Progressive Muscle Relaxation is a systematic way to reconnect with your peaceful center. For highly stressed people, scanning the body from the head to the toes rather than the other direction, grounds the student in the sensations of the body to help them out of the racing mind, a significant adaptation to standard Integral Yoga deep relaxation.

The goal is to use PMR and Intellect-based Guided Centering/Meditation to help ease client’s Stress Response. In 2 30-minute sessions, I will cue the client to relax her body through chair yoga exercises, ask her to become aware of her breath, guide her through a meditation and finally, offer her Relaxation/Imagery techniques to consider.

The client is a divorced 65-year-old female being fitted with a heart monitor; has family history of pacemakers, 94-year-old wheelchair-bound father in a senior facility, live-in 30+year-old special needs son, another 30+year-old son with feeding tube who contracted a life-threatening disease serving in Afghanistan; she takes him to doctor’s visits and homeschools his 10-year-old son. She is unable to get a good night’s rest, gets up in the middle of the night unable to sleep, and is up at 4am.

I planned to do PMR and Guided Centering/Meditation in two 30-minute sessions, gave a good class and achieved a good outcome (0-stress at end), but had not focused on my selected key teaching – I did so in our second meeting!

Concentrate specifically on PMR to help client connect with her peaceful center
Have client practice several relaxation techniques at home as outlined in the Follow-Up Section below
Check in with client twice the following week to see how she was progressing with her progr

Hatha:
Hatha Yoga Warmups and Poses, Breathing Practices, and Meditation: Progressive Muscle Relaxation, and Intellect-based Guided Centering/Meditation
Raja:
“At our center, we are already happy. At our center, we are pure spirit”
“Whenever I need to, I can pause, breathe, and quiet my mind to come back to my personal center of clarity and balance” (Resilient thinking)
Jnana:
“The experience of our true nature, that never-changing, inner peace, is usually hidden by our reactions to the world around us, and our identification with these ever-changing events”

Hatha - Seated forward bends and inversions allowed client’s spine, head and shoulders to relax even before cueing PMR
Raja – “We are pure spirit,” “I can quiet my mind any time I want to” during PMR helped client see future empowerment
Jnana – “Our inner peace in never-changing” during PMR made the client more peaceful

Session #1
Client late - with Police - Dad’s phone/iPad stolen
10-stress level
Cued 3 times to keep shoulders back and down – this improved
Trouble coordinating all of the Seated Spinal Twist moves
I did not cue the PRM
Very relaxed during meditation
0-stress level
Revisited Dad’s burglary – Stress response returned
Did three-part breathing
Returned to 0-stress level
Is at the ocean every morning at 4am, walks 10,000 steps (her Inner Resource?)

Session #2
Client late - gathering documents for Police
8-stress level
Circling with nose caused her head to move uncomfortably causing her shoulders to also move
She later mentioned bone spurs in her neck
Continued cueing to keep shoulders back and down
Had an easier time coordinating the Seated Spinal Twist moves
Cued the PRM I had not done yesterday
Very relaxed again during meditation
2-stress level (More aware of stress levels?)

Client will do the following suggestions as she is able:
01. Client will practice daily with provided Inner Resource recording
02. When stressed or breathing in the upper chest, client will exhale first, picture the abdomen touching the spine, then inhale “light” and exhale “darkness,” inhale “love” and exhale “tension,” or similar words of her choice
03. Client will practice the Seated Spinal Twist using provided typed instructions
(Remember, head is on a swivel, do what you can, comfortably)
04. Client will sip on hot or warm water throughout the day to aid in digestion and to enjoy its soothing effect (This has been previously suggested to her as her go-to drink is ice water)
05. If possible, client will set consistent sleep and wake time (Ex. aim to be in bed by 8pm, up by 4am)
06. Client will rub herbal oil on the bottom of her feet 20-30 times using the opposite thumb

Not in the first session - I forgot to cue Progressive Muscle Relaxation which was my Selected Key Teaching, but did so in our second session. That being said, knowing the client very well, a close relative, I had her complete trust and that might even have been the first step toward complete relaxation and following any directions I might have given her.

Yes. Client was very tired after a very stressful week, as well as the two mornings and early afternoons of the days we met, and even though I did not stick to my original plan during the first session, client was relaxed and her mind was not racing by the end of the session. PMR and Intellect-based Guided Meditation fit like a glove with client, witnessed by the fact that she slept through the night without getting up, and her sleep was very restful.

No.

I found that I need to be always aware of my Specific Core Concept as I work with a client, before and during our sessions, as well as when I offer the client suggestions for what he/she can do at home. I had no resistance to my directions or barriers to achieving the desired outcome because I had a willing client, where with another client, challenges might have presented themselves.

Sat Bir Khalsa PhD, Director of Yoga Research at Yoga Alliance, has found that clinical trial studies of insomnia treatments aimed at reducing arousal, including relaxation and meditation, have reported positive results through having clients keep a diary two weeks before and eight weeks after being taught relaxation techniques measuring stats such as sleep efficiency, total sleep time, and total wake time. This might be a good practice to suggest to long-term clients.

I believe so.

I am very happy with the results of both of our sessions.

The client went from a stress level of 10 down to a 0 for the first session, 8 down to a 2 in the second session, and her mind was not racing, certainly very different from when we started when she carried in so many worries from the outside world.

I would definitely follow my plan – I might do research first to find relevant quotes to relate to the client which might add even more insight to my therapy.

Our session gave my client a respite from the ever-changing outside world and hopefully she knows that she has the tools to tap into her peaceful center, sometimes even within minutes, by incorporating them if she chooses to do so.