Progressive Relaxation in Menopause: A Unique Practical Podcast Episode

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Good night. Prepare to relax. Hey everyone, it's Debra Atkinson, and this is a very different episode. Look, finding ways to truly relax and biohack to protect our cortisol levels, our adrenals, and ultimately our thyroid are key to health in midlife. I love progressive relaxation in menopause as a tool to do just that. And whether it's to take a 10-minute break or to get to sleep or back to sleep, it works. This method is a powerful tool to reduce stress, improve sleep, enhance overall well-being, and can be done without a supplement with any negative side effects and for free from wherever you are right now.

I'm Debra Atkinson. You're listening to Flipping 50. I started this podcast over a decade ago to answer questions about fitness in menopause and beyond before you knew to ask them. The goal: to help accelerate your results with science and the practical application of proven protocols while living your best life. There's no more powerful health influencer in the world than a midlife woman, and it's not just about you, but the 3 generations that you influence. My unique 40-year career, including being a university senior lecturer in kinesiology, an industry subject matter expert, and an international speaker, to founder of the first and the only exclusively made-for-menopause-and-beyond fitness membership in the world. Every week I interview experts behind the scenes and the the science of optimal hormone balancing, fitness, and longevity, and share answers to our community's questions so you can have the vitality and the energy that you want, need, and deserve.

Okay, I mentioned this is going to be a very different podcast. This is one I hope you keep available for repeat. I know I've got favorite podcasts that I'll go back to and listen to again and again on a hike, but this is one of those that you may want to keep so that if you've got a moment during the day when you can actually feel it— you feel your forehead tight, the lines around your eyes, you know you're scrunching up and you weren't even trying, your upper back and neck are tight— then it's time to not just take a deep breath, but maybe to actually lie down put your head back and take a few moments to really reset. And if you, like me, struggle now or did at one time to really tap into the benefits of meditation, or might find that really hard to do during the middle of the day, then again, this is for you. What I found back in mid to late '90s is I was actually reminding myself of something that somehow I did or picked up when I was a young teen. I remember sleeping downstairs in the living and dining area of our house because we lived in an old home, two stories, and when you go up, so does the heat, and my room did not have air conditioning. So as a young teen, it was awful sometimes in the heat and humidity of a Midwestern state. So there I was, and I somehow, probably in a teen magazine, had read about progressive relaxation. Thank goodness I did. And I started doing it. And although I can't credit the source, I do know that it worked, that I would never actually finish. I would fall asleep first, and that, my friends, is success. Now, if you're meditating, that's actually not the goal, right? So if you're doing progressive meditation in order to relax, then definitely you have been successful if you never finish. So here we go. So number 1, progressive relaxation is again a little bit like meditation, but it's tangible.

It gives you something to do.

I want to know how you like this because if it goes well, I have another little trick that takes a little bit more imagination that I'll bring back to you.

So here we go.

What you're going to do is lie down, find a very comfortable spot. On the floor or on a bed, wherever you're very comfortable. But literally, I want you to think about how's the position of your head and your neck. Are you feeling completely relaxed and dropped down into the floor, onto the bed, onto the couch? And get in that position if you're not already. All right. And then just scan your body for for a moment. And if you know right now you have been holding on to tension— for some of us, it's, you know, our forehead, it's our mouth, we're tight around our mouth, or our jaw or neck is tight— we'll come back to that. But I want you to scan now so that you can scan again later. All right, think about very briefly, as you're just lying there, kind releasing, relaxing, nothing on your mind for the next 10-15 minutes, okay? Except listening to the sound of my voice and the music. And I want you to think about when you do a workout, what are we doing? We're tightening the muscles, we're contracting the muscles. But for most of us, whether we love to work out or we don't, after a workout we tend to feel more relaxed. The same thing is true, and that's what we're recreating on a micro level with progressive relaxation. If we draw attention to the tension, to the tightness, and we go to one extreme, we can then often feel the other extreme much better in a bigger way. So that's really the purpose in what we're doing for you and for me, women in midlife, menopause, but this works at any age. Trust me, you heard me say my teens. We need a little more stress reduction. We need quality sleep and we need to be able to get back to sleep. And this is one of the tools that I've taught clients many times, kind of lying there, allowing your brain to do that monkey mind thinking about all things often doesn't work. But when you give it something else to think about, it's then a distraction. And counting backward from 100 might work, or doing a gratitude list is also something that I'll do if I feel like I can't fall asleep. I'll start and I'll think, I'm going to name 100 things I'm grateful 4, and pretty soon I'm gone. I didn't even make it back to 90 because I'm asleep, not because I'm not grateful for that many things. So similarly, let's give your mind something to do so that we can create greater sleep, reduce stress, and ultimately get better hormone balance. Thanks to those two things, we're going to start in a very organized way with your toes. So if you have shoes on, you might want to slip them off. If you have socks on, you might want to slip them off too. But I want you to focus on your toes, and I want you to take a deep breath in, and I want you to tighten the muscles in your toes. Just squeeze them, squeeze them, curl your toes, squeeze them as tight as you possibly can. And then on the exhale, release the tension in the toes. Let the air come fully out.

Good. On your next breath, I want you to think about the whole foot. So you can point your toe, point the whole thing, point it hard, or flex it hard, either one. But I want you to get that really, really tight on an inhale. Hold that just for a moment at the top, and then on the exhale, I want you to release that tension. The big toe, all of the other toes, the little toe, the balls of your feet, the arches, the heels, all completely relaxed into the ground. On your next deep breath, I want you to inhale deeply, and I want you to focus on your calf muscles. So tightening the calf muscles, and you'll find that you're flexing those feet. They have to be involved, but tighten those calf muscles as if you're going uphill for hours. Squeeze and tighten. On the exhale, release and let them go. Good. On your next inhale, think about your thighs between your knees and your hips. Tighten the tops of your legs. Those are your quadriceps. Tighten them up. Squeeze tight. Imagine using them, exercising and push, tighten, and exhale. Breathe all the way out. And by now, your lower legs should be just feeling as if they are heavily weighted. They're supported by the floor, just sinking down into it. You're not holding on to any tension at all. Feet are flopping out to the side, calves are relaxed. Thighs are relaxed. And on your next inhale, I want you to squeeze your glutes, your hips, your butt, your pelvis, that lower portion of your belly. Just squeeze it, squeeze it, squeeze it. And then exhale and release and let your butt flatten out and sink into the ground, completely supported. By the floor underneath you. On your next breath, we're going to focus on the abdomen a little bit more, that torso kind of underneath your rib cage. Inhale and then tighten up. You know what I mean? You're tightening up, just somebody's going to touch your belly and you're going to brace it because you don't want them to feel that softness. And softness is okay. And then on your exhale, once you let it all go, Feel your hips, your lower back again sinking into the floor. On an inhale, focus on your chest. So everything really associated with your rib cage, it is on the ground, the front of your chest. Tighten that up, squeeze as if you were doing a chest press. You know what that's going to feel like in a push-up. You're squeezing, the muscles in your chest are contracted. And then exhale and release. On an inhale, I want you to think about your arm from your shoulders down to your hands, and I want you to squeeze the upper arm, the lower arm. You're feeling your triceps, your biceps, and your forearms get tight. Hold it at the top and then exhale. And allow that to fall back. Arms feeling now really happy, sinking into the floor. On your next inhale, I want you to think just about your hands. Squeeze your fists, squeeze them together. If that doesn't feel comfortable, try opening them up and keep them as rigid as possible. Squeeze and hold, and then exhale. And relax. Feel the tension drain out of your pinky, your ring finger, your middle finger, your index finger, and your thumb. Palms are just lying there. On your next inhale, I want you to think about your shoulders, really the tops of your shoulders and shoulder blades. Squeeze them tight, and then exhale.

Drop them down. Feel your shoulders move away from your ears and your shoulders fall back down into the floor. On an inhale, I want you to strain the muscles in your neck. You know how to do that, so tighten it, tighten it, tighten it, tighten it. And on an exhale, allow those neck muscles to finally Relax. On an inhale, I want you to think about your head. Let's break this up. I want you to squeeze through your jaw, tighten that jaw, set that jaw. Tighten up through your eyes, squint your eyes, and around your mouth.

Squeeze them all.

Tighten, tighten, tighten. And then on an exhale Release. Let it all go. And I want you to lie where you are just for a few moments. Take deep breaths in and out on your own time. As you're exhaling, though, think about the muscles in your neck and around your jaw. Allow your lips to part slightly. Think about those small tiny muscles around your mouth and your nose. Let your eyes, your forehead, your face go expressionless, just in bliss, completely relaxed. Focus on your scalp, the top of your head. And exhale. And just imagine somebody's fingers massaging your scalp and your head. Relax, closing your eyes if you're comfortable. Continue to take a few deep breaths in, exhale out. Continue to breathe on your own And as you let the breath do what it wants to, you may find your breathing will become just a little bit more shallow. No more efforting, no more focusing, just allowing everything to fall, toes to the side. Arms are out to the side. Head and neck position are absolutely comfortable, or adjust so that they are. I want you to briefly scan your body almost as if you were outside of it and seek any place of tension that you might still be holding. On your next exhale, let that go. Now when you're ready, what you just— to start wiggling your toes, wiggle your fingers. You can draw small circles with your hands and with your feet going one direction and the opposite direction. Bending your knees and then roll over onto one side before you do, think about this. So in Eastern medicine and practices, they will say rolling over onto the right side will increase your energy level for the rest of the day. Rolling to the left side will help calm and keep your energy on a lower level. So if you're preparing for bed or for sleep, you may want to roll to the left. And if you're preparing in the middle of the day to recharge, or beginning, you may want to roll to your right. Once you're on your side with your knees bent, you're going to use that top hand to press yourself up, support yourself as you come into a seated position. However, if you are in bed trying to take a nap or relax, just push this off, I won't be offended, and we'll see you next time. If you're coming up into a seated position, come into a cross-legged position if you're comfortable with that. If that's not comfortable for you, find another one that is. Legs out front, one leg tucked in, the other leg out— wherever you're most comfortable is okay. Take a few deep breaths, and as you do that, think about tailbone down on your sit bones. Raise the crown of your head up toward the sky, keeping your spine nice and long. And then exhale, feel your shoulders dropping away from your ears. Again, still very relaxed, working on energy management. Inhale and exhale again. Sit with your palms Up. Exhale and release. And there you have it. So in a little under 15 minutes, you did a full body, total body relaxation. I just want you to tune in and see how did that feel. It cost you nothing. Potentially release some tension around your eyes, some tension around your neck neck, shoulders, all those little things that actually can contribute to headaches, maybe to keeping you awake at night if they're not released. But it's, it's always accessible to you to release it. For more tips on both how to relax when you want to and that's what you need, and how to gain energy when you want to, you can find us at Flipping 50 and keep this with you. We are everywhere that podcasts play: iTunes, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, YouTube, Amazon, and about 80 other platforms. If this was beneficial and you know somebody who doesn't sleep well or who has significant amount of tension or stress right now, please share this.

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Thank you for listening. To listen to a decade of episodes and to get the show notes, visit flipping50.com where you'll be able to find all the previous episodes. And I made it super easy to make the most of your listening time and get exactly what you want to listen to as top priority by getting the top 10 episodes in the areas you most care about, like how much protein do you need, weight loss, and other 3 ultra important topics we've identified as our community's top 5. There's no more powerful health influencer in the world than you, midlife woman. So go and listen right now. Do you have a question for a podcast? A question you'd love to ask, or maybe a story you want to tell? Did you know we have a special group just for podcast question roundups and the answers? My community coaches and I provide answers daily inside of this group. But it's also where I go when I occasionally say, okay, open call for podcast questions or tell your story. Would you like to be a guest? So if you're looking for community of women who are also interested in optimizing their health, strengthening their mindset and looking forward to every new year, join the Flipping 50 Insiders group. That's flipping 5 Step Zero Insiders on Facebook.