Why I Like Progressive Muscle Relaxation - A Talk

In this brief podcast-like talk, I talk about the three reasons why Progressive Muscle Relaxation can work for you in a light-hearted and concise format.
In our time together we will cover: 1) Confronting the fear of pain/tension, 2) Reprograming our tension "set-point", and 3) Calming the mind by way of the body.

Thanks for joining me!

Transcript

Hi,

Insight Timer.

It's Dr.

Adam Bledsoe here,

And I'm here to tell you a little bit about progressive muscle relaxation and why I like it.

So first of all,

What is progressive muscle relaxation?

It's a process where you systematically go through the body,

Contracting and relaxing muscles in your body,

And then allowing the relaxation to follow.

Now,

Why does it work?

It works because really the opposite of a contraction is a relaxation.

And so often the tension that we hold in our body is actually just a set point.

In other words,

Over the duration of our life,

We've accumulated stress and tension to the degree that our muscles are in a holding pattern of readiness that has become like a thermometer,

Like a set point in our body.

So a certain amount of tension is being held.

So often stretching or activities that are meant to relieve our muscles are a set point in our body.

So often stretching or activities that are muscles like massage,

They may work for a moment,

But they don't really last for very long.

So what do we really need to do?

We need to reset our set point for how we hold our muscles day to day and how our body and nervous system respond to stressors and what they send to our muscles.

In other words,

Do our muscles tense up every time we become stressed?

And so can we break that cycle a little bit by reprogramming the brain?

Yeah,

We can.

So let me tell you the three reasons why I like progressive muscle relaxation for you.

So the first way is what I just spoke about there is that the opposite of a contraction is a relaxation.

So when we have tight muscles,

Our thought is that we need to relax them,

Release them,

Stretch them,

Pull them,

Massage them,

Et cetera.

But what we really need to do is we need to go through the cycle of contract,

Relax in order to cue the brain to reset.

So when we contract the muscles really tightly,

As tightly as we are in our body,

We need to relax.

So when we have tight muscles,

We need to relax.

So when we are comfortable doing,

Then our body's natural next step is to create a relaxation.

And especially if we make some room for that in sort of a meditative or a calm environment,

Maybe where we're lying down and we're warm and we're not rushing to go anywhere,

We can start to teach the brain what it is to hold a relaxed tone in our muscles.

Often in our daily life,

We kind of have a go approach.

Our nervous system has an approach that we use to activate.

And we have the opposite approach of sort of calming down.

Our active approach,

Our go approach,

The one that might be stimulated by the sympathetic nervous system,

Sort of our fight-flight activation mode,

That tends to come with a certain profile in our body.

And sometimes that profile comes with muscle tension that's just above what's necessary.

So if we can reprogram our activated muscle tension,

That way we can approach the world a little bit more gently,

But still be engaged.

So we don't need to be in a sleepy or overtly calm state in order to have calm muscles.

We can be activated with relaxed muscles.

And the only way to do that is to change the set point.

If we repeat progressive muscle relaxation over and over a number of times and really embody it,

Then we can start to bring an engaged,

Relaxed approach,

Which is going to be more connective,

More creative,

And more calm for us.

So to summarize that one,

I love it because the opposite of a contraction is a relaxation.

And this is a more efficient way to create long lasting calm in our body than all the other techniques that we use to relax our muscles.

Number two,

The second reason why I love progressive muscle relaxation is because it confronts the fear around pain or tension.

So common,

What I find is people are sort of afraid to activate into tension or afraid to activate into pain.

Or tightness,

Because they're worried about spasming or straining or creating a pain that lasts a long time and causes them not to be able to do the things they love to do.

So this is a way that we can use our mind to confront the fear and the tension and the threat around the tightness and or the pain in our muscles.

Let me explain how it works.

So with every state or physiology,

So with every muscle tightness,

It becomes a brain awareness as well.

So an emotion and a thought,

A belief around it.

And often when there's tightness or pain,

Or maybe there's been a former injury,

Or we've become tight around a certain occasion or experience in our life,

We're in a sense afraid to confront it for fear that it will re-trigger.

And the only way to get that tension to go away is to decrease the threat or fear around it.

So by using progressive muscle relaxation,

We can gently lean into the tension with awareness,

With mindfulness,

With choice,

In such a way that we can over time diffuse the fear so that the brain is then ready to let go of the tension.

And the way we do that is very simple.

In a progressive muscle relaxation practice,

You'll be inclined to contract a muscle.

And here's the key.

You'll be,

You'll be inclined to contract the muscle as tightly as you can.

Now,

At the beginning,

If you have pain,

If you have chronic pain,

If you have fatigue,

Fibromyalgia,

Chronic fatigue syndrome,

Or some other condition that makes it hard or makes it challenging for you,

Or you carry a lot of tension because of it,

Then you can contract at the level that you're currently comfortable contracting at.

So let's just imagine that ideally you would want to contract at a 10 out of 10.

You would contract your muscles as tightly as possible,

But maybe you're just beginning and maybe you've got a reason to go slow.

So you might contract your muscles at,

Let's say a one or a two out of 10,

And then just simply let them relax to the degree that they do.

Spend some time in that state.

So you have the opportunity to embody that new state and allow your body to become comfortable with it,

With the idea of contracting at a two or one at a 10,

Or maybe a little more.

And then what your brain does slowly but surely is it rewires that whole pattern and basically says to you,

Hey,

Contracting at a two out of 10 is okay.

And being this level of relaxed is also okay.

So it takes that off of the fear.

It takes the threat away from the whole process.

And as you repeat it over time,

You can find ways to contract more assertively.

At a three or four or five out of 10 and help your nervous system become more comfortable around the fear or the threat of contracting into your pain.

This has the effect of calming down the muscle.

And as the muscle calms,

It now tells your brain that you are safe.

So now we got this beautiful feedback loop happening where it is safe to contract into tight muscles and therefore your tight muscles can relax.

This leads us into number three,

Bottom up calming.

So there's a distinction in our,

In neurology,

In therapy,

Where we have two sort of ways of approaching something.

One is what we call top down.

It's when we use our conscious mind to create some sort of change or to focus on something.

And that then has an effect into the body.

So the mind,

The top affects the body,

The bottom,

But we can go the other way.

Sometimes when our mind is running really,

Really slow,

We can go the other way.

We can go the other way.

Quickly,

We're feeling anxious or scattered and we're all over the place.

And we have a really hard time focusing.

A top down approach may be kind of challenging or really challenging at that.

Sometimes trauma makes it hard to focus on things,

That kind of thing,

Or a stressful occasion makes it really hard.

So there's a much safer entryway.

That safer way is going from the bottom up.

In other words,

Using the body to affect the mind.

So in this case,

Progressive muscle relaxation is a very important part of the process.

So we're going to go the other way.

So by performing progressive muscle relaxation,

Contracting and relaxing our muscles,

And then simply observing the outcome,

Our mind starts to follow.

By relaxing the muscles,

We relax the brain.

And by relaxing the brain,

We relax the mind.

And then that whole cycle starts to go calmly in that direction.

And that lovely,

Lovely,

Lovely,

Lovely,

Lovely,

Lovely,

Feedback loop we spoke about a while ago,

Starts to settle.

And now everybody starts to mellow and calm.

So that way you can have access to your mind again,

And your brain can start and reset.

So by entering through the body,

Through progressive muscle relaxation,

Which is mostly a somatic or body-based practice,

You can then calm the mind and you can achieve that relaxation you're looking for during times that are mentally or stress,

Stressfully oriented towards the mind.

So those are the three reasons why I love progressive muscle relaxation.

It helps you confront the fear around contracting into pain or tightness.

The using the feedback loop of contracting muscles can then start to relax the nervous system,

Which can become your new set point.

And lastly,

It's a new door to calm the mind by simply entering through the bottom or the body.

Thanks so much for hanging out with me and listening.

I hope you meditate well.

This is Dr.

Adam Bledsoe,

And I'll see you soon.

Reviews

Informative and inspiring point of view. Thank you.