Hi,
Hello and welcome.
My name is Julie and I'll take you through a relaxation exercise in just a moment.
Today's exercise is a quickie,
A short muscle relaxation where we focus on the relaxation and release of key areas in the body where stress and tension tend to get stuck.
If you can relax these areas you can move on with your day.
You can avoid chronic buildup of tension in the shoulders for example.
We know from neuroscience that stress isn't just in our heads but has a physical component.
When you are in a stressful situation whether this is physical danger or your boss sending you a snappy email your nervous system reacts and you go into the so-called fight-or-flight response.
All kinds of hormones like cortisol and adrenaline are released into your bloodstream.
Your heart rate goes up and your fight and flight muscles in your legs arms and shoulders are ready to go.
If you keep this tension inside it can have negative consequences.
We can't banish all stress from our lives today but we can take a moment to release some tension out of the body and this can bring some solace especially in these strange times.
All right we'll tense up and relax several areas in the body.
When you tense these muscles don't do this so hard that you cause yourself pain.
Be mild to yourself.
If for any reason you feel uncomfortable later in the exercise stop for a moment and take a few deep breaths.
We'll start with the neck and shoulders.
Bring your shoulders up to your ears,
Tense the muscles there,
Breathe in,
Hold it there for just a moment,
Really feel that tension and then let go while you breathe out.
Let those shoulders drop down a little lower to a comfortable position.
The next area are the hands.
Bring your hands together to make fists as if you're trying to squeeze something in both of your hands.
Breathe in and hold your hands like this.
Feel the tension in your fingers and your forearms and breathe out and then let go.
You can shake your hands softly if you want to shake the tension away.
Take a beat,
Feel how much more relaxed your hands are now.
And then the forehead.
We'll start with the eyebrows.
Lift your eyebrows as high as you can,
Breathe in,
Hold them there,
Feel the tension in your forehead,
Breathe out and let go.
And then the eyes.
Squeeze your eyes together,
Breathe in,
Maybe squeeze a little harder if you want,
Breathe out and relax.
Let your face relax,
Let your forehead be relaxed and smooth.
Let your eyelids rest softly.
Your jaw is the next area.
Close your mouth well,
Try not to bite your teeth together too hard but clench your jaw shut.
Press your lips together in front of your teeth.
Breathe in,
Feel that tension,
Hold it for just a moment and then relax while you breathe out.
Let go of all of this tension.
Let your mouth and your jaw be loose and relaxed.
There's one more thing we'll relax today and that's your breathing.
When we get stressed or feel some tension,
Our breathing tends to get a little shallow and faster than usual.
So we'll take a little reset here.
We'll breathe in deeply together and gather as much air in our lungs as we can.
We'll hold it,
We'll hold our breaths and then breathe out.
Let all that air go through your mouth.
Don't be afraid to sigh loudly here,
That can feel quite good.
If you want we can repeat this.
Breathe in deeply,
Hold your breath and let go.
Let that air go,
Sigh and let your whole body relax.
You've relaxed all the key areas in your body where we tend to hold tension.
You can repeat this exercise whenever you want to relax throughout the day.
Thank you for listening.
I hope this recording finds you in good health and hopefully until next time.
More relaxation and meditation exercises are available on my Patreon page where you can get access to all kinds of bonus material for a monthly contribution,
Like the walking meditation we did last week or a meditation on gratitude.
Go to patreon.
Com slash jillialbrecht,
Follow the link in the description or email me at take20minutesatgmail.
Com for more information.
