If you have not been recommended this before – you are in for a hopefully delightful surprise. Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) has become a highly recommended technique for all who engage with therapy.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation aims to support you to force the body to relax by actually tensing your muscles to begin with. With Progressive Muscle Relaxation you aim to work through each part of the body, starting with tensing your fists.

• Tense your fists for 5 seconds, release them, and do this two more times
• Next, move on to tensing your arms by folding your arms at the elbow, towards your shoulders, then release them back down, repeat two more times
• Next, tense your shoulders up to your ears, repeat twice again
• Next, move on to clenching your feet, repeat this twice again
• Next, tense your leg muscles, repeat this two more times
• Finish with three big breathes, in and out

By the end of this you should be feeling more relaxed, if not you can go through this process over and over until you feel more relaxed.

This is a great activity that you can complete anywhere – at your work, out with friends, lying in bed late at night (a key location for myself, personally). Try it out and see how you feel… I'm hoping that you will be feeling more relaxed.

For those who like a visual to follow I would recommend watching and following this Youtube video which highlights which muscles you're tensing as you go:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihO02wUzgkc