Muscle Relaxation Technique and Guided Imagery (FREE)

Preparation

Lie down flat on your back, on a firm bed, a couch, or on the floor. Support your head and neck with a pillow or cushion. Alternatively, sit in a comfortable chair with your head well-supported. Close your eyes if you are comfortable doing so.

Wear comfortable clothing and have a comfortable chair to sit on with backrest. Kindly keep a pen and paper nearby.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Our bodies respond automatically to stressful situations and thoughts by becoming tense. The opposite relationship also works: a good way of relaxing the mind is to deliberately relax the body.

In a progressive muscle relaxation each muscle group is tensed in turn, and the tension is then released. This relaxed the muscles and allows you to notice the contrast between tension and relaxation.

Relaxation should be enjoyable so if any part of the exercise is too difficult skip it for the moment. If you have any injuries you may wish to leave out that part of the exercise.

Guided Imagery

Guided imagery (sometimes called guided meditation, visualization, mental rehearsal, and guided self-hypnosis) It is a gentle but powerful technique that focuses the imagination in proactive, positive ways. It can be as simple as an athlete’s 5-second pause, just before leaping off the diving board, imagining how a perfect dive feels when slicing through the water. Or it can be as complex as imagining the busy, focused buzz of thousands of loyal immune cells, swarming out of the thymus gland on a search and destroy mission to wipe out unsuspecting cancer cells.

What It Is & What It Isn’t

Although it has been called visualization, mental rehearsal and mental imagery, these terms are misleading. Guided imagery involves all the senses, not just the visual sense – a good thing, since only 55% of the population is strongly wired visually – and it is experienced throughout the body, not just mentally. And because it catalyzes a naturally immersive altered state, it is rightly called a form of self-hypnosis as well. Guided Imagery is a form of meditation, and can be used interchangeably with the term Guided Meditation.

About Vanora Lobo

Vanora is a Counseling Psychologist with an M.Sc in Counseling Psychology from Sampurna Institute of Advance Studies Bangalore. She also hold a Post – Graduate Diploma in Guidance and Counseling from Nirmala Centre of Educational Excellence Goa.

She has worked in leading educational institutions, namely at Carmel College of Arts, Science and Commerce for Women and St. Josephs College of Commerce as a college counselor. Her work on ‘HOPE KEEPS US GOING’ was featured in the local ‘O Herald’ newspaper on the occasion of ‘World Mental Health Day’. She has conducted workshops and Life - skills training in schools and colleges across Bangalore and Goa. Her expertise lies in dealing with children, adolescents and early adults. She has worked with adults, couples and families too.

Vanora is fluent in Konkani, Hindi & English.