Let Go - Progressive Relaxation Exercise

This full body relaxation exercise technique is a wonderful tool to re-wire and re-train the brain from the patterns that cause us to trap and hold tension in the muscles and our bodies.

You will briefly learn a little about this technique and then we will practice it for deep relaxation, an opportunity to let go of any tension you may have accumulated in your body from your day.

Music by Chris Collins
Track - Let Go

Transcript

Hello,

I'm Chelle.

Thank you for joining me.

I'm here in Sydney,

Australia so way down under.

Today I'd like to share with you my Let Go progressive relaxation.

This is a full body relaxation exercise technique and it's a wonderful tool as a method to rewire and retrain the brain from the patterns that cause us to get trapped and hold tension in the muscles of our bodies.

In this exercise,

We will consciously squeeze and tense the body only to then let it go and feel into that sense of relaxation.

The effects of stress and in some cases constant stress,

Where the fight-or-flight response gets activated or constantly switched on,

May cause us to unconsciously tense our muscles,

Holding tension in the body.

It can occur without us even realizing and in this full body relaxation exercise,

Initially you might find it challenging to even tense a muscle to notice the difference as the body might already be in a constant state of tension.

But when we practice this regularly,

You'll start to notice a difference between the body and the muscles being either relaxed or tensed.

By bringing a level of mindfulness to each body part,

We can drop out of the thinking mind and quiet the mind as we focus on the body part to either tense or release.

This is a simple yet effective way that we can do on our own at any time as well.

Combined with the focus of the breath,

It can help regulate the breath and take the nervous system from sympathetic,

Flight or fight,

To parasympathetic,

Rest and digest,

And have a real calming effect to both the mind and the body.

So when we practice regularly,

You'll start to notice when stress is impacting on your body and be able to take a break or shift from that situation or activity to avoid the tension increasing.

This tool is best practiced daily,

So you can really start to recognize when tension is building.

And I know with my own practice of this technique,

I find it a great way to prepare for sleep or rest in the evening time,

Consciously releasing any accumulated tension in my body and mind that I might have collected from the day.

So let's begin.

This can be done sitting on a chair,

Feet flat on the earth,

Just want to be really comfortable.

Or if you choose,

You can lay down and do this one,

Especially if you're doing it at night before getting ready for bed as well.

If you're laying down,

You might wish to put a little bit of propping under the backs of your knees.

What's important here is to get the spine nice and long.

We'll start to soften the eyes closed,

And then slowly start to notice the breath coming in through the nose and then exhaling out through the nose.

We'll establish a slow,

Deep,

Smooth and seamless breath as we just arrive here,

Making sure you're as comfortable as possible.

Your attention to move towards your head.

We're going to clench your fists,

Squeeze your fists as tightly as possible,

Focus on the feelings of tension in your fingers,

In your hands and your forearm.

Relax your hands,

Wiggle your fingers and let your hands completely relax.

Allow the muscles in your forearms to relax and focus on the muscles in your hands and arms now being completely relaxed.

Take your awareness up to your eye.

We're going to raise our eyebrows,

Feel the muscles in the forehead become really tight and tense.

Lift them as high as you can and now try to let go just half of that tension in your forehead,

While keeping the remaining half at a constant steady level.

Now let the other half of that remaining tension go.

Release the tension,

Release the forehead to relax completely.

Now let all the tension go and feel your forehead smooth out and relax.

Enjoy that good feeling as your forehead is completely relaxed.

And then we're going to squeeze the eyes tightly together.

All those little muscles around your eyes tense and then the tension leave.

Allow your eyelids to rest gently,

Eyes remain closed.

Come down now to pucker up your lips.

If you're giving the mirror a big squeezy kiss,

Squeeze your mouth tight,

Very tightly and feel the tension in the circular muscles around your mouth.

Now relax the lips against your teeth gently.

We're going to clench the teeth now.

Let your lips remain relaxed while tensing those,

Clenching those teeth together.

Feel the muscles tighten in the corner of your jaw,

Onto your temple.

Relax the jaw,

Gently wiggle your jaw from side to side and release any tension there.

Let your jaw just sort of hang all the tension go out.

Focus now on how relaxed the muscles in your face are feeling.

Now we're going to tense those muscles in your neck.

While keeping the muscles tight,

Try to move your forehead forward as you tense a set of muscles against each other.

Move your head slightly to the right as you squeeze the muscles in and then to the left.

Move to the points now of your shoulder.

Point the front part of your shoulder together as if you were trying to touch your shoulders in front of you.

And you'll feel a bit of tension across your upper shoulder.

Push your shoulders back as if you were trying to touch your shoulder points or your shoulder blades together.

Squeeze it back.

A feeling of relaxation spread across your shoulders along.

We're going to squeeze as tightly as we can.

Squeeze the buttocks.

Knees.

We're going to tense the knees.

Using those quads muscles tight.

Notice that feeling of just those muscles lengthen and smooth.

Those thigh muscles gradually lengthen as you relax.

Point the toes.

Your toes.

Leg nice and long.

And you'll feel the muscles that tensed in your calves.

Ease them in.

Take it in the opposite direction.

Pull your toes up as if you want to touch your toes to your shins.

Feel the muscles in your shins tense.

So we're going to curl the toes into a tight little ball.

Squeeze them in.

Some tension there.

Begin to scan slowly through your body.

Noticing how very relaxed every muscle feels in the body.

We scan up the legs and our back.

Slowly to your shoulders.

And if you find any tight muscles then be completely relaxed now.

Scan the muscles in our head,

Our face,

Down your chest,

On your arms and hands.

Gently scanning each muscle.

Releasing any tension.

Observing how relaxed the body feels.

Consciously letting go muscly.

My attention back to our breath now.

And you might notice the breath is even slower.

Notice the air simply entering through your nostrils.

Feeling your lungs.

Gently leaving your body as you relax a little more.

You don't need to control the breathing here.

Just gently observing it.

Noticing the inhalation gently filling you up.

And then the exhalation.

That feeling of letting go.

And as you exhale let everything go and allow the weight of your chest to expel the air from your lungs.

As you inhale allow your body to be nurtured with pure positive energy.

And as you exhale any tension,

Worries you might be holding in the body.

Just let them go and breathe them away.

Peace in the breath.

I release all tension and worry.

Breathe in positive energy.

Release all tension and worry.

Breathe in.

Relax now.

Letting go within the body.

Also in the mind.

Allowing the mind just to float.

As if you're witnessing or watching yourself here.

Breath gently flowing in,

Flowing out.

Releasing any tension and worry as you breathe out.

Inviting in that calm,

Positive energy as you breathe in.

Observe ten more rounds of breath here.

Just watching,

Not influencing.

Body's relaxed.

Just witnessing ourselves breathe.

Everything completely relaxed.

And then from here gently allow the eyes to open.

Soft gaze around the room.

This might be time for you to turn off,

Roll over and head into a blissful night's sleep.

But if you have a little bit more of your day or evening to go now,

Gently roll over to your favorite side.

Taking a little pause there.

Just a little bit more space.

A little bit more than you first started.

And with practice we start to notice when tension is creeping into the body.

Gently use our hands for support and we'll make our way up to a seat if we're not already in a seat.

Nice and tall through the spine,

Reaches high,

Backs back into those shoulders.

And with our next inhalation,

As the heart lifts,

Let's also lift our hands to meet at the heart space,

Palms together in Anjali Mudra.

We'll take a moment here to gently bow,

Honor each other as we practice together this progressive relaxation.

And then take an extra bow a little bit deeper,

Bringing thumbs towards your third eye.

Lifting thumbs to meet your brow.

We take this last moment to honor ourselves with love,

With kindness and compassion today.

Namaste.

Thank you for joining me and I will see you next time from the inside.

This is Chelle.

Namaste.