Neck-Up PMR Induction

This is a quick little induction essentially built upon progressive muscle relaxation from the shoulders, up.

Sit back and settle in comfortably (ensure a stable position). I want you to look at me. That’s right. Allow your awareness to focus on the sounds that you are hearing. Stretch your hearing to encompass the entire room, then zero in on my voice. Now let all the other sounds fade off into a background din as your hearing zooms into a close-up of only my voice. That’s right. And I wonder if it would help you to relax a little bit more if you took in a great, big, deep breath, yes, that’s right, and lift your shoulders up into an easy shrug and hold it for a fraction of a second and then just let them drop down heavy and limp as you exhale with a sigh. Yes, like that. Very good! Let those shoulders hang down, nice and relaxed, and as your shoulders relax, let the back of your neck release some tension by looking up at the sky and letting your head gently roll back until it comfortably stops. Yes, and with just the tiniest motion, let that skull roll first to one side, then from that side over to the other …and back again, …back …and forth, …back …and forth,…back …and forth, listening to the soft, clicking sounds of the tendons and ligaments of your neck as the tension begins to let go. And if your eyes feel like they want to close now instead of looking at the cracks in the ceiling, that’s ok, you can certainly close them if you want to. Yes, let them close now. And now, with your head rolled back like that, you may realize that your jaws had been tightly pressed against each other for a good part of the day. Become aware of the weight of your lower jaw  so you can surrender now, the weight of your lower jaw to gravity. Feel  a space begin to open up between your upper teeth and your lower teeth now. Let gravity continue to tug down upon your jaw, bringing the rest of your entire skull with it, rolling to one side, rolling, rolling down now, releasing even more tension in your neck muscles as the weight of your head continues to sink down, that’s it, loosen that neck and let your head come to rest right there. And you may notice your chin feeling heavy like a stone dropping through water, as it pulls the rest of your head along with it, tilting forward, dropping down deeper. And now, other parts of your face are contributing to this feeling of heavy weight. Your mouth feels heavy, your tongue feels heavy, your cheeks feel heavy, your eyelids feel heavy, and all of the skin and muscles of your face feel so heavy as gravity exerts it’s relentless influence upon your entire face, allowing your head to DROP DOWN EVEN FARTHER.

Now, doesn’t that feel good? Yes, I know it does. And we can spend a lot of time moving this relaxation down throughout your entire body, piece …by piece, to get you to feel very peaceful. But you can do that yourself now, and I am going to show you how do that.

I want you to take that heavy feeling of relaxation that you now have in your head and neck and let it just slowly pour down from your from there, and let it coat and cover your entire body from the top down. Let that feeling of relaxation drip down like thick chocolate syrup, coating you, covering you, in a warm, thick blanket coating of relaxation, and as it covers each body part, let that feeling of relaxation penetrate to the superficial muscles, and let it go all the way through to the deep skeletal muscles, and all the way through to the hard bone before moving on to the next lower body part. And when you’ve done that and you’re feeling completely, and totally, and deeply relaxed, let me know by nodding your head. That’s right! Totally, and deeply relaxed. Deeply relaxed. Deeply. Relaxed. Deeper. And deeper. Yes, that’s very good.