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This day and age, stress is something that we all experience quite often. Whether we feel stressed out at school, at work, at home, or anywhere else, stress can easily build up over time. Before we know it, our muscles become tense. Worry not, this is where progressive muscle relaxation technique becomes handy! Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) is a deep relaxation technique that is mainly used to manage stress, anxiety, insomnia, and muscle tension.

PMR is based on the simple and specific practice of tensing or tightening one muscle group at a time, followed by a relaxation phase by releasing the tension. The purpose is to recognize what a tensed muscle and a relaxed muscle feels like, so that when you begin to become tense due to stress or anxiety, you will realize it quicker and be able to control it and return to a relaxed state.

How does progressive muscle relaxation work, exactly? It’s pretty easy! First and foremost, you need to find a quiet place, free from any distractions. You can start by lying on your back or sitting down. Make sure to remove any glasses or contact lenses if you are wearing them. Loosen any tight clothing, too.

Next, take several slow, deep breaths. Let’s try doing PMR from the bottom part of your body: your feet. Take a deep breath, then pull your toes downward as much as you can to tighten the muscles around that area, and hold them for about five seconds. Afterwards, let go to release the tension. Exhale slowly as you do this step. You should feel your muscles become loose. Shift your focus on the difference between tension and relaxation; remember, it is necessary to notice how different tension and relaxation feels. Remain in this relaxed state for about 15 seconds before working on the next muscle group.

Moving on to the next muscle group: your calves. Squeeze your calf muscles as hard as you can and hold for another five seconds before releasing the tension. Stay relaxed for 15 seconds, then work on your knees and thighs by moving your knees toward each other and squeezing your thigh muscles for five seconds. Like you’ve done before, loosen your muscles afterwards.

The steps are basically the same with every muscle group. You can work on your buttocks, arms, hands, shoulders, jaw, eyes, and eyebrows. With your hands, for example, you can tighten the muscles by clenching and unclenching your fists. With your shoulders, you can raise them toward your ears, and with your eyebrows, you can just raise them as far as you can. Of course, every session needs to end with a tension-release and relaxation.

Now that you get a hang of progressive muscle relaxation, let’s jump into how it can be beneficial in managing stress and anxiety. Progressive muscle relaxation has been proven to be effective in reducing symptoms or feelings of anxiety, depression, stress, and anger. By practicing PMR often, you will learn what relaxation feels like, enabling you to recognize whenever you start to get tense during the day. Progressive muscle relaxation can also improve your sleep and eases neck pain, because it induces relaxation.

But that’s not all! PMR helps decrease the frequency of migraine episodes as well, and it does so by balancing your serotonin levels. Furthermore, a high level of stress might lead to the clenching of jaw or grinding of teeth, which may cause you to develop a temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorder. TMJ is the joint that connects your lower jaw (mandible) to your skull, and a temporomandibular joint disorder may cause facial pain, tenderness at the joint, and trouble in moving the joint. Through a consistent practice of progressive muscle relaxation, tension or stress levels can be reduced and TMJ disorder symptoms will be alleviated.

Progressive muscle relaxation is a simple practice, yet it turns out to have many benefits! So, if your days are filled with fast-paced activities, or if you tend to get stressed a lot, we recommend you to set aside some quiet time to do the PMR method regularly as one way to improve or maintain your overall well-being. Your body, and your mind, will definitely thank you!

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Usually, when we experience pain, especially the one that gets worse in every passing minute, it’s hard to focus on anything else. You feel paralyzed, unable to do anything, just wishing for it to end. Medicines might help, appointments with physical therapists are beneficial as well, but there is another thing that you can do: visualizing your pain and guided imagery.

Unfamiliar with it? Let us make it clear for you. Essentially, guided imagery uses mind-body connection by tapping into your imagination. It’s a relaxation technique that aims to lower the levels of your stress hormones and increase the cognitive functions of your brain. To do so, you are required to stimulate all of your senses and create an imaginary experience to reconstruct the current experience of pain or fear—this can be done on your own or with the help of a professional, such as a physician, clinician, and a therapist. If you can envision how the pain leaves your body, it will calm your sympathetic nerves and de-escalate your “fight or flight” tendency.

Here’s an example. Perhaps, your knee is in so much pain that you can hardly walk. You can start imagining a reality where your knee is completely fine, and you can walk without any problems. Then, you are going for a hike. You see a beautiful view, hear the birds chirping, smell the fresh, crisp air, and pick some flowers along the way, too. The idea behind this visualization is that doing this will cause you to be immersed in pleasant images and scenarios, redirecting your attention from the pain and giving a sense of comfort. In addition, you may regain strength and hope, believing that you can actually overcome the pain.

Other than helping you relax, guided imagery may help reduce the side effects of any medication you’re under, improve psychological well-being, increase pain tolerance, speed up your healing process, and break the negative association your brain has made with pain. How does this happen? Through the relaxation achieved through guided imagery, chemicals such as serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine are released, blocking the signals sent to your brain from the nerves that are responsible to detect pain. Guided visualization is often accompanied with deep breathing, soothing music, and body scan meditations. If you’re not used to it, you can begin the visualization by imagining something simple, something familiar, such as how the rays of sun touch your skin, the way the ocean waves hit the shore, etc.

Another thing you can do is to visualize your pain in shapes and colors. For instance, you may create a mental image of the pain, perhaps imagining it as a big, red ball. Play with it for a while. Afterwards, as you exhale, imagine the ball getting smaller and smaller. Then, think about many different ways to get rid of the red ball. Maybe you crush it with a hammer, maybe it just explodes—whatever comes to your mind.

When you’re finished, you might find yourself feeling slightly better. However, keep in mind that it doesn’t make the pain completely go away. This is just another alternative that can be implemented along with other forms of therapy or medications. Repeating the visualization process is recommended whenever you begin to feel that the pain is unbearable. By doing so, you are learning to manage your pain better, no matter where, no matter when.




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    Contact us


    Call us

    +1 480 659 5470


    Visit us anytime

    15030 N Hayden Rd ste 120, Scottsdale, AZ 85260 United States


    Send us an email

    info@hopecliniccare.com



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    Sign up for Hope Clinic newsletter to receive all the news offers and discounts from Hope Clinic.



      Review us on Google

      Review

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      Copyright by Hope Clinic 2023. All rights reserved.