Our nervous systems are not meant to be regulated.
Our goal in this session today is to tend to our body,
To tend to our mind,
To nourish it,
To support it.
Our nervous system is the command center of our body.
It makes everything function.
It quite literally keeps us alive and well with the information that we get from our external space and from the information of our internal,
Our insides.
What is our heart rate like?
What does our body feel like?
Do we feel safe?
Our nervous system is particularly interested in making sure that we feel safe.
In our current day,
That can feel very overwhelming and that's very common and unfortunately normal for us to feel overstimulated or overwhelmed.
And so what we're going to be doing is a muscle relaxation exercise that you can do at any time outside of this session.
So I hope that this information can stay with you and if you find that it is helpful,
You can return back to it and have a little tool in your toolbox.
That way anytime that you feel overwhelmed or stressed,
You can also check in and tune into your body.
PMR,
Which is known as progressive muscle relaxation,
It's just a fancy way of saying we're going to actively add tension to particular muscle groups in our body and relax them to help them one,
Understand that we are in fact safe and we can listen to the signals in our body,
But two,
Allow for our muscles to relax,
Allow for our body to rest.
The nervous system work is not something that happens overnight.
Unfortunately,
We get these particular signals that work with our own body,
Right?
So we are learning the unique language that our body and mind sends to us so that we can feel a little bit more at ease,
Feel a little bit more connected so that we can then move throughout the world,
Not necessarily panic,
Right?
Which again,
As I mentioned earlier,
It is completely normal and valid to be feeling these sort of stressors in our body.
Our body holds that information for us due to the nervous system constantly looking for our safety,
For our survival.
I'll encourage you to find that position,
Whatever that position may be.
If you want to take an opportunity to try it both seated and laying down,
You're also welcome to do that and see what actually works best for you.
We'll do a quick grounding experience and then we'll get into the exercise.
And as you find your position,
I'll kind of give you a little bit more insight of what PMR is really doing.
Progressive muscle relaxation is really doing it.
It helps us activate and work with our parasympathetic nervous system.
And you may be familiar,
You may have heard it before,
It's a nervous system that is associated with our rests and our digests.
Our body needs to rest.
We need to rest in order to continue being alive,
To continue our health,
To continue feeling safe.
And so what this muscle tension and release helps us release any stored tension,
But also helps us bring awareness to the parts that are maybe feeling a little bit more tension so we can tend to them a little bit better and offer our body support.
There's not necessarily one right way to do it.
There's also not one wrong way to do it.
It's just about sharing and learning about those parts of your body and how they communicate with each other.
So I hope that you found your comfortable and supportive position.
I invite you now to breathe deeply in and out through your nose.
Inhaling and exhaling out through our nose in particular helps stimulate our brain,
Our mind,
And exhaling out through our mouth will help stimulate our body and relax it into place.
With your next breathing cycle,
We're going to inhale through our nose as is always recommended.
We're going to exhale out through our mouths.
And if you can create some noise,
Although that may feel a little silly at first,
When you exhale,
I definitely invite you to do so.
So we'll breathe in through our nose and exhale letting out a sigh.
Do that two more times at your own pace.
With your next inhale,
You're going to breathe in through your nose and at the top of your breath,
We're going to clench our feet.
So scrunching our toes,
Flex our ankles,
And we'll hold that for about five seconds.
And when you exhale,
Exhale out through your mouth,
Making that noise.
Breathing in once more,
We'll inhale through our nose.
And at the top of our breath,
We're going to flex our calves.
We're going to hold it together for five seconds.
And exhale.
Moving up our body,
We're going to inhale and flex our thighs,
Holding it for five seconds.
And exhale with a big sigh.
If five seconds feels like it's pushing your body to a limit that does not feel comfortable,
That's completely okay.
As long as you are breathing and holding to a certain extent to hold that muscle group,
That's perfectly fine.
We're going to move our way up,
Inhaling and clenching our glute,
Holding for five seconds together.
And exhale,
Letting out a sigh.
Breathing in,
Let's inhale through our nose and flex our abdomen,
Our core,
Holding for five.
And exhale out with a sigh.
We'll work our way to our hands now,
Breathing in together.
Flexing your hands,
Your wrists,
Or your fingers,
Whatever feels accessible and comfortable for you today.
Holding it for those five seconds and relaxing with a sigh.
Moving up now with our arms,
Breathing in.
Two more seconds and we let out a sigh together.
With your next inhale,
Lift your shoulders high up to your ears,
Pausing at the top,
Holding for five seconds.
And exhaling out with a sigh.
Moving up to our jaw,
Inhale together.
Flexing our jaw,
Biting down for five seconds.
And releasing with a sigh.
Inhale now and hold your breath for five seconds,
Putting your lips out in duck pose.
Allowing that a little bit of tension to release and you can exhale out.
We'll do this again now with our eyes.
Breathing in deeply and holding for five seconds,
Squinting your eyes shut.
And exhaling out through our mouth.
We'll take things a little bit further by separating our body in different quadrants.
We're going to inhale together,
Flex the lower half of your body.
And two more seconds,
We'll exhale with a sigh.
Now inhaling,
We will focus on the top half of our body.
Holding for five seconds.
And exhaling out through our mouth.
Now we'll do a couple rounds,
Three to be exact,
Clenching our whole body,
Pausing and releasing.
So inhale deeply now.
Try to flex all the muscle groups in your body.
Three,
Two,
One,
And exhale.
We'll do that again together.
Inhaling.
Flexing all of our muscle groups in our body,
All that feel accessible,
And releasing with a sigh.
One more together.
Inhale,
Hold,
Five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
And one.
Exhale out through your mouth.
It is up to you if you want to exhale out through your nose or through your mouth,
Taking note of any particular muscle groups that felt a little bit more tense than others or some that felt more comfortable.
Without any judgment,
Just allowing for this information to arise and maybe even noticing how you feel now from even just a few moments ago.
I encourage you to take it slow before you continue with the rest of your day.
