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A mindfulness practice every Sunday

Presence ← Presence

Guided practice

Paired muscle relaxation

Tense, let go all at once, notice the difference. Follow the ring — once you have the rhythm you can close your eyes.

One round through four muscle groups, a bell at each change.

How to do it

  1. Squeeze the muscle group as hard as you can for five seconds, breathing in.
  2. Let go all at once as you breathe out. Say relax to yourself.
  3. Stay ten seconds and notice how different it feels.
  4. Move on: face, then shoulders and hands, then stomach, then legs and feet.

The sudden release is what matters. Easing off slowly blunts the contrast — and the contrast is how your body learns to recognise tension at all.

Before you start. Tense firmly, never to cramping or pain. Skip anywhere injured. Keep breathing throughout. Sitting or lying down both work — lying down usually goes deeper.

How often

A full session is ten to twenty minutes, so let it loop rather than doing one round. Daily for the first two weeks — ideally morning and evening — then a few times a week to keep it. Most people notice the difference somewhere in the second week.

Where it comes from

Standard progressive muscle relaxation, shortened to the four-group version that still has research behind it. Pairing the release with the word relax comes from dialectical behaviour therapy.