With the current advances of neuroscience we are coming to a greater understanding of the connection between the health of the mind and the body. Mental tension and physical tension go together. Most of us have some awareness of this connection when after a stressful day we find that we have a headache or our shoulders are tight or our stomach hurts. Mental and emotional stress affects our bodies, each of us in our own way. What we are often less aware of is that relaxing the body can help reduce mental and emotional stress. You have probably experienced this too. Have you ever noticed how much better you feel after eating a nice meal, soaking in the tub, exercising, or cuddling with your favorite animal or person? Such activities release chemicals in the brain which help relax the body as well as promote mental well-being.
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While the connection between the mind and body is complicated and far from being fully understood, you can take advantage of what we do know. How? One way is to learn how to relax your body when you need better mental or emotional functioning. Relaxation techniques can help with a host of mental and emotional tasks such as: focusing on work or homework, managing anger, reducing stress, calming worry, and engaging in difficult interpersonal interactions. There are many ways to relax your body. You may have some things that you already do to help your body to relax. Often these are things that you are not even aware of. Think for a minute: What are some of the physical things that you do that help you to feel good? They can involve any of the 5 senses, touch (including movement), taste, smell, sight, and hearing. You might find that you can use some of these things wherever you are while others depend on having certain circumstances. Some people find that using muscle relaxation is really helpful because once you learn how to do it you can do it in pretty much any circumstance without anyone else noticing. (They might notice that you seem more relaxed!)
The link below is for an audio file that teaches progressive muscle relaxation using the contract/release method. In other words, it guides the listener in tightening and then relaxing muscles in the body. Tensing muscles before relaxing them is one way of helping the body to know which muscles it is trying to relax. It is called “progressive” because you tense and relax muscles in order, thus “progressing” through your various muscles. This recording has the listener tensing and relaxing muscles moving down the back of the body from the head to the feet and then up the front of the body and down the arms. Remember that the point of this exercise is to help you relax, so don’t worry about whether you are tensing and relaxing exactly the right area of your body. After you have done the exercise a couple of times it will feel much more natural and your degree of relaxation will increase.
This particular audio file was recorded by David McQuillan who teaches relaxation techniques in New Zealand. [1] We chose this recording because David uses a tone of voice that sounds down to earth and practical. It takes about 14 minutes to go through all of the muscle groups.
Once you have practiced progressive muscle relaxation with the audio file a number of times, experiment with tensing and relaxing muscles as you go throughout your day. You will likely find that there are certain areas that you feel more tension. It may be that you will experience a lot of benefit from just tensing and relaxing those areas.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation Using the Contract/Release Method (13:40), by David McQuillan
Footnotes
- Progressive Muscle Relaxation Using the Contract/Release Method, by David McQuillan, from The Internet Archive ↩
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