This is the second in a series of "How To" articles, designed to help you build a toolbox of mind-body skills. These skills can help in moments of stress and to strengthen your internal foundation. This month focuses on a technique that releases the feeling of tension in your muscles.

Can you feel the effects of a hectic day lingering in your neck, shoulders, or back as you go to bed? Or, do you find that you more often have headaches on the weekend after a busy week, or find yourself straining your back during an activity that you are usually able to complete without a problem?

If so, you are the type of person who holds their stress in the outer layer of the body. This layer is made up of your muscles. Other people may feel their tension in other places, but you hold your stress in your muscles. It is as if your body is trying to steel itself against the daily occurrences by holding tighter and tighter. Maybe you find yourself clenching your jaw during a difficult conversation, or tightening the muscles in your neck and shoulders as you make your way home through busy rush hour traffic.

A Brick in the Foundation: Intellectual Health

Finding Your Balance Point

The How To

Additionally, your body is very smart. Once your body reads tension in the muscles as a sign of stress. When your body sees this sign, it begins to pump more chemical messengers that ready the body for a stressful situation. Then, your body sees even more signs of stress, increasing the tension in your muscles. Can you see the vicious cycle?

In order to protect yourself from the cumulative effects of stress in your muscles and to stop the cycle of stress, practice daily techniques to flush the effects of stress from your body. Daily exercise that uses large muscle groups can help: running, walking, aerobics, swimming, basketball, or yoga.

If you are already exercising and still finding that you are storing stress in your muscles, or want an additional technique which reduces muscular tension as well as the benefits of focused relaxation, progressive muscular relaxation is a technique to consider.

Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR)

The premise behind PMR is that your muscles cannot be tense and relaxed at the same time. If you learn to recognize the feelings of tension, you will be able to scan your body and release tension as you find it. This way, the tension does not build up and you don't have to worry about the cumulative effects of stress later in life.

To perform PMR, find yourself a comfortable position. This might be laying on a bed or floor, or sitting in a chair. If you are sitting, make sure that your head, neck and arms are supported. You may want to have the room darkened so that you can concentrate internally.

Take a few deep breaths. When you breathe, try to raise your abdomen instead of your chest, which will allow your lungs to fill completely with air. This deep breathing sends an immediate message to your brain: it is time to relax, allowing the body to begin the process of sending out proper hormone messengers that help the body to relax deeply.

Close your eyes and turn your focus internally.

Starting at your feet, begin tensing your muscles as much as you can (be careful not to tense so hard as to cause cramps. If you find that you are cramping, just release the tension and stretch your muscle in the opposite direction). Hold that tension for a count of 5. At the end of the count, release the tension, letting all of the tension flow out of your muscles. Let the part of your body you were tensing relax. You will probably feel the weight of that body part increasing. Let it sink into whatever surface you are sitting on. Work your way up your body in the following order, remembering to keep the muscles you have already worked relaxed:

• Feet and ankles — curl your toes under as if you are trying to touch the bottom of your feet. Tighten the muscles in the arch of your foot and around the ankles
• Lower legs (just below the knees) — if you tend to get cramps in your calves ("charley horse") use caution when tensing this muscle group
• Upper legs — front (quadriceps) and back (hamstrings) and muscles around the knees. Try to imagine you are running.
• Hips and buttocks
• Count your breaths.
• Stomach (abdominal muscles) — feel as if you are trying to press your belly button to the floor or chair behind you
• Chest and back — include the muscles around your shoulder blades
• Arms (upper arm down to the wrist)
• Hands — clench them up into a tight fist
• Shoulders — scrunch them up to your ears. As you relax, make sure that your shoulders come back down.
• Neck and head, including all the small muscles in your face — muscles around your eyes, nose and mouth. Press your lips together, squeeze your eyes tightly closed. Don't forget the muscles of your scalp.

When there is a right and left body part, you can choose to do both together, or do one at a time.

Once you have completed the progression, do a scan of your body starting at your feet and working your way up to your head looking for any more places of tension.

Then, spend some time noticing how you are feeling. What do your muscles feel like when they are relaxed? What words would you use? Heavy, warm, jelly-like, etc.

Take another few deep breaths and slowly open your eyes.

This exercise has several purposes. First, it is a great exercise for inducing an immediate relaxation. You should notice when you are done that your mind feels much clearer. When you release tension, your mind doesn't have to be constantly checking on your body. Your mind is getting signals from your body that everything is fine; the mind can now focus on other issues. Second, you learn how to release tension from your body. This exercise can be done sitting at your desk. If you notice the tension building in your muscles, tighten the muscle a little more, and then let go. Once you have practiced this technique, you won't even need to tense, you will just be able to release.

Don't feel like you have enough time to complete the entire exercise? Want to have a mini-break at work? Break the body into general sections: legs, belly/chest/back, shoulders/arms, head/neck. Tense and relax these larger groups.

Find yourself cramping during the tensing cycle? Instead of tensing and then relaxing, just do a scan of your muscles. Starting at your feet, release any muscle tension you find during the scan.

You can practice this on a daily basis for preventative health. Or, use it to de-stress at the end of a particularly hectic day. If you find yourself waking in the middle of the night and are unable to return to sleep, try practicing PMR. This will cue your body that it is time to relax and sleep. Any of these uses should help you to decrease the amount of tension you store in your muscles, keeping your muscles and body in a better state of health.

Now you have two skills for your toolkit: breathing and Progressive Muscle Relaxation. Set a goal for trying these patterns for 20 minutes a day. As you practice them, your body will get more and more used to the feeling that goes along with practicing them. Once that relaxed feeling becomes second nature, you will be able use a technique when you are in the middle of a stressful situation and your body will begin to feel calmer and more focused.

If you have any questions, contact Jennifer Bloome at Jennifer@AnjiOnline.com.