It is my pleasure to be talking to you today about mindfulness.
My name is Doctor Ashley Yaugher and I am a Health and Wellness
faculty and HEART faculty at Utah State University
Extension.
Today, I want to talk to you about mindfulness
and we're going to do a progressive muscle relaxation
activity.
But before we talk and do our activity,
I would like to just go over some of what mindfulness is.
So mindfulness is about being present in the moment
and just focusing on the here and now.
So there's a few skills with mindfulness that we practice,
including the what skills.
And so what is mindfulness or some of those what skills.
That includes things like being observant and paying attention
to what you're seeing, feeling, thinking, or anything
around you.
Describe and being descriptive of what you're seeing,
hearing, feeling, and participating fully.
And these three things can really
help you get into the experience of mindfulness
and that is what it is.
Right.
So you're observing.
You're describing, and you're participating.
And how do we do that?
There are some skills that go into the
how skills of mindfulness.
So how we do this is non-judgmentally.
We take away the judgment.
Right.
We can describe something as my shirt is blue
and that's a description.
Or I could judge that and say, I love the color blue
or I don't like the color blue and that
could be a positive or a negative judgment.
So we're just going to let judgments go and say,
for example, it's blue.
Just describe what you're seeing or what you're feeling.
You're going to focus on the present moment,
and if you notice thoughts coming
to your mind or things that are distracting,
you can notice them and let go.
Notice and let go.
And bring your thoughts back to the present moment
and your focus on the present moment.
And last, those how skills, it's really important to do what
works for you with mindfulness.
There's a ton of different mindfulness practices
and activities out there.
It's really important to find what works best for you.
Some people like really active mindfulness activities,
and we're going to do a slightly more active one today.
Others like really calm, relaxing
mindfulness activities that incorporate sound or music.
So now that we've talked briefly about the what and the
how skills of mindfulness, I'd like
to invite you to close your eyes.
Get into a relaxed position.
If you're not comfortable closing your eyes,
you can look down or at the computer screen.
Whatever's comfortable for you, and I
want you to take a big deep breath in and out.
And as we go through this exercise,
I want you to continue to deeply breathe in and out.
And this exercise is called progressive muscle relaxation.
And we're going to start at the bottom of our feet
and work our way all the way up to our heads.
So each muscle, we're going to progressively tense
and hold as tight as we can and move our way up.
And we're going to relax.
Starting with our toes.
So while you're continuing to breathe deeply in and out,
I invite you to hold your toes as tight as you can,
pushing them into the ground or curling them under your feet
if you are able.
Hold it.
Feeling that tightness in your feet and then relax.
Letting it go and letting the blood flow back into your feet.
Next, we're going to tense our calves
by pushing our feet into the ground or your heels
into the ground.
You can lift your legs up, whatever
works for you to tense your calf muscles in your leg
and hold it tight.
And then let go, letting all that warmth flow
into your calf muscles, feet, legs.
Noticing the relaxation that you're feeling
and bringing your mind back to the moment.
Noticing the sensations that you're feeling,
other pressure points, other sensations in your body,
sounds that you might be able to hear.
Just being present in this moment.
Next, we're going to tense our thighs by pressing our knees
tightly together and hold it.
And then let go and relax, letting your legs fall
to the floor, letting the relaxation wash
over your legs and feet.
Feeling much more relaxed.
All the while continuing to breathe deeply in and out.
Next, we're going to tighten our entire bottom half of our body
by lifting our legs, if you're able.
Again, remember doing what works for you.
If you have any injuries or things
that make it so you can't do any one of these exercises,
that's OK.
Just focus on your breathing and we'll continue to move forward.
And I'd like to invite you to tense your whole bottom
half by pushing your legs together,
lifting your feet off the ground if you're able.
And clenching all of that all the way up
through your buttocks, your thighs, your calves,
and your toes.
Holding it tight and then letting it go
and letting your legs relax.
Continuing to take deep breaths as we're going,
focusing on the present moment.
Feeling more and more relaxed.
Next, we're going to move up to your abdomen and your stomach
and you're going to hold that tight.
Hold it.
You might have to suck your stomach in and then relax.
Letting it go.
Feeling that relaxation in your stomach, your legs,
and your feet.
Next, we're going to tense the bottom part of our back
by just arching our back slightly,
feeling that tense in your shoulders, your lower back.
Almost like you have a ball in the back of your back
and you're lifting your back just a little bit,
holding it tight.
Continuing to breathe and hold it and relax.
Relax your shoulders.
Relax your lower back and sink deeper into the chair.
Noticing how relaxed your feet, your stomach, and your back
are at this moment.
Next, we're going to move on to our arms.
And you're going to tense your arms and hold your arms
and a Lance Armstrong pose, tensing your biceps.
Holding it tense.
Hold it and let go and relax.
Take a deep breath in and out.
Noticing how relaxed your arms are
starting to feel, your back, your stomach, your legs,
and your feet.
Next, we're going to focus on our hands.
I want you to tense your hands in a fist,
holding it as tight as you can.
Hold it and release and relax your hand.
You might want to wiggle your fingers
or let your hands just fall to your sides and relax.
Feeling the warmth flow into your hands, your arms,
and through your body.
Next, we're going to relax our neck.
And you can do this by tensing to one side.
Just lean your head to one shoulder and hold it there.
Just let your head fall to one side.
Hold it there, continuing to breathe,
then bring your head back up to the center
and switch sides to the other side.
And hold it there and relax your neck, your back, and your legs.
Now, bring your neck and your head
back up to your center position and tilt your head
until your chin is as close to your chest as possible.
So you're stretching the back of your neck and hold it.
Feeling that relaxation in our neck,
just letting your head rest, facing down,
and bring your head back up to center position.
Next, we're going to just look right up at the ceiling,
leaning your head back on that last position for your neck.
Remembering to breathe deeply in and out.
OK.
Bring your neck back up to center position,
noticing the relaxation now that you're feeling in your neck.
Taking a moment to recognize the difference between your feet,
your legs, your stomach, your back, your arms, now your neck.
Noticing how relaxed you feel in this moment.
Next, we are going to lift our shoulders to our ears,
holding our shoulders tight.
Hold it.
We keep a lot of strain in our shoulders,
so it's good to hold this tight and then let go.
And notice the warmth flowing in to your shoulders,
getting more and more relaxed.
Next, we're just going to scrunch our whole face,
and you can do this however is comfortable for you.
I encourage you to clench your jaw and your eyes
tightly as close as you can and hold it.
Hold it tight.
Noticing that tight sensation in your face and then let go.
Relaxing your jaw, your eyes, and your face.
Next, I want you to do a body scan and notice anywhere else
in your body that you might be feeling tense in this moment.
Continuing to breathe deeply in and out.
And if you notice anywhere that might still be tense,
I invite you to hold that, intense that muscle,
whether it be your neck, your hands, your back, and then
release.
Noticing that area feeling more and more relaxed.
Take one more deep breath in and out.
And that completes our full body scan and progressive muscle
relaxation.
I hope you're noticing that your arms, your legs, your feet,
all the way up to your head or feeling more relaxed.
And this was just one example of many
of our mindfulness activities.
I encourage you to explore and find what works best for you.
If you'd like to see more videos like this,
we do monthly videos as the HEART Initiative
at USU Extension and we invite you to follow us there
or join our newsletter and check out some
of our other quick courses.
And we appreciate the time that you've spent with us today.