Progressive Muscle Relaxation Step-By-Step!

Okay, I wanted to do a video.

This is something I've wanted to do probably for several months now. At a couple of different workshops that I've given, I've had people ask if I would be able to do some of the techniques, like demonstrate a couple of the techniques that I recommend in my book or ones that I'm referencing in the workshop. A lot of times in my workshops, I'll give attendees access to a Dropbox folder where you can go into it, and then you can see scripts and instructions for all the tools and techniques that I refer to in the talk. And usually in these presentations, I don't actually do the techniques that I'm talking about just in the interest of time.

It takes quite a bit of time to do these.

But I've had a couple of people ask if I'd be willing to actually demonstrate these in a video. And I've had a couple of video calls tonight already. So I thought, you know, while everything is set up, maybe I'd go ahead and do that. Okay. So I know tensions are high. Anxiety is pretty high right now, of course, a lot going on in the world, and probably folks are having a lot to be anxious about. Lot of fears, very legitimate. Definitely don't want to minimize that. But some people are wanting to know about techniques that could help just calm that stress response and help put the body into a little bit of a more relaxed state. A technique that I do talk about a fair amount is progressive muscle relaxation. And so if you're a therapist watching this, you might already know a little bit about this technique. But I'll tell you a little bit about how I do it and what I view as the rationale for this. So sometimes I hear people just giving this to clients as a tool, saying this will help relax you, and then maybe not saying a lot else. I think that's fine. But I do want to go into a little bit more depth into how I view progressive muscle relaxation and what I think the goals of this actually are. So progressive muscle relaxation is an exercise where you're systematically going through major muscle groups of the body and tensing and releasing these different regions of the body, how it's done. I mean, it varies. There's a lot of different variants of this technique. But I look at this as a technique that's aimed at teaching clients how to recognize tension in the body and then to know how to release that tension basically on command. So these are skills that we're building. The first skill being self awareness, and the second one really self regulation. By relaxing those muscles. So we know, of course, that when we become stressed and blood flow is redirected into major muscle groups, heart races up to speed up the process of the blood flow, okay. To these different locations in these major muscle groups. And then muscle tension comes, and that's so that we can fight or get.

Away from the threat.

So it's really there for your survival. It makes you faster and stronger when you go into the stress response.

Of course, when we go into a.

Very intense stress response, we're going to really notice the tension potentially. But a lot of times with day to day stressors where we don't feel completely overwhelmed yet, but we are feeling kind of stressed. There is going to be some muscle tension because of that blood flow redirection.

We may not actually pick up on it.

It's going to be subtle. So it may not be the difference between. I know I'm blending in with my chair here, but this and this, right? It might be the difference between this and this. It might be very subtle. So what we want to do in progressive muscle relaxation is train clients how to notice slight changes in the body which can indicate that they're stressed. So we want people to feel it at this level before they get to this level, right? Before it feels overwhelmed and they feel like they're losing their mind. As in subcortical areas of the brain are activating and actually shutting down some of these rational areas of the brain. So we want to catch stress early. So we're looking to muscle tension as indicator, an early indicator of the stress response or sympathetic nervous system arousal in the body. Second skill here is that we want to learn how to relax the body.

On command, if we can.

So we want to learn how to release those muscles. So if it's the shoulders, learn how.

To relax the left side and relax the right side.

And that is a skill in and of itself. This is a technique that works a lot like many other techniques where the more you do it, the better you get, the faster it works. So it's something that's good as a regular practice. If you wait until you're the most stressed out you've ever been, it's probably.

Not going to do that much for.

You because you've caught it too late. So we want to help clients do this, preferably, if not a daily practice, maybe multiple times a week, so that they can learn how to begin to detect stress in the body and then learn how to release it. Okay, so I want to step us through this.

We're going to start at the bottom.

And work our way up. I'm just going to go through some major areas, some major muscle groups, but I may not hit everything that's on the script that I give folks, and I may not hit everything that you.

Would want me to hit.

Feel free to modify this in whatever way makes sense to you. The way I'm going to do this too is like a formal practice. So what I'm going to invite you.

To do at home is if you.

Are comfortable closing your eyes, I invite.

You to close your eyes.

If when you do that, you don't like the experience that you have, you prefer not to do that, you can just find a spot to gaze down at. Okay, so I'm going to pause for a moment and then I'm going to start the practice. If you want, by the way, if.

You want a script for this.

I'll tell you what I'll do. When I put this on YouTube, I'll give my email address and just feel free to email me and I can actually give you like a step by step script for this as well. So to begin this exercise, let's begin.

By bringing the awareness to our feet. Beginning to feel into the feet. Noticing any sensations, any experiences in the feet. Continuing to stay focused on the feet. Now I want you to tense the feet when you do this. I want you to scrunch your toes. It's like you're squishing your feet. And I want you to hold this tension at about 40%. So not as, not as hard as you can possibly squeeze, but about 40% tension and keep holding. And now relax the feet. Relaxing the left foot and relaxing the right foot. Feeling into the feet and just noticing what it feels like to be relaxed after having been tense. Now let's move the awareness up to.

The lower legs, especially the shin area and the calves.

Beginning to feel into these areas. Noticing any sensations or experiences in these areas. And now gently at 40%, I want you to tense the lower legs by pointing your toes down and just gently squeezing your calves at about 40%. Hold this tension. Now relax the tension in the calves. Relaxing the left leg and the right leg. Just noticing what it feels like to be relaxed after having been tense.

Now move the awareness up to the upper legs, round the thighs and the.

Quads and the hamstrings. Noticing any sensations or experiences in these areas. And now, however, feels most natural to you. You can gently begin to tense these areas at about 40%. Some people might do this by extending.

Their legs outward or lifting their legs.

Up a Little bit. I just want you to squeeze this area. Squeezing the upper legs at about 40% and holding the tension. Now releasing that tension. Relaxing the left leg completely and relaxing the right leg completely. Just notice what it feels like to be relaxed after having been tense. Now moving the awareness up just a little bit to the abdominal area, the center for digestion. Just beginning by feeling into this area and noticing any sensations, any experiences in this region. And now I want you to gently begin to tense this area by tensing the stomach muscles just a little bit. Not so much to where you can't breathe, but tense at 40% and hold this tension in this area. Holding this stomach tension. And now relax the stomach muscles completely. Noticing what it feels like to be relaxed after having been tense. Now let's move our awareness to the hands. Beginning to feel in with the hands. Noticing any sensations or experiences right now in the hands. I want you to gently begin to tense the hands by making a fist. And just hold at about 40% holding this tension in the hands. And now begin to relax the hands. Relaxing both the left and the right hand. Again, just noticing what it feels like to be relaxed after having been tense. Moving the awareness up to the arms. Feeling into the arms. Noticing any sensations or any experiences in the arms. Now I want you to gently tense the arms. You can do this however feels natural. One option is to extend the arms out in front of you. Begin to squeeze the triceps and biceps just at 40%. Gently hold. Now relax these arms, Releasing the tension in the left arm. Releasing the tension in the right arm. Noticing what it feels like to be relaxed after having been tense. We can move the awareness around the back of our bodies, around the shoulder.

Blades, kind of the mid upper back.

This is an area that a lot of us hold a lot of tension in. I want you to begin to tense your back by gently bringing your shoulder blades toward each other as if they're going to touch, but only squeezing at 40% and holding the tension here. Squeezing the back at 40%. Hold this tension and now release the tension in the back, Releasing the left shoulder blade and the right shoulder blade. Noticing what it feels like to be relaxed after having been tense. Now move the awareness up to the tops of the shoulders, these muscles that connect into the neck. Feeling into this region of the body and noticing any sensations. Now let's gently tense this area of the body by gently raising the shoulders just at about 40% and holding this tension. Notice what this tension feels like. Holding the tension and now releasing the tension. So releasing the Left shoulder and the right shoulder. Relaxing the shoulders completely, just noticing what it feels like to be relaxed. Now moving the awareness to the back of your neck, the muscles in the back of your neck. This one's a little bit more challenging. Feeling into this area, noticing any sensations or experiences in the back of the neck, and then to tense this area. Do it however you prefer to do it, but one idea is to just gently lift your head back till you feel a little bit of tension in the neck and hold this position. Hold tension at about 40%. Now release those neck muscles. Relaxing the neck completely, noticing what it feels like to be relaxed after having been tense. Now moving around to the front of the body again to the face, feeling into the jaw. This is another area where we hold a lot of tension, just feeling into the jaw, noticing any sensations, any experiences in this area. I want you to begin to tense the jaw just by clenching your teeth together, but gently, only at about 40%. Hold this tension. Relax the tension in the jaw. So relaxing the jaw completely, noticing what it feels like to be relaxed after having been tense. Looks like we have a visitor at the right time.

Okay, so this concludes progressive muscle relaxation.

So we started at the bottom of the body, and we worked our way up. You can modify this to fit however.

You want it to go to fit, whatever your preferences are.

But the main thing is that we want to move through the body and.

Systematically tense and then release these different regions. Now, the reason why I say to.

Tense at 40% and not 100% is.

Because when we tense at 100%, it's really obvious. So we don't want this to be.

Like going to the gym and lifting weights.

Like, anybody can feel like this. Right. It's a lot more subtle when it's like this. And what we want to train clients.

To do is to detect subtle tension.

Not just tension, when it's overwhelming. And it's really, really obvious. But we want to train clients to.

Actually detect subtle tension. So you may even want to squeeze.

Like, at 20% or even 10% if it's an area that there's pain, maybe 10% or no squeezing at all.

And in that case, it would just.

Be a body scan.

She reminds me also that if you're.

Doing this with kiddos, you're not going to get them to squeeze at 40%. You're just basically running around chasing them, and they're just tensing and relaxing different areas. So it works a little bit different.

If you work with kids. Okay. Do you have anything to say? What's wrong? My tummy's hurting. Your tummy's hurting? Okay, let me come help. Okay, bye.