Progressive Muscle Relaxation

In this podcast Ananga talks about how to use Progressive Muscle Relaxation to dissolve stress and tension.

Every day the health press tell us we need to find more ways to relax, but it's hard to know where to begin, or what to try, when you're already feeling stressed and overwhelmed.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation is one quick and easy way to add some extra relaxation to your day. It's a simple exercise where you focus on one muscle group at a time and consciously tense it. While holding the tension, you concentrate on how it feels and where that tension travels in your body.

For example, if you clench your right hand into a fist and squeeze it really tight you'll soon feel the tension travelling up your arm. The longer you hold it, the more you feel it, until it becomes really uncomfortable to hold your hand in that clenched state any longer.

With Progressive Muscle Relaxation you hold the tension in one area of your body for a few seconds and then release it suddenly, letting that area go completely limp and relaxed. You will feel relief instantly as your muscles relax and the tension dissolves away until you no longer feel it.

When a muscle is tensed and then suddenly released it has to relax, it's a natural physiological response for the muscle to instantly return to it's previous state which means you immediately feel the comparative relief of tension followed by relaxation, but there's and added advantage to this sudden release of tension; if left to rest, the muscle will become more relaxed than it was before you tensed it.

In Progressive Muscle Relaxation all the major muscle groups of the body are put under tension and then relaxed one by one, which means that your entire body will be relaxed once you have completed the exercise.

Listen to the full podcast here:

To feel the full benefit of Progressive Muscle Relaxation, we recommend you take a look at our Natural Release mp3 in the stress and anxiety relief downloads section of the Anxiety Slayer Store.

Phtot by frisse82