Progressive muscle relaxation.
Sit comfortably either cross legged on the floor or on a chair without leaning back too far.
Ideally your knees should be lower than your buttocks so you may need to prop yourself up with some cushions.
Make sure your phone is off and the lights are dim.
This is your time.
Your time for complete relaxation.
Just let your hands rest loosely in your lap or by your side and close your eyes.
Become aware of your breathing.
Noticing how your abdomen rises and falls with each breath.
Now take a long slow deep breath in from your nose all the way down into your stomach.
Hold the breath for just a moment and then exhale that breath through the mouth.
Allow your breath to carry away all that stress and tension as the air flows out of your lungs.
Take another slow breath in through the nostrils.
Down into your belly hold it for a moment and release the breath through your mouth.
Try and empty your lungs completely with your out breath.
Take a third deep breath in hold and then let it go.
Feel your body has already undergone a change.
The tension in your body has begun to loosen and subside.
Now let your breathing rhythm return back to normal.
Uncontrolled but relaxed.
During this progressive muscle relaxation exercise I'll be asking you to tense various muscles throughout your body.
Please do this without straining.
We don't want you to be in any pain.
Don't need to exert yourself.
Just contract each muscle firmly but gently as you breathe.
If you feel uncomfortable at any time you can simply relax and breathe normally.
The purpose of this exercise is so that you know the difference between when your muscles in different parts of your body are tense and then know how to control and relax those muscles.
So first we want to bring your awareness to your hands.
Clench your fists tight.
Tighten to balls.
Tight as you can.
We want to hold those fists as if you're squeezing a lemon.
And then release your hands.
With them relax.
Notice any feelings of buzzing or throbbing.
Let your hands become very soft and relaxed.
Now we want to focus on your arms.
Hold your wrists and arms straight out in front of you.
Making sure all the muscles in your forearms are tight.
Hold your breath in that contraction.
And then let it go.
Drop your arms back down to your lap.
You may feel a warm sensation in the muscles and feel how relaxing it is to release that tightness and breathe away that tension.
I want you to curl your upper arms against,
Or your wrists up against your shoulders.
So you're trying to touch the tops of your shoulders with your fingertips.
Now clench them,
Your biceps.
Like you're doing a big bicep curl.
Hold it.
And then let your arms go again.
Relax.
Now I want you to draw attention to your shoulder muscles and the muscles in your neck.
As you slowly draw in a deep breath,
Pull your shoulders up towards your ears and squeeze these muscles firmly.
Pull them up,
Keep holding.
And now breathe out completely and let those muscles go loose and limp.
Shoulders down,
Low as they can.
Feeling that tension subside.
Relax and breathe.
I want you to draw the attention to your face and tighten the muscles in your face by squeezing your eyes shut,
Clenching your lips.
As you do,
Breathe in and hold.
And now breathe out and relax your face muscles.
Now bring your awareness to the muscles in your jaw.
We hold a load of tension in our jaw.
So teeth are relaxed,
We're going to go into deep breath.
We hold a load of tension in our jaw.
So take a deep breath in and open your mouth as wide as you can.
Feel your jaw muscles stretching and tightening.
And now exhale and allow your mouth to gently close.
And face nice and soft and loose.
I want you to draw attention to your back.
As you slowly breathe in,
Arch your back slightly and tighten all the muscles going all the way down to your shoulders and back.
Hold.
And then release and let your back muscles relax.
Relax.
Now bring your awareness to your stomach.
Draw in a nice deep breath and then tighten your stomach muscles.
Imagine you're trying to touch your belly button to your spine.
Suck your stomach in.
Suck your stomach in.
Someone might be trying to stand on it to make it really tight.
Now release your breath and let those stomach muscles relax.
Notice a sensation of relief that comes from letting it all go.
Now we want to focus the muscles in your buttocks.
So draw in a deep breath and gradually tighten the muscles in your buttocks.
Squeezing them tight.
Hold this contraction.
And now let them go.
Feel the tension leaving all the muscles.
Feeling them relax completely.
Now we're moving down to the legs.
So I want you to take a deep breath in and tense the muscles in your thighs.
You can do this by straightening your legs out.
Feel those thigh muscles pulling your knee caps upwards.
Hold it for a few moments.
And then let your muscles go.
Feeling the blood flow as your muscles increase.
You might notice a tingling sensation again.
Feeling a relaxation in your thighs.
Now once again we're moving down to your calf muscles.
So draw in a deep breath and tighten your calf muscles.
You might need to flex your feet back.
Hold it for as tight as you can for a few seconds.
And then let it all go.
Feel those calf muscles relaxing and the tension washing away with your out breath.
Now bring your awareness to your feet and toes.
As you breathe in I want you to curl your toes under your feet.
Clenching them as tight as you can.
Hold them for a few seconds more.
Curling those toes.
And then let your feet relax back on the ground.
Feel the tension in your feet wash away as you breathe normally.
And notice how different your feet feel when they're tensed compared to when they're relaxed.
And now we've completely relaxed our body from the top of your head down to the tip of your toes.
So please just take a few more minutes to relax and rest here.
Listen to the sound of your breathing.
Enjoy all the lovely warm sensations we've created just by physically relaxing your body.
Thank you for watching!
