A very warm welcome to this guided progressive muscle relaxation.
You can use it just as a one-off to help you relax and release tension,
Or if you listen to it regularly,
Your mind and body will start to automatically release tension during the day,
Helping you to feel more relaxed all of the time.
And who wouldn't want that?
This exercise provides us with a nice,
Clear distinction between man-hour muscles at tense and when they're relaxed,
And in a moment I'll talk you through the main muscle groups in your body,
And we'll go through and gently tense and release each one in turn.
This only needs to be a gentle squeeze,
Just enough to feel a slight tightness,
And if you have any pain or discomfort in any part of your body,
Then just focus on the releasing part of the exercise for that body part,
Rather than tensing around it.
Okay then,
It's time to relax.
So coming to find a comfortable position,
Either sitting or lying on a yoga mat or your bed,
And if you're lying down,
Just having your hands rest loosely by your sides,
Allowing your feet to fall apart,
And if you're sitting,
Just coming into a comfortable upright posture,
Feet flat on the floor,
And just letting your arms and legs be uncrossed.
You can have your eyes open or closed,
Whichever feels most calming for you,
And allowing your mouth to close if it's comfortable to do so.
And then just allowing your whole body to breathe naturally throughout the exercise.
There's no need to take any big deep breaths.
Just let your breathing be soft,
Quiet and relaxed.
So beginning by just noticing the weight of your body,
The feel of contact with whatever you're sitting or lying on,
Feeling the contact points between the back of the body and the chair or the bed or the floor.
You might notice the pull of gravity and the feel of the weight of the body.
And then when you're ready,
Just slowly allowing the spotlight of your attention to begin to drift down through the body,
Down through the legs and all the way to your feet and toes.
And perhaps just wiggling your toes to say hello to them.
And then beginning with the feet,
Gently scrunching up your toes and just noticing any tension around the toes and across the top of the feet.
Just holding that for a moment and then releasing,
Letting the feet and the toes be soft and relaxed and noticing the difference in sensation as you relax those muscles.
And now remaining with the feet,
Just pressing your heels into the floor,
Your toes pointing towards the ceiling so that you can feel slight tightness around the ankle and up the shin.
Just holding that for a moment,
Noticing how it feels and then letting it go.
Let the feet and the heels relax.
And once again,
Just noticing how different that feels.
And then moving up now to the knees and just pulling the knees together to tense the muscles in the inner thigh,
Just keeping the knee tight for a moment and just focusing on how that feels,
Holding it and then letting it go,
Letting the knees and the thighs be soft and relaxed and just observing the difference in how that feels.
And then squeezing the buttocks now,
Tensing and tightening the backs of the thighs and the buttocks,
Just focusing on that,
Holding it and then letting it go,
Letting the buttocks release,
Letting the thighs release and just noticing the change in sensation once again.
So we've now loosened all of the main muscles in the legs and you might notice that your legs feel a little bit different,
Maybe slightly heavier or lighter.
And we're going to move on up to the upper body.
So when you're ready,
Pulling in your stomach,
Tightening the abdominal muscles,
Just holding that for a few seconds,
Paying attention to how it feels and then now releasing,
Letting the stomach go,
Letting your belly be soft like jelly.
For the arms,
We'll start by clenching the hands into a fist,
Not too tight,
Just enough to feel a tension in the lower part of the arm between the wrist and the elbow.
So doing that now,
Holding that tension in the lower arm and then releasing,
Letting the fingers and the hands relax and allowing the tension to flow out of the arm.
As we move up the arm,
Just bringing your elbows to your waist,
Squeezing your body between the upper arms and just noticing the tension between the elbow and the shoulder in the upper arm,
Making sure that the hands stay loose and relaxed,
Holding that tension in the upper arms for a moment and then releasing,
Letting the whole of the arms and the hands be soft and relaxed.
Now the shoulders and the back of the neck are areas where we often carry a lot of tension,
Sometimes without realising it.
Luckily,
These muscles are relatively easy to release.
So now bringing your shoulders up towards your ears in a shrugging movement,
Holding that tension for a moment and then just letting the shoulders drop back down,
Letting them soften,
Relaxing all the way down,
Perhaps noticing how much lower they sit when they're more relaxed.
So moving up into the neck and the throat now,
And the inner throat we can tense by gently pushing the tongue to the roof of the mouth,
So gently pushing against the roof,
Holding that for a moment,
Noticing how that feels and then releasing the tongue,
Letting the tongue fall back down and just noticing the difference in how that feels.
For this next one,
Just going really gently,
So when you're ready,
Beginning by clenching the teeth,
Slowly pulling the mouth into a wide grin and just feeling the jaw and the face around the mouth begin to tense and tighten,
Holding that for a moment and then releasing,
Letting the whole of your lower face soften and relax.
And then moving up into the face,
Gently screwing up the eyes,
Not too tight,
Just enough to feel a tightness around the eyes and the lower forehead,
Noticing how that feels and then releasing,
Letting your eyes and your lower forehead soften and relax.
And for the upper forehead,
Raising the eyebrows up towards the ceiling,
You'll start to feel a little bit of tension in the upper forehead,
Just gently holding that,
Noticing how it feels and then relaxing,
Letting it go,
Letting the eyes and the forehead soften and relax.
Now let's tense up the whole body,
So from your feet to your head,
We'll tense up every muscle group we've focused upon,
The feet,
The legs,
Buttocks,
Belly,
Shoulders,
Arms and hands,
The whole face,
Holding this full body tension,
Feeling the energy in your tensed muscles and then now releasing,
Letting every muscle in your body relax and unwind,
Just feeling a wave of relaxation washing over you from head to toe.
And as you sit or lie here,
Just noticing how your body feels,
Taking a moment to savour any feelings of calm or relaxation that might be here and then perhaps coming back to the feel of the weight of your body on the chair or the floor,
The pull of gravity,
And let's slowly begin to ease back into movement.
So just gently beginning to stretch into the body,
Wiggling your fingers and toes and just moving or stretching in whatever way feels satisfying,
Gently blinking the eyes open.
Thanks so much for relaxing with me today.
And I wish you all the best.
Thank you.
