This is about Dr.Edmund Jacobson's Progressive Relaxation technique. I learned it from a former member of his research group, Dr. Marcella Woods in Kirkland, WA in 1981.
Almost all online and text explanations purporting to be about progressive relaxation seem to be written by people who have never done it or who think they know better and are way off (Dr. Woods told me the same when she taught me). There's no "five" minute, or every muscle in your body in one session, it's not hypnosis or mind control. I think that the reason not to many folks understand this stuff well is that Jacobson and his clinical group wanted to supervise those that were going to learn or teach this. That isn't to say it's the only effective method to learn to relax but, it is the only legit "Progressive Relaxation."
There are only a few books published on Progressive Relaxation, all out of print as far as I know. I have a fifth edition of "You Must Relax" by Jacobson, printed in 1975 by McGraw Hill which, I bought on Amazon, from a used book dealer, for a few dollars.
This is really easy, it's not mysticism, or meditation. One doesn't sit in a magic pose or try to seek universal englightment. This is just about making life that much easier. BTW this technique has been clinically compared to many other relaxation techniques and it has two outstanding benefits, it works well and it's like riding a bicycle, it's hard to forget.
If you want to try it and have a question, leave it in the comments. Good Luck!
First start with undisturbed quiet during your relaxation times, that's important. No "meditation" music, incense and other distractions. Zen monks and other monks meditate in absolute quiet. When they are sitting together making odd noises and lighting tons of incense and have a wooden block being thunked, they're praying not meditating.
Here's what you do. Daily, set aside time (1/2 hour to an hour, don't use a timer, come on relax) and lay on the floor on a thin pad, yoga mat, not something too soft like a bed, or do the best you can to support your whole body (if you have physical difficulties getting on the floor with something firm). Now take a few deep breaths and go around your body from the back of your head, down your neck to your left shoulder and all around where the body touches the floor as I describe in the audio and be aware how the pressure of your body feels against the floor, release tension in muscles as you notice it. After you've gone all around, down your left arm, left back, left butt, left leg, right leg, etc. back up to your head you will be pretty relaxed. Your mind may wander as you go but, gently bring it back to the sensation against the floor and your body tensions. Just let yourself breath naturally and now the next step.
Now learning to sense muscle tension in muscles you're working during this session. In each relaxation session, work on one or two muscles or muscle areas. The audio explains each step I go through as I work on the "frown" muscles in my forehead. I start by slowly tensing my frown until it seems like "excessive tension," then I hold it until I feel I would recognize that tension in my brow anytime, then I slowly let go, and continue letting go, even beyond where I started at what seemed like no tension. After a few minutes I begin to frown again slowly, this time until it seems like "moderate tension", noticing where and how it feels as before, this time I release it all at once and continue releasing. Next and last on this muscle, I begin to think about frowning and start to gradually begin to tense, as soon as I feel tension, I do as I did in the previous step, let go all at once and continue letting go. And I'm done with the frown muscles. I then lie there for a while, letting go of muscle tension when they come to my notice then slowly bring myself to full alertness and then get up slowly. It's just better this way. I usually feel pretty rested and at ease and get on with the rest of the day.
When, you first start out work on larger muscles, like raising your limp hand and forearm and noticing tension in the upper arm in three stages as described above then to the other arm. After three days of that move on to other muscles, like clenching my fists one at a time for 3 days, then shrugging both shoulders together. As you can see it's going to take a while before you get to wrinkling your brow or pursing your lips. But, it will be time well spent.
Besides taking time to relax each day a major benefit to this technique is, that one will notice tension in the muscles throughout the day and then you can just let them go. Sometimes after a while you'll let go before you notice the tension. That's pretty cool. Some people who've done this for a while can go from standing to lying down and being completely muscularly relaxed in a fraction of second.
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