Try some of these techniques to help your body and mind relax.
Squeeze the lemon
Pretend you have a whole lemon in your left hand.- Try to squeeze all the juice out.
- Feel the tightness in your arm as you squeeze.
- Now drop the lemon. Notice how your muscles are relaxed.
- Take another lemon and squeeze it in your right hand. Try to squeeze this harder that you did the first – really hard.
- Now drop your lemon and relax.
- See how much better your hand and arm feel when you are relaxed?
Big fat puddle
Pretend that you are standing in your bare feet in a big fat muddy puddle.- Squish your toes down deep into the mud. Try to get your feet down to the bottom of the mud puddle. You’ll probably need your legs to help you push. Squish your toes down. Push your feet, hard! (hold for 10 seconds).
- Now step right out of the mud.
- Relax your feet, relax your legs, and relax your toes. Let your toes go loose and see how nice that feels. It feels good to be relaxed.
- Back in to the muddy puddle, squish your toes right down. Let your legs help push your toes right down. Push your feet down harder… harder still!
- Ok, step back out of the puddle.
- Relax your feet, relax your legs, and relax your toes. Let your toes go loose and see how nice that feels. It feels good to be relaxed. No tenseness anywhere. You feel warn and tingly.
The turtle
Pretend you are a turtle.- You are sitting on a rock by a nice peaceful pond, just relaxing in the warm sun. It feels nice and warm and safe here.
- Uh oh! You sense danger. Pull your head into your shell. Try to pull your shoulders up to your ears and push your head down into your shoulders. Hold it tight! (Hold for 10 seconds) It isn’t easy being a turtle in a shell.
- Okay, the danger is past now, you can relax in the warm sunshine again.
- Watch out! Here comes more danger, hurry, pull your head back into your shell and hold it tight. Feel the tenseness in your neck and shoulders.
- Okay, you can come back out now. Feel your shoulders relax. There’s no more danger, nothing to worry about.
The fly
Here comes a pesky old fly and he has landed on your nose! Try to get him off without using your hands.- Wrinkle up your nose. Make as many wrinkles in your nose as you can. Scrunch up your nose real hard and hold it just as tight as you can (hold for 10 seconds).
- Good, you’ve chased him away. Now you can just relax your nose and let your whole face go smooth.
- Argh, here he comes again, right in the middle of your nose!
- Wrinkle your nose again very tightly. Notice that when you scrunch up your nose, your cheeks and your mouth and your forehead and your eyes all help you and they get tight, too. Make lots of tight wrinkles to scare him off. Hold it tight.
- Ok you can let go now, he’s gone for good! Let your face go smooth, no wrinkles anywhere.
The tummy balloon
Put one hand on your tummy. Breathe in and out – slowly and deeply. Feel your hand moving up and down. Imagine a balloon inside your tummy.- As you breathe in, blow up the balloon. As you breathe out, empty the balloon.
- Blow up the balloon again as hard as you can. Harder! Make it the biggest balloon you can imagine.
- Now let the air out slowly through your teeth.
- Blow up the balloon again as hard as you can. Now imagine sticking a pin in the balloon. Let the air come out with a sudden POP!
- Notice how relaxed you are, how good you feel inside.