Reduce Tension with Progressive Muscle Relaxation
By Elizabeth Scott, M.S., About.com Guide
Updated September 24, 2008
About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board
Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) is a great technique for reducing overall body tension. As you practice tensing and relaxing all the muscle groups in your body, you can move to a shortened procedure, Deep Muscle Relaxation where you rapidly relax your whole body. As you reduce the tension you carry in your body, your whole being will feel less stress and you will enjoy increased physical and emotional health. Here’s how to get started:
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: 5 Minutes
Here's How:
1. After finding a quiet place and several free minutes to practice progressive muscle relaxation, sit or lie down and make yourself comfortable.
2. Begin by tensing all the muscles in your face. Make a tight grimace, close your eyes as tightly as possible, clench your teeth, even move your ears up if you can. Hold this for the count of eight as you inhale.
3. Now exhale and relax completely. Let your face go completely lax, as though you were sleeping. Feel the tension seep from your facial muscles, and enjoy the feeling.
4. Next, completely tense your neck and shoulders, again inhaling and counting to eight. Then exhale and relax.
5. Continue down your body, repeating the procedure with the following muscle groups:
* chest
* abdomen
* entire right arm
* right forearm and hand (making a fist)
* right hand
* entire left arm
* left forearm and hand (again, making a fist)
* left hand
* buttocks
* entire right leg
* lower right leg and foot
* right foot
* entire left leg
* lower left leg and foot
* left foot
6. for the shortened version, which includes just four main muscle groups:
* face
* neck, shoulders and arms
* abdomen and chest
* buttocks, legs and feet
Quickly focusing on each group one after the other, with practice you can relax your body like ‘liquid relaxation’ poured on your head and it flowed down and completely covered you. You can use progressive muscle relaxation to quickly de-stress any time.
What You Need:
* A comfortable place.
* Some privacy.
* A few minutes.
MY THOUGHTS
i have a comfortable place. i have privacy (not just some). but i don't think this will take only 5 minutes. it took me all of 5 to grimace. it's quite easy tensing and relaxing the feet and the legs. but the neck is another thing. i'm so scared it would snap and i would be peaceful forever. anyway, i printed this one out. i intend to master this, one way or another.
Showing posts with label be mindful. Show all posts
Showing posts with label be mindful. Show all posts
Friday, January 7, 2011
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Stress relief Through Self-Soothing Techniques
Coping With Stress Using Self-Soothing Skills
By Matthew Tull, PhD, About.com
Updated: October 28, 2008
About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board
When you are upset, it is important to have ways of coping with stress. For example, seeking out social support can be an excellent way of improving your mood. However, symptoms of PTSD, such as unpleasant memories or thoughts about a past traumatic event, can sometimes occur unexpectedly, and social support may not be readily available.
Therefore, it is important to learn coping strategies that you can do on your own. Coping strategies focused on improving your mood that you can do on your own are sometimes described as self-soothing or self-care coping strategies.
Effective self-soothing coping strategies may be those that involve one or more of the five senses (touch, taste, smell, sight, and sound). Listed below are examples of self-soothing strategies for each sense.
Touch
* Soaking in a warm bath
* Getting a massage
* Relaxing in the warmth of the sun
* Stretching
* Going for a swim
* Changing into comfortable clothes
* Playing with an animal
Taste
* Eating a comforting meal
* Sipping herbal tea
* Eating healthy food
* Slowly sucking on hard candy
Smell
* Shopping for flowers
* Smelling lavender or vanilla
* Lighting a scented candle
* Deeply breathing in fresh air
Sight
* Seeing a funny movie or watching a funny television show
* Reading a good book
* Looking at pictures of loved ones
* Looking at pictures of a past vacation or places that you would like to visit
* Watching the clouds
Sound
* Listening to relaxing music
* Singing to yourself
* Saying positive statements to yourself or self-encouragement
* Playing a musical instrument
When engaging in these strategies, make sure to focus completely on the task at hand. That is, be mindful of your senses and what you are experiencing, and anytime you are distracted, simply bring your attention back to what you are doing.
Come up with your own self-soothing strategies that you can do when you are upset. Try to come up with as many as you can. The more you can come up, the better off you will be in improving your mood when you are experiencing distress.
Source:
Linehan, M.M. (1993). Skills training manual for treating borderline personality disorder. New York: Guilford Press.
MY THOUGHTS
A strong support system can certainly bring stress relief. However, I agree that there are stress relief techniques or stress coping mechanisms that we can do on our own. What's so hard about "stretching" or "changing into comfortable clothes"? I guess the physical stretching will likewise stretch our minds out of the lethargic state we are in as a manifestation of our stress. Changing into comfortable clothes can also relax us physically so we can try and relax mentally, then spiritually. Maybe this is why we feel better when we're in pajamas. Comfortable. Relaxing. No demands. NO pretentions. Just being ourselves. Well, that can be calming. These strategies are helpful enough but if you really wish to find stress relief, the answer is in you. Use these tips but go ahead and try your own self relief techniques. Maybe you can share your self relief tips with us.
http://ptsd.about.com/bio/Matthew-Tull-PhD-26501.htm
http://www.about.com/health/review.htm
http://ptsd.about.com/od/selfhelp/a/socialsupport.htm
http://ptsd.about.com/od/symptomsanddiagnosis/a/PTSDsymptoms.htm
http://ptsd.about.com/od/selfhelp/ht/mindfulexe2.htm
By Matthew Tull, PhD, About.com
Updated: October 28, 2008
About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board
When you are upset, it is important to have ways of coping with stress. For example, seeking out social support can be an excellent way of improving your mood. However, symptoms of PTSD, such as unpleasant memories or thoughts about a past traumatic event, can sometimes occur unexpectedly, and social support may not be readily available.
Therefore, it is important to learn coping strategies that you can do on your own. Coping strategies focused on improving your mood that you can do on your own are sometimes described as self-soothing or self-care coping strategies.
Effective self-soothing coping strategies may be those that involve one or more of the five senses (touch, taste, smell, sight, and sound). Listed below are examples of self-soothing strategies for each sense.
Touch
* Soaking in a warm bath
* Getting a massage
* Relaxing in the warmth of the sun
* Stretching
* Going for a swim
* Changing into comfortable clothes
* Playing with an animal
Taste
* Eating a comforting meal
* Sipping herbal tea
* Eating healthy food
* Slowly sucking on hard candy
Smell
* Shopping for flowers
* Smelling lavender or vanilla
* Lighting a scented candle
* Deeply breathing in fresh air
Sight
* Seeing a funny movie or watching a funny television show
* Reading a good book
* Looking at pictures of loved ones
* Looking at pictures of a past vacation or places that you would like to visit
* Watching the clouds
Sound
* Listening to relaxing music
* Singing to yourself
* Saying positive statements to yourself or self-encouragement
* Playing a musical instrument
When engaging in these strategies, make sure to focus completely on the task at hand. That is, be mindful of your senses and what you are experiencing, and anytime you are distracted, simply bring your attention back to what you are doing.
Come up with your own self-soothing strategies that you can do when you are upset. Try to come up with as many as you can. The more you can come up, the better off you will be in improving your mood when you are experiencing distress.
Source:
Linehan, M.M. (1993). Skills training manual for treating borderline personality disorder. New York: Guilford Press.
MY THOUGHTS
A strong support system can certainly bring stress relief. However, I agree that there are stress relief techniques or stress coping mechanisms that we can do on our own. What's so hard about "stretching" or "changing into comfortable clothes"? I guess the physical stretching will likewise stretch our minds out of the lethargic state we are in as a manifestation of our stress. Changing into comfortable clothes can also relax us physically so we can try and relax mentally, then spiritually. Maybe this is why we feel better when we're in pajamas. Comfortable. Relaxing. No demands. NO pretentions. Just being ourselves. Well, that can be calming. These strategies are helpful enough but if you really wish to find stress relief, the answer is in you. Use these tips but go ahead and try your own self relief techniques. Maybe you can share your self relief tips with us.
http://ptsd.about.com/bio/Matthew-Tull-PhD-26501.htm
http://www.about.com/health/review.htm
http://ptsd.about.com/od/selfhelp/a/socialsupport.htm
http://ptsd.about.com/od/symptomsanddiagnosis/a/PTSDsymptoms.htm
http://ptsd.about.com/od/selfhelp/ht/mindfulexe2.htm
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