Progressive Muscle Relaxation For Beginners

Progressive muscle relaxation is an effective way to relax your body and help it stay more relaxed.
In the brief meditation, you'll contract and relax your muscles - at your comfort level - and feel as your body melts.
This practice breaks the body up into 6 segments of relaxations; legs (2), arms (2), trunk, and head/neck.

Transcript

Welcome to this short progressive muscle relaxation exercise. My name is Dr. Adam Bledsoe and I'm so happy to guide you through this. Begin by getting as comfortable as possible. Often you'll lie down. You might get a blanket, Some pillows. You may be seated. Find a comfortable way to relax. Begin by first welcoming yourself to this opportunity and allowing yourself to experience whatever comes with it. Noticing your thoughts, Your feelings, And the sensations that you bring to this experience and recognizing that we don't need to change them or get rid of them. We're just going to focus on something new for a moment. In this practice we're going to use the clenching and relaxation of muscles to help our body relax so our mind, Body, And nervous system can all settle for a moment. You only have to contract as firmly or as hard as you'd like to and then just simply noticing the relaxation that follows because the opposite of a contraction is a relaxation and when our muscles get tight we have to find a way to relax them and we can use this technique to do that. We're going to do it in six easy steps. We're going to go the left leg, Right leg, Left arm, Right arm, Our trunk, And our head and neck. Let's begin. In whatever position you're in allow yourself to notice the surface that supports you. In your mind's eye take a little walk along every point of contact between your body and that surface and allow yourself to give over to that surface. You don't have to hold any extra tension right now. Noticing the ambient noise in the room or the noise coming from outside of the room and then just bring your attention to your breath. Simply noticing the rhythmic inhale and exhale. Allowing your body to do that for you. You don't have to control it right now. What I'll have you do is contract all the muscles in your left leg. Point your toe, Straighten your knee, Squeeze all the muscles, Curl your toes, Straighten your ankle. Contract those muscles as firmly as you're comfortable doing and hold it for a moment. Take a nice easy quiet inhalation and on the exhalation relax all those muscles and come to rest. Now feel the sensation in the muscles in your left leg as you come to rest and simply allow it to occur. Feel the heaviness and the warmth that begin to arrive. Let's repeat it one more time. Straightening out your knee, Making all the muscles in your thighs tight, Pointing your toes, Your ankle, Squeezing as firmly as you're comfortable. Inhale gently and with exhale relax the muscles in your left leg. Simply observing the relaxation that follows. And now we'll do the same in the right leg. Contracting all the muscles in your right leg, Squeezing your hips, Your thighs, Your calves and your feet. Take a quiet inhalation and with your slow calm exhalation relaxing the muscles in your right leg and coming to rest. Enjoying and embracing the sensations that follow. And now repeating the same thing. Contracting your right hip, Your right thigh, Your right calf and lower leg, Your right foot. Take a gentle sip of air and exhale slowly and allow the muscles and your mind to let go. Now moving up to the left arm. Contract your shoulder muscles, Your upper arm, Your biceps and triceps, Your forearm. You can make a fist or you can open your hand wide. Squeeze it all so tightly. Contract those muscles as you take a sip of air in and as you exhale let the arm go loose and rest. Welcoming the wave of relaxation that's starting to fall over the body. And as we begin again, Contracting the shoulder muscles, The upper arm muscles, The forearm, The hand. Squeezing tightly, Sipping that air in quietly and exhale as you relax the muscles and allow them to let go of any extra tension that you've been holding. Now moving over to the right arm. Begin by squeezing the shoulder muscles tightly, The upper arm, Triceps and biceps. Making a fist or opening the hand tight and feeling the tension in your forearm muscles, In your fingers, In your hand. Sipping the air in and then exhaling and relaxing the muscles as you slowly start to slip deeper and deeper into relaxation. Becoming heavier and heavier into the surface that supports you. And again for the right arm, Squeezing the shoulder muscles, The chest muscles, The lats, The upper arm, The forearm, The hand and the fingers. Squeezing it all gently or firmly. Breathing in and with that slow sigh of an exhale, Relaxing all the muscles in your right arm and allowing the rest of the body to continue to relax and let go. Each contraction and relaxation taking you deeper into that rest, That heaviness, That warm, Healing relaxation. And now the trunk. We're going to contract our abdominal muscles, Our lower back muscles. Squeezing everything in tightly, Bringing your arms to your sides, Feeling all the muscles on your trunk contracting. Sipping the air in and then as you exhale, Deflating gently like a balloon as you come to rest, Taking up more space, Allowing your body to become wider and more full. Inhabiting all the space within, Allowing the peace and calm to begin to take over. And again, Contracting your abdominal muscles, Your lower back muscles, Your side muscles, Your lats, The arm muscles, Everything contracting inward towards the belly button. Breathing in and exhaling and rest. And last, The head and neck. Closing the eyes tightly, Squeezing the lips together, The teeth, Bringing your chin into your chest to contract the neck muscles. You might even hike your shoulders up towards your ears and squeeze, Holding that squeeze while you take a breath in. And as you exhale, Just allowing yourself to fall into relaxation, Being caught by the surface below you. And last, One more for the head and neck. Squeeze the eyes closed, The lips closed, The jaw. Tighten the ears, Tighten the shoulders, Bring the neck into the body. Squeeze firmly, Breathing in, Relaxing and letting a wave of relaxation flow from head to toe. If this progressive muscle relaxation was intended to help you drift off to sleep, Just allow yourself to go there now. If you're intending to take on and head back to your day, Slowly open your eyes, Take a breath in and notice the environment around you and feel the relaxation that you bring to the remainder of your day. May that allow you to feel creative, Engaged and connected. Thanks so much for meditating with me. My name is Dr. Adam Bledsoe and I'll see you soon.

Reviews

This was different, and a welcome way to relax the body in a relaxed way. I enjoyed the narration too. Thank you. 🙏🏽

That was very helpful, thank you 💜

Very relaxing!

Helpful, esp. After listening to your 10minutes introduction.
I did the exercise sitting in a chair.
I noticed some area in my body where I could not let good the tension.
Like my jaw muscles and my gluteus.
More to explore.
A really nice approach after practising yoga nidra for a few years following different lineages.
Thanks again!

Sigh. I found the teacher’s voice soothing. I appreciated that they let me know at the beginning what to expect regarding different quadrants of the body. And I appreciated the suggestion to allow my trunk to expand as I relaxed. Thank you so much for offering this.