Progressive Muscle Relaxation

This guided progressive muscle relaxation practice is designed to help you cultivate greater body awareness and ease you into a state of deep relaxation and peace. It has been written and recorded by Emma Gray, a clinical psychologist, coach, meditation teacher.

Transcript

Starting by finding a comfortable position either sitting or lying down and you can do this exercise either with eyes closed or eyes open whichever you prefer starting by bringing your attention into the toes on your left foot and squeezing those toes as tightly as you can really crunching up the toes really tightening and tensing all of those muscles in the toes on the left foot and then gently releasing and now flexing the foot bringing the toes up towards you so you feel tightness in your calf and your shin tensing the lower left leg tensing the foot muscles on that left side really squeezing them holding them tensing them as tightly as you can holding and then releasing allowing the left foot to relax noticing any sensations you might feel now in the left foot or the lower left leg any sensations of warmth or tingling or energy moving and repeating again now on that left side flexing the foot bringing the toes up towards you this time seeing if you can lift the left leg to include the thigh muscles now really tensing those thigh muscles tensing the shin tensing the calf flexing that foot really squeezing and holding all of the muscles in that left leg holding it as tightly tightly tightly as you can really holding and squeezing all of those muscles and then letting go and allowing the whole leg just to flop noticing again any sensations in that left leg and seeing if the left leg feels differently from the right now just noticing the sensations that might be there and now bringing awareness to the toes on the right foot and squeezing those toes up as tightly as you can really crunching up the toes squeezing them as tightly tightly tightly as you can and then releasing and then flexing that right foot bringing the toes up towards you feeling the tension in the lower left leg in the calf and the shin really flexing that foot bring those toes up towards you as high as you can and then releasing allowing those muscles to let go noticing any sensations that might be there now in the force and the lower leg noticing any sense of energy moving and repeating again tensing up the muscles in that right leg flexing the foot bringing the toes up towards you this time including the thigh muscles if you can lifting that right leg squeezing and tensing all of the muscles in the thigh in the calf in the shin in the foot squeezing the left leg holding all of those muscles as tightly as you can really squeezing and holding and then allowing the whole foot and leg just to let go allowing the leg just a flop and release observing the sensations there in the right leg and expanding awareness to include both legs now just noticing if there's any sense of lightness or heaviness warmth energy moving what can you notice there in the legs now and now bringing awareness to the buttocks the pelvic area the belly and squeezing all of those muscles as tightly as you can really holding them in squeezing and tensing tightening all of those muscles and holding them for a moment and then releasing and letting go and bringing awareness now to the fingers on the right hand and squeezing those fingers up making a fist with the right hand squeezing all of those muscles as tightly as you can squeezing squeezing squeezing and then releasing noticing if it's hard to open the fingers after they've been squeezed noticing any sensations of heat or tingling in the right hand and repeating again making a fist this time including all of the muscles in the lower right arm squeezing up the muscles in the forearm squeezing the fingers really tensing up those muscles and then releasing and this time repeating with the whole right arm including the upper arm now squeezing the bicep the tricep the lower forearm the fingers making a fist holding that arm out squeezing and tensing all of the muscles in the right arm holding it all as tightly as you can and then letting the arm flop down heavily releasing letting go noticing any sensations in the right arm seeing if it feels different now to the left arm what can you notice and bringing awareness now to the left hand squeezing the fingers making a fist really tensing up that left hand as tightly as you can squeezing the fingers in and then releasing gently unfolding the fingers noticing the heat there in and repeating again making a fist with the left hand and this time including the muscles in the lower left arm squeezing the fingers squeezing that lower left arm tensing the muscles as tightly as you can and releasing letting go now lifting the whole left arm up squeezing and tensing all of the muscles in the left arm squeezing the fingers the lower arm the upper arm holding that arm squeezing the fingers really tensing all of the muscles in that arm holding it as tightly as you can squeezing tensing holding and then allowing the whole arm to flop to let go I'm just noticing what sensations you can notice now in that left arm bringing awareness to both arms that feel heavy or light any sensation of warmth or tingling energy moving what can you notice allowing awareness to come now to the shoulders and squeezing the shoulders up towards the ears lifting the shoulders up as high as you can seeing if you can get them up towards the ears really squeezing those shoulders scrunching the shoulders up as high as you can squeezing and squeezing and then allowing the shoulders just to flop down heavily letting go noticing the sensations of warmth across the shoulders and repeating again squeezing the shoulders up towards the ears like crunching those shoulders up as high as you can and squeezing and holding those muscles there in the shoulders and then again just allowing them to flop really letting them go noticing the sensations there across the shoulders feeling the warmth or heat feeling the energy moving just observing what you can notice there in the shoulders now now bringing awareness to the jaw and clenching the jaw really squeezing that jaw as tightly as you can squeezing the jaw tensing up that jaw really holding it in tightly and then releasing and letting go allowing the jaw to go slack and repeating again this time including the whole face he's clenching those facial muscles squeezing the eyes tightly shut squeezing squeezing the whole face now clenching the jaw the eye muscles the tongue holding that face in as tightly tightly tightly as you can he's squeezing it all tightly shut and then letting go releasing allowing those muscles to soften noticing any sensations there in the face as you let go and now allowing your awareness to expand to include the whole body now noticing any sensations if there's a sense of lightness or heaviness warm tingling energy moving what can you notice in your body now and just taking a few moments to breathe to notice the breath moving in and out through the nostrils and to notice the gentle rise and fall of the belly and you might like to continue following the breath for as long as feels good for you can do this with your eyes closed or open taking your time and whenever you feel ready can gently open your eyes and bring your awareness back into the room

Reviews

This helped prepare me for a very restful sleep. Thank you :)