(calm electronic music)
- Progressive muscle relaxation.
Stress, whether you realize it or not,
creates tension in the body.
Patients with rheumatic diseases
tend to have a lot of muscle tension,
especially when trying to cope
with the daily joint stiffness and pain.
This next exercise known as progressive muscle relaxation
involves purposely tensing and relaxing
different muscles so you can more easily identify
the difference between feeling tense and feeling relaxed.
Just like the first exercise,
the end goal here is to feel less stressed.
Also, it's important to note
that you should not engage in any of these exercises
if you have pain in different parts of the body
or distress or limitations.
You should not be in any discomfort
while doing these exercises.
So feel free to modify or eliminate
any of the strategies as you see fit.
Let's practice.
Again, find a comfortable place
to either sit or lie down.
You can begin by taking a few deep, relaxing breaths.
Let's begin by bringing attention to your feet.
Curl your toes in tightly to feel
the tensing muscles of the foot,
of both feet.
Hold this for a few moments
before releasing the tension and relaxing the feet.
Do you notice the difference?
Noticing the difference between a tense and relaxed muscle
is the purpose of this exercise.
Now we're going to repeat this relaxation exercise
with different parts of the body.
Now point your feet down,
pointing the toes down toward the floor,
feeling the tension in your calf muscles.
Hold that for a few moments and release.
Once again, noticing that change
from moments of tension and moments of relaxation.
Now bringing attention to the thigh muscles,
point the toes upward toward the ceiling,
feeling the tension in the large muscles of the thighs.
Hold that for a few moments,
and when you're ready,
begin to release.
Now bring attention to the buttocks,
tightening the muscles of the buttocks
as you sit or lie on the floor.
Once again, holding this for a few moments
and gently relaxing.
Bringing attention to the belly,
to the muscles of the abdomen,
and tensing these muscles as if you're bringing
your belly button in,
pushing your belly button in toward the spine.
And holding here for a moment
and gently relaxing.
Noticing the back.
And here, just gently arching the lower back
and seeing if you can feel the tension
along the muscles in the back as you arch the back.
Hold for a moment or two,
and then slowly release.
Working our way up to the shoulders,
a place where we tend to hold a lot of tension.
Bringing your shoulders up towards your ears,
squeezing them up,
holding them for a moment,
and slowly and gently releasing the shoulders.
Now focusing on the hands,
making the hands into a fist and squeezing tightly.
Hold it another moment
and slowly release.
Now working up to the arms.
You can just gently keep the fists if you like
and bring the lower arms toward the upper arms,
pulling the forearms up towards the upper arms,
tightening the biceps,
and slowly releasing.
And finally, bringing attention to the face and the mouth.
Here we're going to squeeze our eyes tight,
holding them shut tight,
pursing the lips.
Holding for a moment and slowly relaxing.
Once you've tensed and relaxed all of these muscles,
notice how your body feels.
Allow yourself to feel totally relaxed
as you sit or lie here.
You can do this exercise daily.
If you have time,
you can tense and relax each series of muscles twice
for a more extensive relaxation exercise.
(meditative music)