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The Relaxation Response is a simple practice that, once learned, can help relieve stress and tension. Learning and putting into practice such techniques can significantly improve your mental, emotional, and physical health.

The term Relaxation Response was coined by Herbert Benson, M.D., at Harvard Medical School (Benson, 2000). Read the following meditation to clients to effectively invoke the Relaxation Response. Depending on the client’s experience with meditation, vary the pause near the end between 30 seconds and several minutes.

Find yourself a comfortable position either sitting in a chair with feet flat on the floor, hands on thighs with palms facing up; or lying on your back with arms and legs uncrossed and arms lying by your side palms up.

Now take a deep breath in through your nose to the count of 4 and exhale through your mouth like you are blowing a bubble to the count of 8. Do it again. Breathe in relaxation and peace. As you exhale relax your mind and exhale tension and worry. Do it one more time, inhale a cushion of healing energy and as you exhale relax your body.

Now bring your attention to your feet. Notice what you carry there in your toes, arches, heels, and balls and tops of your feet. Let go of anything that needs to go and let it flow down through the ends of your toes and onto the floor.

Now focus on your ankles. Notice if there is any tightness or discomfort and let it flow down through your feet, right through the ends of your toes and onto the floor.

Now bring your attention to you calves and shins. Just notice what’s there and let go of anything that needs to go. Let it flow down through your ankles, through your feet, and right out through the ends of your toes and onto the floor.

Now pay attention to your knees. Notice what’s there and let healing energy flow down from your knees through your calves and shins, through your feet, and right through the ends of your toes and onto the floor.

Now bring your awareness to your thighs, fronts, backs, sides, and insides. Release anything that needs to go and let it flow down through your knees, through your calves and shins, through your feet, and right through the ends of your toes and onto the floor.

Concentrate on your bottom. Move back and forth ever so slightly to release tension stored there.

Let it flow down through your thighs, through your knees, through your calves and shins, through your feet, and right through the ends of your toes and onto the floor.

Now focus on your entire legs and feet. Take a slow, deep breath and fill your legs and feet with a cushion of healing energy. As you exhale slowly let anything that needs to go flow gently out with your breath.

of it. Let it flow down through your bottom, through your thighs, through your knees, through your calves and shins, through your feet, and right through the ends of your toes and onto the floor.

Pay attention to your abdomen and notice how it feels. Let go of any tightness or discomfort and let it flow down through your thighs, through your knees, through your calves and shins, through your feet, and right through the ends of your toes and onto the floor.

Now bring your awareness to your stomach area. Picture in your mind’s eye a rope that is twisted, coiled and tied in a tight knot. As you watch this rope it un-ties, uncoils, untwists until it is hanging limply. Imagine this happening to your stomach area as your release tension there and let it flow down through your abdomen, through your thighs, through your knees, through your calves and shins, through your feet, and right through the ends of your toes and onto the floor.

Now focus on your chest. Take a deep breath and fill your lungs with a cushion of healing air and as you exhale release anything that needs to go. Do it again, inhale peace and comfort and as you exhale relax your mind and body.

Bring your focus to your heart. Inhale through your heart and imagine feelings of appreciation and gratitude. Spend a moment here.

Now bring your attention to your back, your middle and upper back. Lots of tension gets stored here and you don’t need it. Let it flow down through your lower back, your bottom, your thighs, your knees, your calves and shins, your feet, and right through the ends of your toes and onto the floor.

Now focus on your shoulders, throat and neck. Move your head back and forth ever so gently to release the tension stored there. Let it flow down through your back, your lower back, your bottom, your thighs, your knees, your calves and shins, your feet, and right through the ends of your toes and onto the floor.

Now pay attention to your hands including your fingers, thumbs, palms, and the backs of your hands. Notice what you are carrying there and let go of anything that needs to be let go. Let it flow right through the ends of your fingers and onto the floor.

Pay attention to your arms from your shoulders, upper arms, elbows, forearms, and wrists. Let any tightness stored there flow down through your arms and wrists, hands and right through the ends of your fingers and onto the floor.

Bring your attention to your face and jaw. Tighten up your checks into a huge smile and hold for a few seconds then let go. Now scrunch up your forehead and close your eyes tight, tight, tight, and then release. Relax your jaw, open your mouth slightly and allow your jaw to hang loosely.

Place your tongue lightly on the bottom of your mouth behind your lower teeth. Feel the release in your jaw. Expand your awareness to your scalp from your forehead down to your ears and around to the base of your skull. Let any tension that was stored in your face, jaw and scalp flow down through your chest, abdomen, legs, feet, and right through the ends of your toes and onto the floor.

Now take a quick inventory of your body and notice any areas of discomfort or tightness. Take a deep breath in through your nose and fill those areas of your body with a cushion of healing energy and let it flow out as your exhale slowly through your mouth. Do it again. Inhale a cushion of light and healing and then exhale anything that needs to go.

Now that your whole body is relaxed, know that every part of your body is working exactly as it was designed to work. Blood and energy are flowing freely bringing healing, oxygen and nutrients to every part of your body. Tune in to this feeling of total relaxation.

Enjoy this warm, safe place for a few minutes.

Pause. (Vary this time to suit client needs)

When you are ready slowly bring your awareness back to the room. Open your eyes when you are ready.

Bring this relaxed feeling with you as you return to alertness. Remember this feeling any time you need to invoke your relaxation response.

THEORY: Progressive muscle relaxation is a systematic technique for achieving a deep state of relaxation. It was developed by Dr. Edmund Jacobson more than 50 years ago (Jacobson, 2012). Dr.

Jacobson discovered that a muscle could be relaxed by first tensing it for a few seconds and then releasing it. Tensing and releasing various muscle groups throughout the body produces a deep state of relaxation, which Dr. Jacobson found capable of relieving a variety of conditions, from high blood pressure to ulcerative colitis.

Keep in mind that the body can be relaxed at the same time the brain is alert. This is the definition of peak performance. Practicing progressive relaxation leads to the ability to evoke a physical relaxation on demand in a few moments just by remembering how the body felt at the end of the relaxation meditation and doing two or three deep cleansing breaths to invoke it.

IMPLEMENTATION: Read the following explanation to your client. Progressive muscle relaxation is a systematic technique for achieving a deep state of relaxation. Dr. Jacobsen’s progressive muscle relaxation involves tensing and relaxing, in succession, 16 different muscle groups of the body. The idea is to tense each muscle group hard (without straining) for about 10 seconds, and then to let go of it suddenly. Then relax for 15 to 20 seconds, noticing how the muscle group feels when relaxed in contrast to how it felt when tensed, before going on to the next group of muscles. You might also say to yourself: “Relaxing, relaxing,” “Letting go, letting go,” “Letting go of everything that needs to go,”

or any other relaxing phrase during each relaxation period between successive muscle groups.

Throughout the exercise, maintain your focus on your muscles. When your attention wanders, bring it back to the particular muscle group you’re working on.

Read Handout 9-3 to your client and demonstrate each muscle group for them as you go along. Reflect on their experience afterward. Encourage them to practice this at home on their own.

PROCESSING: Ask your client to reflect on what they experienced while doing the Progressive Muscle Relaxation Meditation. Were they able to notice the difference between a tense muscle and a relaxed muscle? Did they feel more relaxed at the end of the meditation? How did they handle distracting thoughts? Did they experience any particular emotions during the exercise? In what ways does practicing this mindfulness technique help them?

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