Progressive Relaxation Yoga

By Eyton Shalom

Lay down on your back on a mat or blanket in a quiet, well ventilated place, wearing loose comfortable clothing. Remove your shoes, belt, necktie, brassiere, or any other restrictive tight-fitting garments.

Take a couple of deep abdominal breaths and exhale strongly through the mouth. Gently rock your head and neck sideways back and forth and allow your head to rest where it wants to. It may be center, it may be any degree to the left or right. Relax the neck.

Make a very big face, open your mouth as wide as you can, open your eyes very very wide, hold for a second or two, let go, and relax. Scrunch your face up in the opposite direction, close your eyes, purse up your mouth, and squeeze your face into a ball as tight as you can, hold for a second or two, let go, and relax. Let your face melt. Make a fist with your dominant hand. Squeeze and tighten your fist, forearm, and upper arm all the way to the shoulder and hold this voluntary tension as hard as you can without straining (keep breathing!) for a count of 1-2-3. When you reach three completely let go of your hand arm and shoulder. Repeat once or twice. The greater the tension when squeezing, the greater the relaxation when letting go. Repeat the process with your non-dominant hand.

Gently raise the forearm (hand up to the elbow) an inch off the mat, an let it drop to the floor with a thud like a ripe fruit dropping from a tree.. (Do not do this if you have any injury to the arm) Then raise the entire arm ( hand to the shoulder) an inch and let it drop like a dead weight. Do this once or twice to both arms.

Suck in the muscles of your stomach for a moment, hold, let go, and relax. Let the abdomen go. Squeeze your buttocks together as hard as you can, and let go. Repeat 2 or 3 times. Let the buttocks go. Wiggle the toes of your dominant foot. Flex the toes all the way forward and stretch them all the way backward. Relax the ankle by making clockwise and then counter clockwise circles with the toes. Repeat the process with your non-dominant foot. Let the feet go.

Rock your legs from side to side  in and out vigorously a few times. Allow the legs to fall wherever they want to, most likely to the outside. Let the legs go. Allow your fingers and toes to droop like thirsty plants.

Let your body go. Let it sink into the floor. Allow it to feel heavy like ripe fruit on a tree. Feel gravity pulling your body downward. Sink into the mat or carpet you are lying down on. Let your body go. Let it feel heavy as it sinks into the ground like water finding its source. Heavy like water.

Feel the weight of the air on your skin as you lay there. Listen to the sound of your own breathing, to the sound of the air as it crosses your upper lip. If you like, repeat the phrase, Om...relax.

Allow your thoughts to go and come. Don’t force them out and don’t hold onto them.

When you become aware that you are engaged in thinking, gently and effortlessly withdraw from the process. Let the thought go and return to silence or to the sensations of heaviness and relaxation in your body.

If you like you can chant out loud the Sanskrit non-denominational peace mantra, Aum, Shanti, Shanti, Shanti. Draw out the vowel sounds. Sing them like a Gregorian Chant to relax your throat and mind. Auuuuuummm. Shaaaaannti, Shaaaaaaannti, Shaaaaanntiiiiii. Relax. Repeat any prayer you like.

The above is referred to in Yoga as Poorna Sava Santi Asana or the Complete Corpse Pose of Peace.  In the process you become so relaxed and free of cares  that you resemble a corpse. You are no longer a part of this physical world. Your body is so heavy it becomes light as a feather. In Sufism it is suggested that when you do this pose you should adopt the attitude of a dead person whose funeral has just ended and all the mourners have gone. Alone before God, in that moment, nothing else matters.  This is not meant to be morbid, rather to help us let go of our temporal worries and remind us of the big picture.  Let someone else be in charge for a while.  This reminder helps you let go of your worries for a few moments while your battery recharges itself. Your body is a prayer.

“Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love.”
—Jalaludin Rumi, Mystic Persian Poet

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