Cued Progressive Muscle Relaxation | A Meditation for Anxiety

Welcome everybody to this video on Cued.

Progressive muscular relaxation, one of many techniques for meditation to help cope with anxiety and depression. I'm your host, Dr. Donnellice Snipes.

Meditation and Cued progressive muscular relaxation can.

Help calm your stress response so you can use energy to improve the next moment instead of staying stuck.

When you're stressed, you often tense your.

Muscles, reducing blood flow, increasing pain and fatigue.

The goal of cute progressive muscular relaxation is to help you become more aware.

Of tension in your body and be able to release it in the moment instead of letting it build up.

Cute Progressive muscular relaxation can also be.

Helpful for people who have difficulty sleeping because they can't turn off their mind.

In Cued progressive muscular relaxation, you're going to move from the top of your head to the tips of your toes.

Imagining pushing the stress and bad energy out of your body.

Try it with your arms.

In your upper arms, tense them as.

Tight as you can possibly. Tense them.

Feel them being tight and then relax. As you relax, feel the blood moving through your arms and pushing out that bad energy, nourishing your muscles.

As with any meditation, it's important to.

Examine your surroundings and make sure you're safe from interruption. Make sure you're in an environment in which you feel safe and can relax. You're not going to be disturbed by the phone, by the dog barking, by the UPS man.

For acute progressive muscular relaxation, it is.

Preferable to be able to lay down, but at least get comfortable wherever you're at.

If you're not comfortable closing your eyes.

Pick a stationary object in the room to focus on. It can be a vase, a candle, a spot on the wall, something that you can focus your attention on.

Begin by turning attention to your body. Just kind of do a scan.

Notice where is their tension right now? Where is this their discomfort? You may not have even noticed it until you started looking for it.

Now focus on your breath. I want you to breathe in for four. Hold.

Exhale.

Try that again.

Breathe in. Hold.

And exhale.

Now, when you breathe in, notice your belly expand. Hold.

As you exhale, feel your belly deflate and push out that negative energy. Again, breathe in, feeling your belly expand.

Hold.

And exhale.

Feeling your belly deflate.

Now, when you breathe in, notice the.

Cool, refreshing air as it passes through your nose. Feel it moving through and nourishing your entire body.

Hold.

Exhale. Again. Breathe in. Feel the refreshing air nourishing your body.

Hold.

And exhale.

Now, each time you tense a muscle.

Group, I want you to inhale.

As you hold, your muscles tense.

You're going to hold your breath as you exhale. You're going to tell yourself, relax and feel the negative energy leaving your body.

We'll start with the scalp.

Imagine a string pulling your ears back and your eyebrows up.

Tense that scalp as hard as you can and inhale. Hold that position. Hold your breath.

Now exhale and relax, feeling the negative energy moving out of your scalp and down out your body.

Tense your scalp again. Inhale, holding your breath.

Exhale, relax and feel the negative energy leaving your body.

Now move down to your face. Inhale and squinch up your face really.

Tight, as tight as you can, and hold. Exhale and relax your face. Feel the blood moving through the skin on your cheeks.

Inhale and tighten your face again.

Hold. And exhale, feeling your face relax.

Move down to your jaw. Tighten your jaw. Clench your teeth as you inhale and hold.

Exhale and relax, letting your jaw just drop open.

Inhale and tense your jaw. Hold.

Exhale and relax, letting your jaw fall open.

Now go back up to your top of your head.

Scan and feel the blood moving through your scalp and your face and your jaw and all of those muscles relaxing.

Inhale and pull your shoulders to your ears, tightening your neck and your shoulder muscles. Hold.

And relax.

Feel your shoulders dropping.

Again. Inhale. Bring your shoulders to your ears. Hold.

Exhale and let those shoulders fall.

And relax, falling deeper into the chair.

Now move back to your shoulder blades.

And imagine you're squeezing a pencil between your shoulder blades. As you inhale.

Squeeze those shoulder blades. Hold.

Exhale and relax.

Pull those shoulder blades back together again, squeezing as tight as you can, pushing all of that stress out of those muscles.

Exhale and relax.

Feel the tension leaving those muscles. Now move to your upper arms, your biceps.

Tighten your upper arms as tight as you can. Hold.

Exhale and relax.

Feel all of that energy moving towards your fingertips, moving the bad energy away.

Inhale again, tightening those upper arms. Hold.

And relax, feeling the energy move down to your fingertips.

Now tighten your fists. Inhale, tighten your fists and curl them up to tighten your forearm and your fists.

Really grab all that negative energy that's been pushed down there.

Hold it.

And as you exhale, relax and. And feel the energy just leaving your fingertips. All the bad energy. Let's do that again.

Inhale, tighten your fists and curl them up. Hold all that tension.

Exhale, relax and feel that negative energy being pushed out as the blood is drawn to your fingers.

Now tighten your shoulder blades again. Because a lot of people store tension.

All the way up in their upper back.

Hold that.

Exhale and relax.

Now tighten your chest muscles. Kind of like if you were the Hulk. Tighten your chest muscles as you inhale and hold.

Exhale and relax.

The chest muscles. Cover your heart.

We want to disperse all of the stress from that area.

So inhale and tighten those chest muscles. Again. And hold.

Feel like you're grabbing all that stress and all that negative energy.

Exhale and relax.

And feel the blood moving through that area, pushing out all of the tension.

Move down to your stomach. Tighten your stomach. Curl up like you're curling into a little ball. Tightening your stomach muscles as you inhale.

Easier said than done. Relax as you exhale. Again.

Tighten those abdominal muscles as you inhale and hold. As you exhale.

Start to relax. You'll feel the relaxation in your stomach as well as your lower back.

Now move down to your glutes or.

Your butt, whatever you want to call it.

Tighten those muscles as tight as you can. Inhale and hold.

Exhale as you relax.

One more time. Inhale and tighten those glutes as tight as you can. Hold.

Exhale and relax.

Feeling the blood coursing and pushing that.

Negative energy down towards your toes.

Tighten your thighs as you inhale. Hold and keep it tight.

Exhale and relax.

Again. Inhale and tighten those thighs as tight as you can. Little bit tighter. Hold.

Exhale and relax.

Notice the feeling of warmth as the blood moves the energy down towards your toes.

Now tighten your calves as you inhale by pointing your toes.

Hold, Exhale and relax.

Start to feel the warmth moving through your calves and into your toes.

Inhale and point your toes, tightening those calves as tight as you can.

Exhale and relax.

Now flex your feet as you inhale. Tighten those shins as tight as you can. Hold.

Exhale and relax.

One more time. Inhale as you tighten those shins. Flexing your feet. And hold.

Exhale and relax.

You've pushed all that energy down towards your toes.

Now inhale and curl your toes. Curl your feet up as tiny as you can. Get them, curling those toes tight. Hold.

And relax your feet.

Exhale.

Inhale and curl your toes.

Hold and relax.

Notice how calm and relaxed your body feels. Try to make it relaxed even more. Try to make it go even more limp as you inhale.

Hold, Exhale and relax.

Feeling yourself sinking deeper into your seat. And last time, inhale.

Hold.

Exhale.

Feeling yourself sinking deeper into your seat.

Sit and notice how you feel if you're not trying to go to sleep. Then when you're ready, gently open your eyes and slowly begin to resume your day.