Controlling Anxiety: Technique Two - Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Progressive Muscle Relation is a technique that not only has the immediate benefit of deep relaxation but it also becomes more beneficial over time. Using this one daily will help to decrease anxiety, improve sleep, relieve tension and a whole host of other things. It's not unlike meditation.

Use this in a place where you can get completely comfortable, like a comfy armchair or on your bed. When you tense a particular muscle group, do so vigorously without straining, for 7-10 seconds and concentrate on what is happening. Feel the buildup of tension in each particular muscle group. It can be helpful to visualize the particular muscle group being tensed. When you release the muscles, do so abruptly, and then relax into the feeling of limpness. Allow the relaxation to develop for at least 15-20 seconds before going on to the next group of muscles. Allow all the other muscles in your body to remain relaxed, as far as possible, while working on a particular muscle group. Tense and relax each muscle group once. But if a particular area feels especially fight, you can tense and relax it two or three times, waiting about 20 seconds between each cycle.

So...

• To begin, take three deep abdominal breaths, exhaling slowly each time. As you exhale, imagine that tension throughout your body begins to flow away.
  
• Clench your fists. Hold for 7-10 seconds and then release for 15-20 seconds. Use these same time intervals for all other muscle groups.
  
• Tighten your biceps by drawing your forearms up toward your shoulders and "making a muscle" with both arms. Hold... and then relax.
  
• Tighten your triceps--the muscles on the undersides of your upper arms--by extending your arms out straight and locking your elbows. Hold ... and then relax.
  
• Tense the muscles in your forehead by raising your eyebrows as far as you can. Hold ... and then relax. Imagine your forehead muscles becoming smooth and limp as they relax.
  
• Tense the muscles around your eyes by clenching your eyelids tightly shut. Hold... and then relax.  Imagine sensations of deep relaxation spreading all around them.
  
• Tighten your jaws by opening your mouth so widely that you stretch the muscles around the hinges of your jaw. Hold ... and then relax. Let your lips part and allow your jaw to hang loose.
  
• Tighten the muscles in the back of your neck by pulling your head way back, as if you were going to touch your head to your back (be gentle with this muscle group to avoid injury). Focus only on tensing the muscles in your neck. Hold ... and then relax. Since this area is often especially tight, it's good to do the tense-relax cycle twice.
  
• Take a few deep breaths and tune in to the weight of your head sinking into whatever surface it is resting on.
  
• Tighten your shoulders by raising them up as if you were going to touch your ears. Hold ... and then relax.
  
• Tighten the muscles around your shoulder blades by pushing your shoulder blades back as if you were going to touch them together. Hold the tension in your shoulder blades ... and then relax. Since this area is often especially tense, you might repeat the tense-relax sequence twice.
  
• Tighten the muscles of your chest by taking in a deep breath. Hold for up to 10 seconds ... and then release slowly. Imagine any excess tension in your chest flowing away with the exhalation.
  
• Tighten your stomach muscles by sucking your stomach in. Hold ... and then release. Imagine a wave of relaxation spreading through your abdomen.
  
• Tighten your lower back by arching it up. (You should omit this exercise if you have lower back pain.) Hold ... and then relax.
  
• Tighten your buttocks by pulling them together. Hold ... and then relax. Imagine the muscles in your hips going loose and limp.
  
• Squeeze the muscles in your thighs all the way down to your knees. You will probably have to tighten your hips along with your thighs, since the thigh muscles attach at the pelvis.  Hold ... and then relax. Feel your thigh muscles smoothing out and relaxing completely.
  
• Tighten your calf muscles by-pulling your toes toward you (flex carefully to avoid cramps). Hold ... and then relax.
  
• Tighten your feet by curling your toes downward. Hold ... and then relax.
  
• Mentally scan your body for any residual tension. If a particular area remains tense, repeat one or two tense-relax cycles for that group of muscles.
  
• Now imagine a wave of relaxation slowly spreading throughout your body, starting at your head and gradually penetrating every muscle group all the way down to your toes. 
  

For more information on this, look for books written by Dr Edmund Jacobson, the developer of this technique.