Finding a comfortable lying position,
Beginning by just breathing in and out through the nostrils,
No need to change or manipulate the breath in any way at the moment,
Just noticing in and out,
Perhaps it may slow down on its own,
Perhaps not.
You might like to place one hand or both hands on your abdomen,
Notice the breath coming in and out of the abdomen.
The first few breaths might consciously feel the abdomen like a balloon and then relax it like a balloon deflating,
Feeling the hands rise and fall.
And for a few breaths you might even want to exaggerate this a bit,
So really breathing in,
In,
Hold it and out,
Out.
And again,
In,
In,
Hold and out,
Out.
Continuing with abdominal breathing,
Perhaps you might even want to let the breath go with a bit of a sigh,
In,
In,
Hold and out.
And we're going to move now to the progressive muscular relaxation.
So we're not trying to cause any strain or pain here,
Just feeling the tension in the muscles and then as best you can,
The letting go or relaxation.
Now as you let the rest of your body relax,
Clench your fists and bend them back at the wrists,
Tighter and tighter.
Keep breathing,
Feel the tension in your fists and forearms.
Now relax,
Feel the looseness in your hands and forearms.
Notice the contrast between tension and relaxation.
Now bend your elbows and tense your biceps,
Tense,
Tense them firmly and observe the feeling of tautness.
Now let your arms drop down and relax.
Feel the difference between tension and relaxation in your biceps.
Now turn your attention to your head and wrinkle your forehead as tight as you can,
Tight,
Feel the tension and keep breathing.
Feel the tension in the forehead and scalp and relax and smooth it out.
Feel your entire forehead and scalp becoming smooth and rested.
Now frown and notice the strain spreading throughout your forehead.
Keep breathing and now let go,
Relax,
Allow your brow to become smooth again.
Now squeeze your eyes closed,
Squeeze your eyes closed tighter,
Keep breathing and relax your eyes,
Let them remain gently and comfortably closed.
Now open your mouth wide and feel the tension in your jaw and relax your jaw.
When the jaw is relaxed your lips may be slightly parted.
Notice the contrast between tension and relaxation in your jaw.
Now press your tongue against the roof of your mouth,
Experience the ache at the back of your mouth,
Keep breathing through your nose and relax.
Purse your lips now,
Purse them into an O shape and now relax your lips.
Feel the relaxation in your forehead,
Scalp,
Eyes,
Jaw,
Tongue and lips.
Let go more and more.
Now roll your head slowly around your neck,
You may need to sit up a little straighter for this.
Feel the point of tension shifting as your head moves and make sure you even up by slowly rolling your head the other way.
Keep breathing,
Now relax,
Allowing your head to return to a comfortable position.
Now shrug your shoulders,
Bring your shoulders up towards your ears,
Hold it tight,
Keep breathing and drop your shoulders back down and feel the relaxation spread through your neck,
Throat and shoulders.
Pure relaxation,
Feel more and more relaxed,
Deeply relaxed while remaining awake.
Now breathe in,
Filling up your lungs completely and hold your breath,
Experience the tension.
Now exhale and let your chest become loose.
Try again,
Filling your lungs completely and holding your breath,
Experience the tension,
You might even feel sensations in your cheeks and face and now exhale.
Continue relaxing,
Letting your breath come freely and gently.
Notice the tension draining out of your muscles with each exhalation.
Now tightening your stomach and holding,
Keep breathing,
Feel the tension and relax.
Now place your hands on your stomach,
Breathe deeply into your stomach,
Pushing your hands upward against your stomach,
Hold and relax,
Feeling the sensation of relaxation in the abdominal area.
Now arching your back,
Stretching it without straining,
Keeping the rest of your body as relaxed as possible.
Focus on the tension in your lower back,
Now relax,
Letting the tension pass away.
Now tightening your buttocks and thighs,
Strong,
Stronger,
Keep breathing,
Feel the tension and relax and feel the difference.
Try this one again,
Tightening the buttocks and thighs strongly,
Remembering to keep breathing,
Feeling the tension and relax.
Now straightening your posture up a little and tensing your legs,
Curling your toes downwards,
Stretching those legs out,
Keep breathing,
Experiencing the tension and relax.
Again straighten and contract the legs but this time bend your toes towards your face,
Bend your toes towards your face,
Tighter,
Keep breathing,
Feel the tension and relax.
Feel the comfortable warmth and heaviness of deep relaxation throughout your entire body as you continue to breathe slowly and deeply.
You can relax even more as you move up through your body,
Letting go of the last bit of any tension in your body,
Starting with the feet and relaxing the feet,
Move up and relax the ankles,
Relax the calves,
Relax the shins,
Relax the knees and your thighs and buttocks.
Let the relaxation spread through your stomach,
To your lower back,
To your chest,
Letting go more and more.
Feel the relaxation deepening in your shoulders,
In your arms and in your hands,
Deeper and deeper,
Noticing the feeling of looseness and relaxation in the neck,
The jaw,
Whole of the face,
Forehead and scalp.
Continue to breathe slowly and deeply down in your stomach,
Allow your entire body to be comfortably loose and relaxed,
Calm and rested.
So now doing a bit of a mental scan of the body,
Noticing if there's any places where the tension has crept back and perhaps you might be able to use the breath to loosen these areas a little.
Sometimes that's not possible and that's fine too.
So scanning through the body,
Seeing if there's any tension in the eyes,
Around the jaws,
Unlocking the jaw if possible,
Having the teeth apart,
The lips soft,
Noticing if the neck can be long and loose,
Lengthening the arms,
Softening the chest and belly,
Perhaps continuing the abdominal breathing and noticing the pelvis and the buttocks softening and spreading as best you can.
Legs are loose and heavy,
Imagining tension melting away from the whole body.
So moving on to the pelvic floor muscles now.
Let's start by visualising the area,
So visualising your pubic bone at the front,
Right through to the tailbone at the back and going sideways from one sit bone to the other,
Visualising this area of muscle,
A little bit like a trampoline,
Surrounding the front and back passages,
Rising and falling as necessary,
Tightening and loosing as necessary so that the passages can close when they need to and open when they need to.
Your pelvic floor muscles may already be quite tight and tense and it might be really difficult to tighten them further or even painful.
So we want to be really gentle,
So only if it doesn't hurt,
Gently squeezing the vaginal area and then softening,
Then softening,
Releasing that tension.
And if they are already tight or painful,
No need to tighten them further,
Just imagine the tightness in them and then physically soften and release as best you can.
So for some,
The trampoline metaphor can be quite helpful.
As you relax and loosen the muscles,
Imagining warm sand pouring onto the trampoline,
Sagging under the warm weight of the sand.
Imagine that trampoline lengthening down between your thighs as the sand pours on.
Give yourself a little time here,
Keeping those muscles soft and relaxed,
Soft and relaxed,
Almost sagging,
Lengthening,
Letting the muscles stay down with each breath in and out.
For others,
The lift or elevator metaphor is more helpful.
Imagining the pelvic floor muscles as an elevator,
And imagining releasing it from the top floor right down to the basement,
Keeping that elevator at the basement for a few breaths,
Maybe even softening and opening the vagina by opening the imaginary elevator door in the basement,
Continuing to breathe in and out gently to help keep the vagina soft and open.
Sometimes it can help to firstly squeeze the muscles around the anus or back passage.
Feel how if you squeeze that anus tight and then gently relax and soften,
The vagina will often relax too.
That's it,
Soften and loosen that back passage,
Maybe even letting some gas escape if you're on your own,
It can only help.
And there's also muscles around the front passage in the area that you pass urine,
Perhaps experimenting with just gently squeezing the muscles that stop you passing urine.
If it hurts,
Doing it in your imagination.
And now let them all soften and release,
Imagine the urine escaping gently,
Don't worry,
It won't.
Seeing if you can keep all these pelvic floor muscles soft as you keep breathing,
The back passage,
The vagina and the front passage.
If you like,
You can put your hand back on your lower abdomen as you keep breathing in the belly,
The belly rising and falling with each breath.
Perhaps you can tense these lower belly muscles,
Then relax them and let them soften and release.
And if you can contract the pelvic floor muscles without pain,
Perhaps you can try a really small contraction of just the vaginal muscles and then relax,
Breathing,
Softening,
Opening the vaginal area.
And a couple more metaphors that might help you with this.
You can imagine the vagina as like a still pond,
Dropping a pebble in,
Noticing the concentric circles ever widening as the vagina opens.
Perhaps you could see the vagina as a flower bud being warmed and softened by the sun.
And perhaps you can imagine the vagina as softened by the sun,
Opening to the warmth and light as best you can,
Softening the entire lower abdomen,
Pelvis,
Pelvic floor muscles.
Noticing the whole body now,
Perhaps doing another mental scan for tension.
Sometimes the tension's quite easy to melt away with a bit of breath,
And other times not so.
No need to give yourself a hard time about this.
Just doing a little bit of a scan,
Seeing if you can unlock the jaw,
Soften the forehead and the area between the eyes.
Perhaps even having a little smile on the mouth might help relax the lips,
Teeth apart,
The neck long and loose,
The arms long and heavy,
The chest soft.
Maybe even imagining that smile on your lips in your heart,
The abdomen softening,
Maybe with the breath.
And all those pelvic floor muscles and the buttocks just softening and spreading,
The legs loose and heavy,
Visualizing tension melting away as best you can.
This is a great one to do in your daily life whenever you have a few moments spare.
So maybe having another few nice belly breaths,
Filling the abdomen with the breath,
Letting it go with a sigh,
Perhaps noticing softness and calmness in the body.
And you might want to spend a little bit more time with this calm,
Quiet feeling.
And there'll be times when you might do this audio and your body doesn't feel calm.
No need to give yourself a hard time about this,
It will only increase the tension.
Just allowing whatever you find today.
Now you might like to wake the body by breathing a bit deeper,
Energizing the body a little.
Just notice what sort of stretch your body might need from you,
Really noticing how that stretch feels and pausing for as long as you need to or have time to before going about your day.
