you're starting to feel already. Next we're going to come to the torso, Squeezing your abs. Your low back, Any muscles there that have a little discomfort, Anywhere you carry stress in your torso. I want you to squeeze, Squeeze, Squeeze, Really squeezing all that stress and then relax. Let that stress melt away with your exhale. Let your belly fall fully relaxed. Any tension you were carrying in your back. Notice that soften and melt away with each exhale. Coming down to the glutes and hips. Let's go ahead and squeeze any tension in there, Really tighten, Tighten. We carry a lot of tension in our hip areas. Really, Really tighten, Tighten, Tighten. And go ahead and soften, Relax those muscles. Really visualize your stress melting away each time you relax those muscles. Scanning quickly to see if any of the tensions come back in the rest of your upper body. Relax your eyebrows. Let your tongue fall heavy in your mouth. Unclench your jaw. Let your shoulders fall from your ears, Really just have a nice melting sensation. Coming over your muscles. Now let's come down to the thighs and the quads and feet and go ahead and squeeze, Squeeze, Squeeze. All those leg muscles nice and tight. Curl your toes, Really squeeze any last stress, Get it out and relax. Taking a few moments to just notice any shifts here. Are you feeling a little bit better than you are at the start of this meditation? That's okay if not, But just taking note of that. Not placing any judgment, Just observing. Take a moment to just do a few cleansing, Deep inhales and exhales on your own time. Our last thing will be going back through the progressive muscle relaxation, But this time We're gonna squeeze everything in our body together at the same time. So let's take one more deep inhale. Exhale that out. And on this inhale, I want you to squeeze everything in your body. Squeeze all those muscles. Clench your jaw. Furrow your brows. Make fists. Clench your glutes. Your toes are curling. Really squeeze any last anxiety, Tension, Or stress. Really get it. Tight, Tight, Tighten. And exhale. Relax. Visualize. All of the muscles in your body in just a deep, Deep, Deep state of relaxation Feeling soft. No tension anywhere and coming back to your breath. Do a few rounds of breathing together. This time I'll count as one. In for four and out for six. In three, Two, One. In, Two, Three, Four. Out, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six. In, Two, Three, Four. Out, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six. In 2. . . 3. . . 4. . . Out 2 3 4 5 6 last round in 2 3 4 out 2 3 4 5 6 Let your breathing fall natural. Just take note again of any shifts in your mindset, Anything in your body, Good or bad, Just noticing how it feels. Be proud of yourself for taking the time to do this. I hope you found this helpful. If you have any questions, Please reach out, Leave comments. Thank you.