Releasing Tense Muscles

(cheerful music) Do your emotions show up in your body? Oh, yes. I definitely feel my emotions in my body. My back kind of tends to feel very heavy. Headaches, aches and pains in random parts of my body. Our emotions can show up physically in our bodies in a variety of different ways. If you're having more worries or anxious thoughts, what you might notice is that your stomach is upset or maybe feels a little more gurgly than what you're used to. My heart will start racing. I will become flush. Sometimes it feels like there's, like, a big weight on my chest, and so it feels like I'm boxed in and I need to take a deep breath, but it's hard to breathe. When we're more aware of the feelings as they show up in our bodies, we can then choose how we want to respond. I kind of assess my mood, and then that's kind of my key indicator, like, "Oh, okay, you're kind of down right now. You're not really feeling how you should be feeling." At that point, I don't try to engage with people or anything. I just kind of keep to myself. When we're not feeling great physically with our emotions, there's a technique called progressive muscle relaxation that can help us be aware of the tension that we're holding in our bodies, and then help us to release that. When I'm relaxed, I feel like I'm floating. Almost like I'm laying in water. Just a free, easy, kind of, weightless, kind of, feeling. While you might not feel better immediately, what we know is that with repetition, this exercise really does help, so let's give it a try. (cheerful music)...