Progressive Muscle Relaxation Stress in general creates tension in the body.
This exercise,
Known as progressive muscle relaxation,
Involves purposely tensing and then relaxing different muscle areas.
This will support releasing overall body tension,
Experiencing a deeper form of relaxation and simply letting go of stress.
So let's practice.
Find for yourself a comfortable place you can either sit down or lay down.
You can begin by taking a few deep breaths,
Just breathing in and letting go with the out-breath.
Then I would like to invite you to bring all your attention to your feet.
Try to curl your toes in tightly to feel the tension muscles of the foot.
Curl as strongly as you can go.
Hold this for a few moments and then release the tension and relax the feet.
Perhaps you notice the difference,
Letting go of the tension and the difference,
Or you feel the tension,
But this is simply the purpose of this exercise.
Now we're going to repeat this relaxation exercise with different parts of the body.
I would like to invite you to point your feet down,
Pointing the toes down towards the floor,
Feeling the tension in your calf muscles.
Hold this for a few moments and release again.
Perhaps you can notice the change for moments of tension,
Then again the moments of relaxation.
And from now,
We're bringing all our attention to the tight muscles,
Pointing the toes upward toward the ceiling,
Feeling the tension in the large muscles of the tight.
And again,
Hold it for a few moments.
Hold it.
And when you're ready,
Begin to release.
Now we bring our attention to the buttocks,
Tightening the muscles of the buttocks as you sit to a lie.
And once again,
Keep holding it for a few moments,
Feel the tension,
And then gently let it go again.
And relax.
Feel how the tension is just going or flowing away out of your buttocks.
Now we're bringing our attention to the belly.
We're tensing these muscles like you were bringing your belly button in,
Pushing your belly button towards the spine.
And hold it again for a moment.
And when you're ready,
Gently release and relax.
And then we move further,
And we're noticing our back.
And then here,
Just gently arching the lower back as far as you can go.
Perhaps you can feel the tension along the muscles in your back as you arch.
Hold this again for a moment.
And then slowly release again.
Let it go.
From there,
Working up to the shoulders,
A place where most people hold a lot of tension.
And we bring up our shoulders towards our ears,
Squeezing them up as far as you can go.
Hold it.
Hold it.
Squeeze them up.
And then slowly and gently release your shoulders.
And we move further,
Focusing in our hands,
Making the hands into our fists.
And squeezing tightly.
Hold it.
And hold it for another moment.
Squeeze your fists.
And let go.
We bring our awareness up to the arms.
If you want,
You just gently keep the fists if you like.
And bring the lower arms towards the upper arms.
Pulling the forearms up towards the upper arms.
Tightening the biceps.
Hold it.
And hold it.
And release.
Let it go.
And there.
We bring all our awareness to the face.
Here we're going to squeeze our eyes as tight as you can go.
Holding them shut tight.
Squeezing.
Holding.
And release.
And we move further to our mouths.
We're pursing the lips.
Tight,
Strongly.
And hold it for a moment.
Hold it.
And release.
And then I would like to invite you to bring your arms upwards behind your head.
And then stretch yourself in the full length.
Tense your whole body.
Your finger points to the one side,
Your toes point to the other side.
And stretch yourself.
Make yourself long.
Hold the tension in your whole body.
Hold it.
Hold it.
And then release.
And bring back your both arms besides you.
And then expand your awareness to your whole body.
You've tensed all your muscles.
Just become aware how your body feels now.
Allow yourself to feel totally relaxed as you sit or lie down.
Just fully aware how your body is slowly releasing all the tension.
And then we've come to an end.
And find some relaxation.
