Hi,
I'm Steph Gadsden and I'm going to walk you through a progressive muscle relaxation.
This relaxation meditation can be done lying down or in an upright seated position.
It is useful to calm down the sympathetic nervous system or what we usually refer to as the fight or flight response.
This meditation is useful for those experiencing high levels of stress or anxiety.
I recommend you do this daily,
Either in the morning or before bed for a restful night sleep.
So find a comfortable position either lying down or in a chair.
Close your eyes and just gently bring your attention to your breath.
Just notice the breath gently passing in and out of the nose.
No need to change it in any way.
Just let your breath regulate by itself.
Turn your attention inwards and notice how you are feeling.
We are going to move through the major muscles of the body and invite them to relax.
While doing this,
Just keep breathing naturally.
Move your attention to the top of your forehead.
Lift your brows up towards your head and notice the tension you are holding in your forehead.
Hold this position and then just let your brows softly relax.
All the tension that you were holding in your forehead is now gone.
Move your attention to your eyes.
Close your eyelids even more tightly,
Almost like you are scrunching up your eyes in your face.
Feel this tension across your forehead and eyes and then let it go and let your eyelids gently close and feel the relaxation spreading across your forehead and your eyes.
Notice the difference between tension and relaxation.
Move down to your jaw and clench your teeth tightly together.
Notice the feeling of tension being held in your jaw when you clench your teeth.
We often do this throughout the day or at night when we are stressed.
So hold it,
Hold it and then just gently let your jaw go,
Let the muscles in your mouth relax and feel that relaxation spreading throughout your face all the way up to your ears and temples.
Notice the difference between tension and relaxation.
Feel focusing on your jaw,
Open your mouth as wide as possible.
Feel that tension in different muscles around the face and the mouth.
Hold it,
Hold it and then just let your jaw be heavy.
Let go of that tension and invite in relaxation.
Let your tongue just gently fall behind your teeth and let your jaw remain slightly open to help with relaxation.
Moving down now to your shoulders.
We often hold a lot of tension and stress in our shoulders.
Bring your shoulders all the way up to your ears,
Scrunch them up and feel that tension spread across your neck,
Your shoulders and your back.
Hold them there,
Hold them and then just let them fall.
Feel your shoulders drop and fall and feel that relaxation spread throughout your entire neck,
Shoulders and back.
Feel your neck elongate and the space between your chin and your chest get bigger.
Notice the difference between tension and relaxation.
Move all the way down now to your tummy.
I want you to pull your tummy up towards your rib cage,
Feeling and holding that tension in your abdominal muscles.
Feel that tension there and then just let your tummy go.
No more holding on,
No more sucking in.
Just allow your stomach to be fully relaxed.
Keep breathing and engage your tummy in relaxation.
It is important to actively relax your abdomen and your tummy because this is our hub of where we digest our food.
We can often hold tension and stress in our stomach which can lead to digestive complaints like IBS.
Actively let your stomach go.
Engage and invite in relaxation.
Moving down now to your hands.
Hold two tight fists with your hands,
Scrunching your fingers up into your palms and feel that tension being held there.
Hold that tension in your wrists and hands and forearms and then just let it go.
Open your fingers,
Let your hands flop.
Feel complete relaxation spreading throughout your fingers,
Your hands and your arm.
Breathe in and notice the difference between tension and relaxation.
Moving down now to your buttocks.
Clench your thighs and your buttocks together and hold tension there.
Hold it,
Hold it and then just let the muscles in your buttocks and thighs relax and give in.
Feel the blood flow coming back to the area and breathe in to relaxation.
Notice the difference between tension and relaxation.
Keep travelling down your legs now,
All the way to the tips of your toes.
Pull your toes up towards your face and hold tension in your calf muscles,
Ankles and feet.
Notice this tension,
Hold it and then just let your feet flop.
Breathe in to it and notice the difference between tension and relaxation.
Move down now to your toes.
Scrunch your toes up into a ball,
Hold them,
Hold them and then just let them go.
You may want to wriggle your toes to really allow them to properly relax.
Let in relaxation to your toes and your feet.
Now that we've moved through the entire body,
I want to leave you for a couple of seconds to just check in and see if you're holding any tension elsewhere in the body.
Go to these places and actively allow them to relax.
Now the body is calm and you know the difference between tension and relaxation.
You can now allow the body to either drift off to sleep or be in a calm state to move through your day with ease.
Thank you for joining me for this meditation.
