Progressive Muscle Relaxation

This is an 18-minute Progressive Muscle Relaxation designed to sync your breathing with a deep intentional letting go of muscular tension. You can practice seating in a chair or lying on your bed or yoga mat. We begin with the breath and harness the powerful quality of letting go in the out-breath. Let your breath do the work. No need to over tense or overdo this practice - let tension unravel naturally and allow it to disperse easefully. Enjoy.

Transcript

Hi there, This is Amanda and welcome to this practice of progressive muscle relaxation. You can practice this relaxation laying on your bed, On your yoga mat or in a chair. So take a moment to find comfort in whatever position you choose and when you've found that really nice level of comfort and do take a moment to wriggle around making sure that you have created space where you can find the head and neck in line with the spine and the arms and legs equidistant from the torso. And if it feels comfortable for you gently allow your eyelids to close but know that you can remain open eyed for this technique as well. And if you are open eyed just let the little muscles around your eyes soften and let gaze become quite unfocused and then whatever you've chosen begin to find a natural wave of breath and jump on that wave and follow it in and out of the body. Notice how your breath feels right now and begin to spread your attention throughout your body noticing any pockets of tightness and tension. Notice any emotions that might be present, Any thoughts that keep ticking through your mind and then come back to your breath and as you breathe in follow your breath down into your belly and feel your diaphragm gently dome down towards your perineum, Towards your pelvic floor and as you exhale feel your diaphragm gently and very slowly rebound back to its starting position and take a couple more breaths like that, Breathing in and feeling this beautiful doming down, This massaging of your internal abdominal organs and then as slow as you can let that diaphragm gently and slowly rise back up and then one more of those on your own. And so now we're going to begin the process of releasing tension and tightness from the body and we don't need to think about this technique, We can just let the technique do all the work for us of releasing tightenings and tensions. So begin to trace your attention all the way down to your feet and your toes and notice how your feet, Both feet, Your right foot and your left foot are feeling right now, The arches, The balls of the feet, The heels, The toes, The tops of the feet and then begin to take a nice long inhalation and as you do so curl your toes under and tense and tighten your feet and hold your breath here and tighten and tense and hold the breath, Tighten and tense and then as you exhale let go of that tightening very slowly and feel the effect of contracting the muscles of your feet and then letting the tension go and let that ripple begin to stream up into your legs and already we're signalling to the brain that we're going to soften, Softening our body. Notice how your feet feel now, Both feet and begin to draw your attention up into your legs, Your lower legs, Noticing the shins and the calves, Your knees, The front of your knee and the back of each knee and the upper legs, The quads in front and the hamstrings in back, Both legs as cohesive units and now feel an inhalation start to pour into your nostrils and down into your belly and as you do so press your heels away and start to tighten and tense both legs from the ankles all the way to the top of the quads, Inhaling and holding that breath and holding that tension, Hold the tension, Hold the breath and then slowly exhale letting the diaphragm rise back up and sensing and receiving the information that your legs, Both legs, Are sending to you right now and receive it in the form of sensation, Breathing into both legs, Both feet and all of your toes and as you exhale maybe allow your legs and your heels to drop a little deeper into support, If your feet are flat on the ground because you're seated let the soles of your feet drop down, Down, Down into the earth and begin to draw your attention now to your buttocks and your hips, Your perineum and your pubic bone and swirl your attention through this space, Noticing, Feeling your way and now begin to inhale into both of your nostrils and as you do start to tighten and tense your buttocks, Your hips, Your pubic bone, Your perineum, The whole area is tight and tense and you're holding that in-breath in, Holding, Tightening, Holding and as you exhale releasing ever so slowly and now allowing your breath to be natural and allowing the feedback from your buttocks and your hips to filter gently up into the brain, Receiving that softening, That release, Noticing now how your buttocks and your hips feel and now as you begin to inhale take your attention to your belly and notice sensation around your abdomen, Deep inside your abdominal cavity, Notice if you've got any niggles in your belly at the moment and maybe notice your muscles, Your abdominal muscles, The wall of the abdomen and now begin to inhale and as you do draw your navel in and tighten and tense and you might notice that your lower back is tensing and your buttocks are retensing and just allow that to happen, Holding your breath, Holding the tension and then ever so slowly letting your out-breath pour out and allowing tension to lift off your body now like a very light mist releasing from your energy body and notice and observe and let your breath be natural, Notice if there is a little more freedom around your belly and then take your attention to your back body, Your lower back, Your middle back and your upper back, Maybe resting back into a chair or resting back onto your bed, Your yoga mat, Feel your way and then when you're ready start to fill up breath pouring in through your nostrils and draw your elbows back toward one another and tighten and tense your whole entire back from the shoulder ridges down to your sacrum, Inhale and hold the tension, Hold it, Hold it, Hold it and then let that go, Ever so slowly let the tension and let the out-breath pour out and then pause and feel, Feel the breath, Sense the tightness releasing again like a vapor from the body and turning your attention now towards your chest and just sensing and feeling your chest, Your pec muscles beneath your breasts and your breasts themselves and notice how your heart and your lungs are feeling and then when you feel ready begin to feel an inhalation pour into your nostrils and move your shoulders forward and tighten and tense the muscles of your chest and hold the breath and hold the tension, Hold it, Hold it, Hold it and then slowly let it go, Releasing tensions from your chest, Feeling it lift away from the body allowing your breath to be normal and natural, Waves and waves of respiration and then take your attention to your hands and your arms and the shoulder joints themselves and notice, Let your attention trace along these lines of energy up and down your arms, Hands and fingers and then make light fists and begin to inhale and let your arms become like steel rods and tighten and tense your fists, Your arms are long, Your shoulders are tight and you hold the breath and you hold the tension and you hold it and you hold it and then you just let it go, Slowly and gently releasing tightenings and tensions from your arms, Hands, Fingers and shoulders, Letting it drift off out into the ethers to be transformed into renewed energy, Notice the tingling in your fingertips and begin to draw breath in and take your attention upward into your throat, Your neck, Your face and your head and notice how your head and face are feeling right now, Inside your head, The muscles of your face, The little tiny muscles around your eyes, Inside your mouth, Around the back of your neck and the pit of your throat and feel an inhalation start to pour into your nostrils and as it does begin to tighten and tense the muscles of your face, Your neck, Your throat, Screw up your face, Tighten and tense and hold the breath, Tighten and tense, Tighten and tense and then exhale and let all that go, Let it all go, Let the tension release out of the field of your body, Out into the field of energy all around you and feel that energy being transformed, Transmuted and take a moment here to breathe, Feeling the light movement of your belly and when you're ready take a nice smooth deep breath in through both of your nostrils and exhale out of your mouth slowly letting go, Letting go, Letting go and if you're ready to move on with the rest of your day feel free to slowly if you're laying down roll to one side, Gently press yourself up to seated, Connect to your breath and gently open your eyes and if you'd like to stay a little longer feel free, Have a beautiful day or night wherever you are, Thank you for sharing this progressive muscle relaxation with me, Namaste

Reviews

A real settling experience for my busy mind—especially the explicit cues to sync breath with tensing.

A complete body relaxation practice. Works well before bed. Thank you.

Thank you Amanda. I really enjoyed your meditation this morning! I did it in bed before I got up! It was a great way to start my day! 🛌☮️🌸Namaste ❗️

Best