Progressive Muscle Relaxation For Chronic Dizziness

Welcome to progressive muscle relaxation for chronic dizziness.

Today we're going to focus on a series of tensing and relaxing different muscle groups in your body to help with nervous system regulation and overall well-being.

This type of meditation is best for those who prefer a more active form of mindfulness meditation,

A more active way of being in the present moment.

It's great for people who maybe struggle with just sitting still,

Maybe it's hard to calm your mind,

You prefer to listen to someone who tell you kind of exactly what to do throughout,

So this is a great place to start.

So before we start I want to let you know when I ask you to tense each muscle I want you to tense it fully unless you have some sort of injury and what tense it fully means is create tension to your full capacity.

So if I ask you to take make a fist for example you'd want to do that as tight as you can and when I ask you to release I want you to release it all at once not slowly.

So we want to create the biggest contrast between tension and relaxation because that's how our brains can best interpret that type of input.

So we're going to start with your dominant hand and I'm going to throw out say dominant versus non-dominant so if you're right-handed that would be your right you would start with your right hand if you're left-handed you would start with your left and so on.

The tension is going to last about five to seven seconds and relaxation will be longer it will be more like 20 to 30 seconds so just follow along with my voice if you find your mind wandering that is perfectly okay just gently bring it back.

So let's get started.

Find yourself in a comfortable seated position or lying down whichever is more comfortable for you although I do prefer that you stay awake for this meditation so we can learn to be awake and relaxed rather than either being in fight-or-flight or being asleep if that makes sense.

If you can close your eyes go ahead and do so now if you're not at that place if you still are struggling with visual dependence maybe closing your eyes makes you feel a more off-balance more sway then just let your eyes soften the focus of your eyes soften.

So I want you to focus all of your attention on the muscles of your right hand and lower arm.

To tense these muscles in your right hand and right lower arm I want you to make a tight fist now so you'll feel the tension across your knuckles and over the back of your hand and release all of it now.

So just let the muscles go notice the difference between tension and relaxation focus on the feelings in that muscle group as they become increasingly relaxed remember to breathe I don't want you holding your breath throughout this so we're going to move up the arm so now I want you to focus all of your attention on the muscles of your right bicep to tense these muscles if you have an arm on your chair you're either going to push your elbow into that arm to create tension in your bicep or you can do more of a bicep curl meaning taking your lower arm and hand up towards your shoulder to create tension in your bicep so go ahead and do that now so you're going to feel that tension in your bicep and your upper arm tense it fully and release let your arm feel heavy on the chair or on your lap just let the muscles go notice the difference between how it felt to be tense versus how it now feels to be relaxed notice any change in sensation you might notice warmth tingling pins and needles maybe just focus on that with curiosity we don't need to have any narrative around it just noticing any new sensations now we're going to focus all of your attention on the muscles of your left hand sorry you're now I want you to focus all of your attention on the muscles of your non-dominant hand and lower arm so to tense the muscles of your non-dominant hand and lower arm you're going to do the same thing as you did on the other side so go ahead and make a tight fist now feel that tension across your knuckles over the back of your hand and fully release now remember to breathe keep all of your attention on those muscles that they become increasingly relaxed if you find your mind wandering it's perfectly okay perfectly normal just bring it back to the muscle group we are working on right now which is the non-dominant hand and lower arm so now we're going to move up the arm to the non-dominant bicep so again do a mirror image of what you did on the other side you can either tense this by putting your elbow into the arm of a chair or you can do a bicep curl go ahead and do that now so feel that tension in your bicep in the upper part of your arm and fully release now so just let those muscles go notice any new sensations and temperature maybe some tingling make sure you're continuing to breathe just notice how it felt for the muscles to be tense versus how they feel relaxed now I want you to focus your attention on the upper muscles of the face so to tense the upper part of your face you're going to lift your eyebrows as high as you can go ahead and do that now you'll feel the tension in your forehead across your scalp and release so just let the muscles go let your forehead relax if you feel any tension in the sockets of your eyes let that relax let your jaw relax and just focus on the feelings of this muscle group as it becomes increasingly relaxed now we're going to focus on the central part of the face so to tense these muscles I want you to squint your eyes tightly and at the same time wrinkle up your nose go ahead and do that now so you'll feel that tension in your eyes and your nose maybe in your upper lip and release let those muscles go make sure you're continuing to breathe noticing any new sensations of how it feels to be relaxed you're training your brain this is what muscle relaxation feels like if your mind is wandering just bring it back and we're going to move down to the muscles in the lower part of the face so to tense these muscles you're going to bite your teeth together and pull the corners of your mouth back I will say if you have any jaw issues go lightly with this one so bite teeth together pull the corners of your mouth back go ahead and do that now so you'll feel tension across your jaw maybe a little bit in your neck and release let your jaw relax let your eyes relax notice any difference between tension and relaxation and make sure you're continuing to breathe into this muscle group as it becomes increasingly relaxed now you're going to focus your attention on your neck and throat so to create tension here I'm going to ask you to pull your chin down towards your chest at the same time you're going to try to prevent it from actually touching your chest so you'll feel some tension in the front stretch in the back so chin towards your chest to prevent it from actually touching your chest go ahead and do that now so feel that tension in the front part of your neck that stretch in the back and release so let your head rest back on perhaps the bed or the couch or the floor and just focus all of your attention on the feelings in this muscle group as it becomes increasingly relaxed now we're going to combine a few muscle groups we're going to combine the chest shoulders and upper back so to tense these you're going to take a deep breath hold it and at the same time pull your shoulder blades together in the back as if you're trying to make them touch so deep breath hold it shoulder blades together in the back go ahead and do that now so you'll feel that tension in your back you'll feel a stretch in the chest and release so let your back feel heavy against the chair let those muscles go make sure you're continuing to breathe and focusing on the difference between tension and relaxation moving down to the abdominal area so I want you to focus all of your attention on your abs so to create tension here I want you to flex your abdominal muscles as if you were preparing for someone to hit you in the stomach so go ahead and do that now I feel that tension in the mid region of your body and release so again let the chair or bed completely hold you up let those muscles go notice the difference between tension and relaxation and notice any new sensations that have come with the sense of relaxation now I want you to focus all of your attention on the dominant upper leg the dominant thigh quadricep so you're going to tense the muscles by either pushing your heel into the ground to create tension in your thigh or you can lift your leg up off the ground so it's parallel to the ground to create muscle tension that way so go ahead and do that now now you're going to focus all of your attention on your dominant upper leg your dominant thigh so you can do this two ways you can either tense the muscle by pushing your heel into the ground and creating tension in your quadriceps that way or if you're sitting up you can lift your foot off the ground so that your leg is parallel to the ground like a leg lift so go ahead and do that now so you'll feel the tension in your dominant thigh and your quads and release make sure you're continuing to breathe just let the muscles go let your leg sink into the chair or into the bed if you're lying down let your foot sink into the ground if you're sitting and just continue to notice the difference between tension and relaxation now we're going to move down to the calf the dominant calf or lower leg so to do this two options so you can either push your heel into the ground and pull your toe up towards the sky that would create more of a stretch or you can go on the ball of your foot and create tension that way so go ahead and choose what you think would be best for you and do that now feel that tension through the calf and release so let your foot feel heavy let your leg completely sink and relax notice any new sensations since you've engaged this relaxation remember we're teaching our brains how it feels for our muscles to be relaxed and make sure you continue to breathe if your mind is wandering just bring it back now we're going to focus all of your attention on the muscles of your dominant foot so this one you want to go a little bit lightly I don't want you to get a cramp in the arch of your foot but to tense your dominant foot you're going to point your toe turn your foot inward towards your other foot and at the same time you're going to curl your toes so point turn inward and curl go ahead and do that now you'll feel the tension in your ankle and your foot and release let your foot feel heavy notice any new sensations that have come up since you felt the difference now between tension and relaxation and just focus on the feelings in the muscle group as they become increasingly relaxed now let's take your attention back up to the non-dominant leg so whatever you did on the dominant leg go ahead and mirror image to create muscles in that quadricep go ahead and do that now so you'll feel that tension in the upper thigh and release so just let those muscles go let your leg feel heavy and completely supported by the chair by the bed by the ground keep all of your attention on that muscle group that non-dominant thigh and make sure you're continuing to breathe we're going to move down now to the non-dominant calf again you can either pull your toes up towards the sky or go up on the ball of your foot to create tension in that calf go ahead and do that now and release so let those muscles go notice the difference between tension and relaxation and focus all of your attention on the feelings in that muscle group as they become increasingly relaxed now we're going to move down to the non-dominant foot so again go a bit easy on this one point your toe turn your foot inward at the same time curl your toes go ahead and do that now and release so just let those muscles go let your foot feel completely heavy relaxed notice any new sensations that have come up make sure you're continuing to breathe if your mind has wandered that is okay just bring it back to the exercise now I'm going to give you about two minutes to sit quietly so I want you to just kind of scan up and down your body and notice any sensations of tension that have come back and breathe into them so you might focus on muscle sensations you might change to focus on your breath at times so I'll be back with you in a few minutes to walk you out of this exercise so to come out of this exercise I'm going to ask you to orient yourself in the room so first gently move your fingers gently move your toes next stretch your neck your back you might wiggle your arms and legs and finally if your eyes had been closed gently open your eyes so I hope you enjoyed progressive muscle relaxation today and know you can come back to this anytime you need to work on retraining your body your brain to become more familiar with muscle relaxation