Tension And Release Relaxation

This practice releases physical tension, increases blood flow, and provides a focus for a wandering mind. We move sequentially through the body from head to toes and side to side, generally 3 times in each, or 1 left, 1 right then both together, and finishing with whole right side, whole left side then whole body head to toes. You can do this is a short practice or take your time as we do in this guided practice.

Transcript

Tension and release is a good practice to do when you're feeling tense.

But also when you're feeling worried or concerned,

When there are things going on in your world that you're kind of gripping on,

That you're having trouble letting go of.

And it's a good practice to let the blood flow more in your body as well.

So if you think about your shoulders being tight like this,

Not much blood flow is getting through there.

So that's one of the reasons why we do relaxation practices,

Is to let our bodies soften so that our physical body can operate a little bit more efficiently.

When we do the tension and release practice,

It's a preparation for yoga nidra practice as well,

Or for meditation.

And it's also a standalone practice that you can do on your own.

It's good for the body and for our whole mind-body on so many levels.

You can do this sitting up,

You can stand up,

You can lie down.

Traditionally these Shavasana practices are done lying down.

And this one involves some movement,

So it's not a stillness practice in that sense.

And I find it's helpful to do something like this for five minutes and then follow it with another practice.

Do it as a standalone or just to do the whole practice really slowly for 15 or 20 minutes.

A lot of different ways that we can do this.

You can focus on the breath and as you're inhaling tighten up,

As you're exhaling release,

Or you can just let the breath be totally in the background and just focus on the tension and release.

Practice your whole body as we get started,

What's happening in your body right now.

What happens generally is our mind goes to the places that are tight and then we have an opportunity to soften them.

That might be happening.

Bring your attention in from the external world,

From other times,

Other places.

We're not blocking it out,

We're just not focusing on it.

And then let your gaze come inward or close your eyes.

Focus your attention on your interior now.

And let's start with a very slight level of tension through the whole body from head to toes.

As you inhale some contraction into your whole body from head to toes.

Not too hard.

And then exhale,

Let it release.

Let's do that a couple more times.

Bring your whole body into a bit of a tension.

Arms and legs,

Front and back,

Face.

And then release that.

And then again,

Contract your whole body,

Head to toes.

And release.

What we're looking for in this practice isn't a really tight,

Tight contraction.

It's just the minimum amount of contraction that would let us really tune into that part of the body.

When you're doing your forehead,

It's a very slight frown,

A little bit of tension around the corners of the eyes,

But it's not this kind of hard gripping.

So lift your forehead,

Your eyebrows up for a moment,

And then bring your attention back into your face.

And then as you inhale,

Contract a little bit through your eyebrows,

Forehead,

The corners of your eyes.

And then lift your eyebrows and exhale,

Soften.

Contract a little bit,

Forehead,

Eyebrows,

Corners of your eyes.

Lift your eyebrows up and then release and soften your forehead.

And then again,

Slight tension through your forehead,

Eyebrows,

And eyes.

Notice what's happening with the rest of your face,

Your mouth.

And then release.

And take a few breaths here,

Really just to notice what does it feel like as you soften now.

The forehead really is connected with worry and anxiety.

If we can relax and soften the forehead,

Often our worries move to the background.

We can experience a bit of a rest from them.

Bring your attention to your mouth and jaw,

What's happening in your mouth and jaw.

And first,

Notice your hinges of your jaw,

And that you need to have a bit of space between your upper jaw and lower jaw,

So that your teeth aren't touching,

You're not clenching your teeth.

As we're doing this practice,

Clench your jaw but not your teeth.

Bring some tension,

Very light tension into your jaw.

And then release.

See if you can keep your forehead soft as you do your jaw.

And then tense through your jaw,

Your mouth,

Your corners of your lips.

And relax.

And again,

A slight tension through your jaw,

Your mouth,

Your lips.

And release.

Now notice your whole face,

Forehead and eyebrows,

Eyes,

Mouth and jaw.

And then keeping that lightness in the face,

We're going to work with the neck and shoulders now.

Bring a little bit of tension into your shoulders,

Bring them up a little bit.

Let's do the sides of the neck.

Hold that for a moment,

Soften your face,

And then release your shoulders,

Let them come back down away from your ears.

And then a little bit of tension,

Tighten your shoulders,

Sides of your neck.

And relax.

And lift your shoulders a bit,

Tighten through your shoulders,

The sides of your neck,

Face soft.

And release.

And then bring your attention to the muscles of your chest and bring your shoulder blades a little bit away from each other at the back and tighten the muscles of the chest,

The pectoral muscles.

And then release.

And then bring your shoulder blades together at the back,

Tighten the muscles around the shoulder blades at the back,

Your whole upper back,

Soft through your face.

And release.

Again,

Tighten through the front.

Release.

Through the back.

All those muscles that cover the shoulder blades.

And then release.

Take a few deep breaths,

Soft again through your face,

Your chest,

Your upper back.

Now bring attention to your left hand and with a very light fist,

Bring some tension through your left hand,

Lower arm,

Upper arm,

Your left shoulder,

Left side of your neck,

Left side of your face.

Exhale,

Let that release.

Let the tension come out from the other direction,

From the face,

Side of the neck,

Shoulder,

Upper arm,

Lower arm,

Your hands and fingers.

And we'll do the same on the right side.

Very light tension in the right fist,

Lower arm,

Upper arm,

The right neck,

The right side of the face.

And then release in the opposite direction from the face through the neck and shoulder.

Now through your arm,

Hand,

Finger,

Fingertips.

And now do both hands,

Light fists,

Lower arms,

Upper arms,

Shoulders,

Sides of the neck,

The face.

Exhale.

Release.

All the way down through the face and sides of the neck,

Shoulders,

Arms,

Hands,

Fingers,

Fingertips.

Let's do that a few times.

Inhale,

Light fists,

Lower arms,

Upper arms,

Sides of the neck,

Both sides of the face,

And then release on the exhale.

You can sigh,

Open your mouth if you want on the exhale.

Deep breaths in.

And one more time,

The whole of your upper body.

So the hands,

Lower arms,

Upper arms,

Chest and back,

Neck and face.

And release.

And let's bring our attention now to the lower part of the body,

To the feet.

Starting with your right toes,

Curl your toes under very lightly,

Punch your right foot,

Your right calf muscle,

Front and the back of your right thigh,

Your right side buttock.

And hold on to that for a moment while you breathe,

And then on an exhalation,

Let the buttock go,

The thigh,

Lower leg,

The foot and the toes.

You're rolling the tension up and then you're letting it release,

Rolling it down.

The same on the left side,

Left toes,

Foot,

Left calf,

The front and back of the left thigh,

Left buttock.

And breathe for a moment,

Relax your whole upper body still.

Exhale and release from the buttock,

The thigh,

The calf,

The foot,

The toes.

And now both feet together,

Curl the toes,

Quench the feet very lightly,

Calf muscles,

Front of the thighs,

Back of the thighs,

Buttocks.

Breathe.

And then on an exhale,

Let that release.

Pull out your toes,

Stretch your feet if you want.

Take some breaths.

Notice now when you do a body scan,

What is drawing your attention in your body?

There's no right or wrong answer to that,

It could be anything.

Now let's work with the left side of the body,

Starting with the foot to the left side of the leg,

Up through the hip,

The left side of your chest and upper back,

The left arm and hand,

Left side of your neck and face.

Relax your right side as much as you can.

And then release,

Let it all relax.

And then the whole right side of the body,

The right foot and leg,

Up through the right side of the hip,

The right side of the chest and back,

The right arm,

Neck and shoulder,

Right side of the face.

And release.

And of course we can't perfectly relax the rest of the body.

We're not expecting that.

Just as much as you can.

Relax and soft all the way through the body and then starting from the feet,

Both legs,

To the hips,

The front and back of the chest,

The arms,

Sides of the neck,

The face.

And then release.

Take deep breaths.

Now bring your attention to your breath at your navel center and as you breathe in,

Let your body relax and as you breathe out,

Tighten up through the muscles of your stomach area.

And do that for a few breaths.

Tighten on the exhale,

Counter to what we usually do and then release on the inhale.

Tighten your stomach muscles as you breathe out,

Bring your belly back to your spine and then release.

And then see if you can do like a rolling tightening from the lower part of the belly right at your pubic bone.

So exhale,

Tighten through the lower belly,

The navel center and then the stomach area under the rib cage and then reverse it in the other direction.

Release the stomach area,

Navel center and lower belly.

And if you're not used to it,

It might kind of operate all as one.

Just see,

Experiment with it,

See what happens.

So tighten from the lower belly then through the navel center and then the upper part of the stomach area and then release in the other direction.

Soft through the face,

Neck and shoulders,

Arms and legs.

And again,

Tighten on the exhale,

Squeeze the lower belly,

Navel center,

Stomach area and then release.

Notice your whole body now from head to toes.

On the inhale,

Tighten your whole body just very gently,

Head to toes,

Whole body at once.

And then relax and let that go.

Again,

The whole body tightening up and let it go.

And again,

The whole of your body.

And release.

And notice what it is that it feels like you want to do next.

If you wanted,

You could stand up and do some shaking.

You could do some gentle stretching.

You could stay still.

Notice the body often feels more alive.

We've had this squeeze and release going on,

The massaging.

The blood flow starts to be a little bit easier,

Especially as our muscles soften.

But even if our body's not completely relaxed,

We've had that squeeze and release in all the different parts of the body.

And as we're finishing the practice,

Come into a sense of appreciation.

Appreciation for your body,

The difficult working conditions that stress creates.

Acknowledge that you were able to be here and do this practice today.

It's a lovely thing to do for our bodies and in our bodies with our bodies.

Bring your attention to your heart for a moment.

Attune to this goodwill,

Goodwill in our hearts.

Let your whole body be soft,

Easily breathing.

And then when you're ready,

Open your eyes.

Reviews

Your approach to this exercise was incredibly helpful for me- the instruction to create a small amount of tension really deepened my focus and ability to feel the release. Total game changer, thank you.