Welcome to this Progressive Muscle Relaxation Meditation.
I'm Chantal.
Take a moment to settle into a comfortable position.
Close your eyes if it's comfortable to do so.
Begin by taking a deep breath and noticing the feeling of air filling your lungs.
Hold your breath for a few seconds and then release the breath slowly,
Allowing the tension to leave your body.
Take in another deep breath and hold.
Again,
Slowly expelling the air.
Hold for a moment and now even slower,
Take another breath,
Filling your lungs completely,
Holding and now slowly releasing the breath,
Feeling the tension leaving your body.
Now take your focus to your neck and head.
Tense your face and your neck by scrunching up the muscles around your eyes and mouth.
Hold and as you exhale,
Release the tension.
As you do so,
Notice the new feeling of relaxation.
When you're ready,
Move down to your arms and shoulders,
All the way down to your hands,
Tensing all the muscles.
Hold as you exhale,
Releasing the tension,
Feeling it leaving your body.
And notice the feeling of relaxation in your fingers,
Hands,
Arms and shoulders.
Notice how your arms are starting to feel heavy and at ease.
When you're ready,
Taking your focus to your back,
Bringing your shoulders up behind you,
Tensing them up around your ears.
Hold tightly,
Hold your whole back as hard as you can without straining.
Just keep holding and when you're ready,
As you exhale,
Release the tension from your back,
Feeling the tension slowly leaving your body and feeling a wonderful feeling of relaxation.
Noticing how different your body feels when you allow it to relax.
When you're ready,
Focus now on your stomach and chest.
Now on your stomach and chest,
Begin to tense that part of your body.
You can do this by sucking your stomach in,
Holding a little bit longer and releasing the tension as you exhale,
Feeling your body now going limp,
Relaxing.
Continue taking deep breaths,
Breathing in slowly,
Noticing the air fill your lungs.
Hold,
Releasing the air slowly as you feel the air leaving your lungs.
Next,
Take your focus to your upper legs,
Tensing the muscles and pelvis.
You can do this by tightly squeezing your thighs together.
Again,
Make sure they feel tense without going to the point of strain.
And when you're ready,
Fully release tension,
Leaving your muscles.
Continue taking deep breaths,
Enjoying how your body is now feeling,
Feeling more relaxed,
More at ease,
You're feeling more present.
Next,
Take your focus to your lower legs,
Tensing the muscles in your calves.
Hold tightly and paying attention to the feeling of any tension there that's been held there.
And as you exhale,
Feeling the tension releasing,
Noticing the feeling of relaxation you're now creating,
Breathing deeply,
Breathing out tension.
Now move your attention to your feet.
Begin to tense your feet by curling your toes and the arch of your foot,
Holding on to that tension,
Noticing what does it feel like when you do that.
When you're ready,
Releasing tension from your feet as you exhale and noticing the wonderful new feeling of relaxation.
Finally,
Now you're going to tense your entire body,
So starting from your head,
Just going all the way down,
Tensing without straining,
Holding on to the tension for a moment,
Now releasing,
Allowing your body to fully let go,
Becoming aware of how relaxed you're now feeling.
A few moments to simply be,
Breathing deeply,
Paying attention to the sensation of relaxation throughout the whole of your body and how different it is from the feeling of tension.
Now we'll slowly bring you back into the present moment and to do so,
Begin to wake your body by slowly moving all your muscles,
Stretching your body and opening your eyes.
Namaste.
