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Monday, November 2, 2009

How Progressive Muscle Relaxation Helps Reducing Stress

Posted on 10:42 PM by Anonymous

If you notice carefully, you will see that a back pain or aching in neck usually arises when you are anxious or stressed. This happens due to muscle tension which is the usual response of our body to anxiety or stress in our life and progressive muscle relaxation is a good technique of relieving that muscle tension, resulting a much better stress management.

Key Points to Progressive Muscle Relaxation: The procedure is simple and easy to do. Just find a place where you can lie down comfortably and you can perform it anytime you want. The key objective of this stress reduction technique is to tense a particular group of muscles by breathing in, and then make them relaxed through breathing out. And of course, the procedure should be done by following certain order. Moreover, this method may help you with sleeping problems as well.

The Procedure: First, you have to learn about the different muscle groups and memorize the exercise. Then select a place to lie down on your back where you won’t be disturbed and can stretch comfortably like a carpeted floor.

• Breathe in to tense a muscle group hard but not up to the level of pain for 4-10 seconds.

• Breathe out to relax the muscle group suddenly and completely, not gradually.

• Take rest for 10-20 seconds before being started for the next muscle group.

• To bring your spotlight back to the current state, count backward from 10 to 1 when you are done with all the muscle groups

When you have learned the technique for all muscle groups, you can do the precise practice for tensing and relaxing a particular muscle group whenever it is tensed.

The Muscle Groups: Here you can find the muscle groups and what to do to work on them. However, remember to lie down before you go through the process.

• Hands: Clench them

• Forearms and Wrists: Extend and bend them back at the wrist.

• Upper Arms and Biceps: Clench hands into fists, twist arms and the elbows and bend your biceps

• Shoulders: Wave them by rising toward your ears.

• Forehead: Crumple it into a deep scowl.

• Bridge of the Nose and Around the Eyes: Close the eyes as forcefully as you can. Remember to remove contact lenses earlier to do this exercise.

• Jaws and Cheeks: Smile as broadly as you can.

• Front of the Neck: Touch your chin to chest. Don’t create tension in you head and neck doing this.

• Back of the Neck: Press the backside of head against the floor.

• Around the Mouth: Press the lips together compactly. Don’t give tension to your face since you have to use only your lips.

• Chest: Take in a deep breath and keep it for 5-10 seconds.

• Stomach: Suck it into a stretched knot. Don’t give tension to your stomach or chest.

• Back: Arch your back away from the floor in the upper direction.

• Thighs: Clench them durably.

• Hips and Buttocks: Push your buttocks tightly together.

• Lower Legs: Point toes towards the face. The point them away and twist them downward simultaneously.

Learning these exercises and adopting them in your daily life will radically change your life and you will be able to uphold an efficient stress management.

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