The progressive muscle relaxation practice.
Let's get our mindful bodies on.
We're lying on our back for this one.
Balanced and symmetrical with your legs out long and your feet relaxing outwards.
Or perhaps you might like to bend your knees and gently knock your knees together to take some pressure off your lower back.
Your palms are open,
Resting by your side.
When you're ready please close your eyes.
And gently remind yourself there's nothing else you need to be doing right now.
This is your time and it's a time to be kind to yourself.
Now bring your attention to your breath.
Just notice it softly flowing in and out of your body.
Perhaps you notice it in your belly or in your chest or flowing past your nose or perhaps a little of each of these areas.
You're just noticing with a gentle curiosity and letting your breath breathe you.
You don't have to do anything.
That's good,
Good.
Now slide your attention all the way down to your toes and your feet.
You might notice some socks resting against your skin.
You might notice your feet resting against the floor or perhaps they're resting against your bed because you're practicing in bed.
Just noticing your feet and on your next in-breath you're going to tighten all those little muscles up in your feet.
Tight.
Scrunching those toes and on your next out-breath letting all those little muscles in your feet soften and loosen.
Relaxing all those little muscles in your feet.
Relaxing and loosening.
Remember when you're tightening your muscles in this exercise you're tightening them gently,
Not too tight.
We don't want to be causing any excess pain or tension.
Now we're going to bring your attention all the way to your legs.
So up a little bit into your calves,
Your knees,
Your thighs,
Your hips and on your next in-breath you're going to tighten all those muscles in your legs.
You might even feel your body slightly lifting off the floor a little with the tightness of those leg muscles and on your next out-breath just letting all those leg muscles relax and loosen.
Relax and loosen.
Letting your legs feel like they're melting a little into the floor.
Now bring your attention to your tummy and on your next in-breath you're going to tighten your tummy like a drum.
Tight,
Tight,
Tight.
Almost like I can bang out a beat on your belly and on your next out-breath just letting your tummy soften and relax.
Softening and loosening all around your tummy and your belly.
I'm just spending a few moments here.
You might notice a slight rise when you breathe in with your belly and a slight fall when you breathe out.
A little bit like when you're inflating a balloon.
So inflating your belly with your in-breath and then deflating your belly with the out-breath.
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
Good.
And now bring your attention to your chest and also take a moment to realize how well you're doing with this progressive muscle relaxation practice.
Be kind to yourself.
Acknowledge what a good job you're doing.
So on your next in-breath see how tight you can make the muscles of your chest and your rib cage.
So your chest feels like a hard barrel,
A wooden barrel,
Tight,
Tight barrel.
And on your breath out letting all those little muscles in between your ribs relax and release.
Softening and loosening all those little intercostal muscles lying between each rib.
Melting any sore or tight bits with each out-breath.
Now bring your attention to your hands and fingers and feel the weight of where they are resting on the floor or the bed.
And on your next in-breath you're going to tighten your hands into fists.
Feeling all the muscles through your hands,
Up through your forearms,
Even all the way up to your upper arms tightening as you tighten your hands into fists.
So your whole arms are tight.
And on your next out-breath just letting all those muscles in your arms relax.
All the little muscles in your fingers and your hands relax and loosen.
Relaxing and loosening all the muscles in your arms,
Your hands and your fingers.
And now bring your attention to your shoulders.
So on your next in-breath you're going to scrunch up or tighten up your shoulders almost like your shoulders are earrings.
You bring them up towards your ears when you tighten them.
And then as you breathe out relaxing those muscles,
Lengthening and loosening.
So your neck lengthens like a giraffe as you relax and loosen all those muscles in your neck and around your shoulders.
Relaxed and long.
And now bring your attention and your focus to your face.
So on your next in-breath you're going to tighten all the little muscles in your face.
Scrunching your eyes,
Tightening your jaw,
Scrunching your face muscles up.
And on your next out-breath letting all those little face muscles relax and release.
Relax and soften.
Almost feels like someone's pouring some warm silky custard over your face and letting all those muscles just flow and relax.
Melting away all the little tight bits.
Remembering to relax your jaw and that warm soft feeling spreading from the top of your head all the way down your neck,
Your chest,
Your shoulders,
Your arms,
Down your torso and your spine,
Down your hips,
Your thighs,
All down your legs,
Past your calf muscles,
All the way to your feet.
All the muscles in your body now relaxed and soft.
And just spending a few moments with your body relaxing,
Releasing.
And as we come towards the end of this practice you might like to take a deeper breath or two.
Help to reactivate and re-energize your body by wiggling your fingers,
Wiggling your toes.
You might like to have a stretch.
When you're ready you can gently open your eyes and go on your way.
Thank you.
