Before reading this, do a body scan and progressively relax one muscle at a time starting with your forehead and ending with your toes—get your body back to zero percent unnecessary tension.
When done, how much tension would you say you released that you didn’t even realize you were holding?
Well, that tension is the equivalent of you pushing the gas in your parked car.
Multiply that over the course of an entire day—and you can imagine how much energy is being wasted.
The challenge is that tension is often the default, unconscious state—we don’t even realize we’re tensing up when we do!
Go ahead and do another body scan and see how much tension already came back.
…This is why we have to make relaxing a conscious effort.
Both for energy efficiency and bodily health. Tense muscles become brittle—and brittle is prone to injury and disease. Relaxed muscles are flexible—and flexible is healthy and resilient.
Doing a progressive relaxation body scan—regularly—is an excellent strategy.
How can we do this? Here are 3 ideas to get you started:
- Set a timer: every time the timer goes off, do a body scan and get back to zero.
- Use a trigger: every time your phone rings or buzzes, do a body scan and get back to zero.
- Time-block: After each meal of the day, do a body scan and get back to zero.
The goal, like any other habitual practice, is to move relaxed from conscious to unconscious so it becomes more and more our default state.
P.s. In case you missed it, here’s the best of what I posted to MoveMe Quotes last week.