Progressive Muscle Relaxation

A more active meditation practice that helps break the anxiety feedback coming from the body to the brain. Used for years within the NHS in the UK.

Transcript

Progressive muscle relaxation.

In this practice I'll be guiding your attention to different parts of your body and inviting you to tense and then release the muscles in that part of your body.

Throughout the practice try to really focus on the sensations in your muscles when they are tense and then once they become relaxed.

Growing your ability to discern between tension and relaxation in your body and with that the development of awareness of when you are holding tension which will facilitate its release from your body and mind.

We'll begin now.

Find a comfortable seated position allowing yourself to settle and letting the crown of your head lift so that your back is straight and you can comfortably breathe into your belly.

You may lie down if you prefer but if you do this try not to fall asleep.

Let your eyes close if that's comfortable.

If not let them be fixed on one spot with soft focus.

Adjust yourself so that your body feels comfortable and at ease.

If you're sitting roll your shoulders up and back a few times.

Letting them settle.

Making space between your shoulders and your ears.

And if you're lying down allow your shoulders to sink back towards the ground.

Start to become aware of your natural breathing.

And if it isn't already see if you can gently guide your breath into your belly.

Belly rising as you inhale and falling as you exhale.

Now let your awareness move to your feet and your toes.

As you breathe in gradually curl your toes down squishing and tensing the soles of your feet.

Hold for a moment and then as you exhale release the muscles in the soles of your feet letting them become soft.

Notice how different your feet feel when they're relaxed in comparison to when they're tense.

As you take another breath in once again curl your toes down tensing the soles of your feet and letting them release as you breathe out.

Now bring your awareness to your lower legs your calf muscles and your shins.

This time as you breathe in draw your toes towards you pushing your heels away bringing some tension into your calf muscles and your shins.

Hold for a moment and then as you exhale allow your lower legs to relax.

Once again breathing in draw your toes towards you pushing your heels away tensing the muscles in your lower legs.

Hold for a moment and as you exhale let those muscles relax once again continuing to pay attention to your lower legs now that they're relaxed.

Moving your awareness up to your thighs as you inhale squeeze your knees towards each other bringing some tension into your thigh muscles.

Notice the contraction of these large muscles hold for a moment and then as you breathe out let your thighs release and relax being conscious of any sensation of tingling as they become loose.

Again inhaling squeezing your knees together tensing your thigh muscles holding for a moment and exhaling and letting your thigh muscles relax.

Now bring your mind's attention to your stomach inhaling tighten the muscles in your stomach as if you're drawing your navel towards your spine holding for a moment and exhaling letting the muscles in your stomach relax.

Let your breath be back in your belly belly rising as you inhale falling as you exhale.

Once again as you breathe in bring some tension into your stomach muscles drawing the navel in holding momentarily and then exhaling and releasing belly rising and falling with your breath.

Notice the sensation of relief as you let your stomach muscles release the tension.

And now let your awareness move to your shoulders in your neck.

Taking a breath in draw your shoulders upwards so they're close to your ears firmly squeezing your shoulder muscles.

And as you breathe out let the contraction in your shoulder muscles go allowing your shoulders to sink back down.

Once more pull your shoulders up towards your ears and squeeze your shoulder muscles as you breathe in.

Hold for a moment and release your shoulder muscles as you exhale allowing the tension to subside from your shoulders in your neck.

Take a moment to sense the heaviness of your whole body.

Noticing yourself becoming heavier against the ground with each breath.

And now bring your awareness to your upper arms.

As you breathe in bring your fingertips to your shoulders and lift your elbows high creating stretch and tension in your upper arms.

Hold for a second and as you exhale bring your arms back to where they were letting the muscles in your upper arms be soft.

Once again curl your upper arms bringing your fingertips to your shoulders elbows lifting high tensing the muscles in your upper arms.

Holding and breathing out letting your arms return to where they were and letting the muscles in your arms let go of the tension.

Letting your awareness move now to your forearms.

Breathing in draw your fingertips towards your wrists as if you were trying to touch the inside of your elbows with your fingertips.

Bringing some tension into your forearms.

Hold for a moment and as you exhale let your forearms relax.

Once again as you breathe in draw your fingertips in towards your wrists tensing the muscles in your forearms.

Hold for a moment and as you exhale release your forearms allowing the muscles in your hands and your arms to be soft and relaxed.

Bring your awareness to your hands and as you inhale stretch your fingers away from each other feeling stretch in your palms and in your fingers.

Hold for a moment and as you breathe out let your hands and fingers relax.

Once again as you breathe in tense your hands by stretching your fingers in your palms holding and then releasing the stretch as you breathe out.

Notice that the muscles in your hands and your arms are relaxed and maybe you can sense some tingling there now that that tension has been released.

Take a few breaths here noticing the muscles in your body that are relaxed and feel soft.

Now let your attention come to the muscles in your face.

Breathing in squish all the muscles in your face as if you were trying to squeeze your face into one tiny little point squeezing your eyes shut and pressing your lips together.

Holding momentarily and then as you exhale let that tension in your face go.

Once more breathe in as you scrunch your face your eyes your lips holding and release as you breathe out.

Sense the relaxation in the muscles in your face.

Now know bringing attention to your jaw.

Take a breath in and open your mouth as wide as you can stretching the muscles in your jaw and sensing them tightening tensing as they stretch.

As you exhale allow your mouth to close gently.

Again as you breathe in open your mouth wide stretching your jaw hold and exhale releasing letting your jaw be relaxed.

If your teeth are clenched together make some space between your upper and lower teeth and bring your tongue away from the roof of your mouth.

As you breathe here take some time to notice the relaxation in the muscles in your body.

Sensing the softness in your muscles.

Be here for a few moments.

Opening your eyes and coming up whenever you're ready.

Reviews

Wonderful PMR! Clear instruction and very effective. Thank you!

My body feels much more relaxed after your guidance. Namaste. Thank you. 🌺🌸

Nearly a 9.989 🙀
Love the quiet space, the pacing of this Meditation!

Have done tense/relaxing since 1981, but not with awareness of the muscles and combining the breath.

Thank you- very refreshing. 😊🙏🎈🙃

Such a nice voice and really has helped me avoid bad dreams. I do this before bed. Thank you so so much!

I suffer with daily chronic pain & your meditation is changing my days/mornings around for the better! I am SO thankful for this! 😍✨ My chiropractor even asked me the other day if I did something differently that morning & I told him about this & he said to make sure to do it every time beforehand now!!! Thank you beautiful soul! 😌🙏🏼🥰

very relaxing and a great way to learn to notice tenseness, thanks for sharing!

great relaxing meditation and a lovely voice. bookmarked. thank you 🙏

This was wonderful! Thank you!

I really like the sound of your voice. And I like the meditation as far as it goes. I listen to it fairly often. I like that it starts at the toes instead of at the head. I really nice and it includes the face and the jaw. However I feel you've missed a number of major muscle groups, the buttocks, the pelvic area the whole back, the chest, and the neck. I think this meditation would be much more effective if you would add those major muscle groups and body parts to this meditation.

A perfect way to end my meditation session. With gratitude...

Fantastic meditation. I use this every evening to help release any pain or muscle tension. Thank you so much ❤️❤️❤️

Thank you 🌺🌺🌺for sharing this wonderful meditation. The muscles get relaxed and smooth. I enjoyed it so much
🙏 Namaste

She has a wonderful voice! This “course” served as a very helpful and effective guide through my first go at PMR. Probably my new favorite style of meditation.