Soften The Tension: Physiological Sigh And Muscle Release

This somatic exercise pairs two well-studied practices: the physiological sigh, a double inhale through the nose followed by a long, slow exhale, and progressive muscle relaxation, where you briefly tense a muscle group and then let it go. You’ll start with a few sighs on their own, picturing a glass of water filling from the bottom, then topped off with a second small inhale, keeping the throat open and nothing strained. Then you’ll add moderate tension in the legs, the arms, and finally the whole body, releasing on each long exhale to soften the tension, with normal breaths in between. This polyvagal-informed practice also draws on research on slowed breathing and muscle relaxation.
Part of the Quick Nervous System Resets series. Tense only to a moderate level, and skip any area that’s painful or injured.

Transcript

We'll start off by inhaling deeply through the nose. Filling the lungs up from the bottom up. And once the lungs feel comfortably full, Take another quick inhale to top it off. Then we'll take a long slow exhale and you can add an audible component perhaps sighing as you exhale trying to relax the body fully on that exhale. And then as I'm talking, Go back to your normal breathing just for the next two to three breaths. So with this physiological inhale, You can imagine like you're pouring water into a cup. And as gravity works, We see that that water fills from the bottom up. So I want you to imagine like that is how you are breathing in, Filling up the lungs from the low diaphragm all the way to the upper quadrant of the lungs. So we'll go ahead and try this again, Inhaling through the nose. Taking another quick breath. And then a long, Slow exhale. And then you can breathe normally. For the next two to three breaths again. We'll go ahead and do this once more. Inhaling deeply in through the nose if possible. And when you top it off on the second inhale, Aim for an open throat. Try not to strain. And then a long, Slow sigh. Ah. And then once again, Returning to the normal. Breath. . . On this next round we're going to start by adding moderate tension. On the inhale. So we'll go ahead and squeeze our legs, Not super, Super tight, But enough. So go ahead on this next inhale when you're ready. Squeeze, Squeeze, Squeezing all the muscle groups in the legs. Top it off with that second inhale. And relax the muscles on that exhale. Feeling that tension just melt away. And then you can shift back into your regular breath pattern. For the next two to three breaths. And then we'll go ahead and add moderate tension in the arms. On this next inhale. When you're ready, Go ahead and take a breath in. Squeezing the arms from your fists all the way up into the shoulders. And top it off with that second inhale. And exhale letting the air out as your muscles relax as well. Dropping back again into the normal breath. The idea here, Why we're not just going into squeeze, Release, Squeeze, Release, Is that we do want this to be down-regulating. We actually don't want to build too much sympathetic tone on the inhales and with that bodily tension, Since we're pairing both. Okay so on this next inhale we're going to squeeze the full body legs arms and then the face When you're ready, Go ahead and squeeze, Breathing in. Squeeze, Squeeze, Squeeze. Top it off with that second inhale. And fully relax the body and that audible sigh ah the exhale Returning to your regular breath. We'll let go of this double inhale, Exhale pattern. And I want you to just feel around in your body, Notice if anything shifted from when you began this practice. And if you'd like we can add one last inhale with full body tension once more. If you're ready, Otherwise you can just stick to your regular calm breath. Go ahead if you'd like to squeeze, Squeeze, Squeeze on the next inhale. Moderate tension. Top off with the second inhale. And exhale. Really melting into wherever you're seated. And we'll end by just enjoying the softness here. Both in the muscle groups as well as softness in the breath.