Carry out your first Relaxation Exercise at a suitable time and place as described. Attached is the written script for the exercise if you want someone else to read it out and/or record it for you. Remember to complete your Daily Relaxation Log every day, both before and after doing your Relaxation Exercise. Circle the number that shows how you felt during the day, and the number that shows how you felt after practising the Relaxation Exercise.
Relaxation Exercise Script
Passive Progressive Muscular Relaxation
This is a Stress Management Exercise in Passive Progressive Muscular Relaxation………
You should be sitting or lying comfortably with your arms and legs uncrossed and your hands at rest……..
Allow your eyes to close……
And first of all, I want you to listen. Listen to the sounds. My voice is one of the sourds……. And if your attention wanders, that’s all right, just bring it back gently to the sounds….
And extend your awareness to your thoughts. Your thoughts are a bit like the sounds, in that they come and they go. You may be thinking in words, you may be thinking in pictures, you may be thinking in a mixture of the two…….. and……..imagine you can see your thoughts passing by on a large screen, like the credits after a film, and just watch each thought go by, and do this now…….
And now let go of the images on the screen, and continue to be aware of your thoughts passing……. And so, you have your attention on the sounds and on your thoughts………
And now extend your attention to your body. Your body is you, it’s your way of being in the world, and just notice if any parts of your body are more relaxed than others, and notice if your body is holding any tension. And keep your attention inside your body. It may wonder to your thoughts or to the sounds. That’s all right, just bring it back gently to your Body……..
And take a deep breath as you begin to relax. You can relax as much or as little as you want to……..And first of all, relax the muscles of your face. Imagine that a mask is slipping off and all the muscles of your face are relaxing……..and all the muscles just behind your face are relaxing……..and you’re letting go of any smiles, any frowns you’ve been wearing, and you’re letting go of any fixed expressions………and you’re relaxing your face until your face is communicating nothing very particular at all……… it’s just being……….
And allow that relaxation to spread into your scalp……..and down into your neck………And as each muscle relaxes you can feel that part of your body becoming just a little bit heavier than usual. So that you feel heavier and heavier and more and more relaxed.
And allow the relaxation to spread into your throat, relaxing that part of you that makes a sound out there in the world, let that part of you become silent and still for a while………
And allow the relaxation to spread into your shoulders………and down your arms and to your elbows, forearms, wrists and hands and fingers…..there is nothing that your hands have to do right now………And your shoulders, arms and hands feel heavier and heavier and more and more relaxed………
And allow the relaxation to spread down into your chest……..breathing easily and calmly now………Relaxation spreading down into the muscles of your stomach and lower abdomen. Relaxation spreading all the way down your spine……..from your neck and upper back to your lower back and buttocks. Feeling heavier and heavier and more and more relaxed……….
And allow the relaxation to spread down into your thighs…….relaxation spreading into your knees and calves……..Feeling heavier and heavier and more and more relaxed……..and allow the relaxation to spread into your ankles and into the muscles of your feet. Feel your legs and feet becoming heavier and heavier and more and more relaxed………
And there is nothing that any part of your body needs to do right now………and you can leave your body resting from the top of your head to the tips of your toes……..and all the while you are resting your body is going deeper and deeper into relaxation………and you are still aware of the sounds……..and still aware of your thoughts………and aware of your body resting, and it doesn’t matter whether you are resting lightly or deeply, because as you rest, two things are happening automatically, they happen to everyone.
And the first is that your mind and your body are busy in this rest releasing tension, that goes on automatically, you don’t have to think about it……..So when you come up out of your rest, you will feel the absence of tension, and in its place, calmness and relaxation ………
And the second thing that is happening automatically is that your mind and your body are learning to relax…….so as well as being able to rest now, you will be able to keep this relaxation with you……..because you are learning how to do it right now…….
And now imagine that you’re standing on a hill, and let this hill be somewhere quite beautiful……..it can be a real place or an imaginary place, it doesn’t matter…….you’re standing on the top of a hill………and you’re standing in the kind of weather that you like, and you’re not carrying anything so that you feel very free…..And imagine what you would be able to see from the top of this hill, the colours…….take a look up at the sky……..
And in a few moments. I’ll ask you to walk down the hill, you’ll find it very easy, and as you walk down I’ll count down from ten to one, and with each number that I say you will become more and more relaxed. And start walking down the hill now………Ten, Nine, Eight. Seven, Six, Five, Four, Three, Two, One…….
And the place at the bottom of the hill is a very safe and special place, you can make it look just as you want to………take a look around you, smell the smells, hear the sounds, look at the ground beneath your feet, and see what’s growing….. And take a moment now to explore this place……………
And this place is your place, where you can feel completely calm and completely relaxed. And you can return to this place any time you want to and you can experience the calmness and relaxation that you feel now.
And you can take this calmness and relaxation with you into your daily life. Any time you want to feel more relaxed, just count yourself down from ten to one and you will feel calm and relaxed………
And now let go of the image of this place and bring yourself back to here and to now, to the sounds to your thoughts, to your body, and let yourself just be in the present moment for a while……
And in a moment I’m going to count to five, and as I count, bring yourself gently out of your rest so that when I reach five you can open your eyes, feeling relaxed and refreshed…….
One, Two, Three, Four, Five……..Open your eyes now……..
