Relaxation and visualization are natural skills you can use every day. The ability to relax the body has many benefits such as strengthening your meditation practices, releasing constant thoughts, improving sleep patterns, reducing stress and negative emotions. The techniques below will assist you in practicing how to become deeply relaxed.

o Create a sacred space: Find a place in your home that is exclusively your space. Make it a peaceful, meditative space where you can have privacy. Furnish it with whatever will help you feel focused and relaxed such as candles, music, incense and pillow.

o Bathing: a hot bath will quickly relax you and promote good blood circulation. Make sure you will not be disturbed. Using Epson salts and or essential oils such as lavender, chamomile, or sage is a great way to enhance relaxation. Imagine all your discomfort and stress being washed away and going down the drain.

o Use progressive relaxation: In your sacred space, begin to tense and relax your whole body, starting with your feet and then move up the body through all your muscle groups. Start with a deep breath in, let it out. Hold each tense for the count of three, and then relax. Do this in sets of three moving next to the calf, thighs, stomach, hands, arms, neck and shoulders. Lastly, face, neck and eyes.

o The Breath Technique: Close your eyes and concentrate on breathing in through your nose and out your mouth. Feel the air coming in your nostrils and feel the air against your lips going out. Listen to the sound and the rhythm. Inhale slowly and deeply, pause a moment, then exhale slowly and completely, allowing your stomach to rise and fall as you breathe. In a few minutes you will feel more calm, comfortable and relaxed.

o One Spot Technique: Pick a spot in front of you and keep looking at it as you blink your eyes twelve times. Afterward, close your eyelids, they will feel relaxed and tired. This relaxed sensation will spread through to the rest of your body in pleasant waves.

o Mental Pictures of Relaxation: This technique is easy. Remember back to a time in your life when you felt safe, secure, calm, and relaxed. Holding the scene or object in your mind, using all your senses, that is, what it looked like, what it sounded like, what it felt like, or smelled like, will automatically relax the body. It’s called a conditioned response. You can use anything you have experienced, read, or seen in a movie.

o Simple Breath Relaxation: Breathe easily and naturally and repeat over and over a word of your choice at the exhalation. The word “Om” has found great success because it has no distracting connotations. Other words commonly used are one, relax, peace, love and or light. This practice focuses the mind and protects it from unwanted distractions. If you have any distracting thoughts, visualize them as bubbles on a stream of fast-moving clouds drifting by from your left to your right and out of sight, returning to your chosen word.

Once you get yourself to this “alpha” relaxed state, continue with your favorite visualization or meditation. One of my favorite visualization exercises I use often for manifesting prosperity is to create and view a movie of myself already having and enjoying what I wish for in my life. Be, do, think, act, feel, dress, walk, talk and move as if it has already happened. Begin with a 15 minute relaxation routine. After a few times, your body will have the memory of what it’s like to be relaxed. This will allow you to move into a 5 minute relaxation routine followed by your meditation practice. I also recommend one of the above techniques as a great antidote for insomnia. Try it in bed and then drift off to sleep.

Whether you have a high stress job such as an airline pilot and have to sit in one cramped place for long hours at a time or you are the worn out mother of a toddler on the run from morning till night, you can feel like your nerves are shot to pieces. You probably crave genuine relaxation but doubt you can achieve it.

No matter what your situation, the answer to your stress may be as simple as progressive muscle relaxation. This technique originated in the 1930s and is still popular today. This method of relaxation is simple; muscle groups are flexed then systematically relaxed. The idea behind progressive muscle relaxation is that by relaxing the muscles, your mind also becomes relaxed. Furthermore, this technique does not require any special training. In fact, anyone can do it.

Ideally, muscle relaxation should be practiced between ten to twenty minutes every day. It’s okay if you don’t get it right the first time. Be prepared to develop your ability to relax gradually if necessary. By practicing regularly you will quickly become competent at progressive muscle relaxation and will be able to better deal with the stress in your life. If you are willing to be patient and persistent, the effort will be worth it.

Progressive muscle relaxation is considered to be a deep relaxation technique which means that it is not only beneficial for stress reduction but also for the alleviation of chronic pain and insomnia. Migraines and cancer symptoms have also been helped by this method. Most of the time, the feet and legs are relaxed first. From there, the muscles are flexed and relaxed all the way up the body to the face. However, this order is not set in concrete and some physicians teach their patients to do it differently.

As you develop your ability to flex and relax the muscles of your body, you can increase the tension to gain more benefit. This technique should only be attempted when you can be quiet and uninterrupted or it may be difficult to complete the whole body exercise. First, tighten your muscles for around eight seconds and then release the tension. Relax for about half a minute before moving on to the next set of muscles. It can be helpful to use this relaxation technique in conjunction with imagery. For example, you could imagine you are like an ocean wave with power unleashed when flexed muscles are released.

Progressive muscle relaxation also helps you to interpret your body’s messages. Increased sensitivity to these cues can help you to recognize signs of tension in your body. Once recognized you can work out ways to overcome it. Consequently, you will likely feel less stressed and more relaxed. In fact, you may even feel more energized. Progressive muscle relaxation has a long history of producing excellent results which means you can be confident that it is a legitimate approach to relaxation and stress reduction.

Your first session of relaxation will take about an hour if you do exercises such as making a fist, bending your arms, clenching and releasing teeth, lifting and lowering shoulders, bending arms and lifting and lowering heals. These exercises are in addition to the flexing and relaxing of muscles from toe to top. With practice your muscle relaxation exercises will become natural. Don’t try to fast track these exercises; the goal is relaxation. Perhaps they’d make a great addition to a Sunday afternoon or a Saturday morning after a busy week. Whenever you can take time out to focus on relaxing, these exercises can help you release a lot of built up tension and improve your physical and emotional well being.

Progressive muscle relaxation works well for everyone. No matter what your vocation in life and irrespective of the cause of the stress in your life, relaxation exercises can improve your sense of well being and your life overall. You may have a high stress way of interacting with the world but you can still learn to do these exercises and change your approach. It can be hard if you are a Type A personality but it is still possible. If you make progressive muscle relaxation a regular part of your life you will be less stressed, happier, healthier and more energetic. In fact, the time you spend on relaxation will be the most valuable time of your week.