OK, that may be an exaggeration. But it may not. In any event, Progressive Muscle Relaxation is the technique that we have had the most success with, and we have tried many of them.
Many people we know use these techniques every night before lying down for sleep and find that it helps them to have a much more restful night.
You have to practice the technique regularly for at least a couple of weeks before you can have a sense of how it will work for you.
Briefly, you lie down in a comfortable position on your bed or on a carpeted floor. Relax your body, position yourself as needed so that you can let go of all the muscle tension in your body. Try one of the breathing techniques to begin the exercise, or just feel your breath getting deeper as you anticipate achieving a new level of relaxation.
Then, muscle group by muscle group, usually starting with your feet and moving up, you tense each muscle group, and then relax it. Surprisingly, by tensing the muscles first you actually achieve a measurably greater level of relaxation in the end.
To really do this right, you are probably going to need a little bit of onsite coaching. Buy one or more of these MP3’s and use them tonight –