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Forcing Myself to Relax is Not Relaxing
Reflecting on habit #14 in my 30-day journey
Progressive Muscle Relaxation seemed like a great idea. I struggle with falling asleep and staying asleep. PMR should be a perfect fit.
Turns out I’m bad not only at doing it but also at remembering to try!
On nights I actually remembered, things generally went a bit like this:
Oh right, I’m supposed to do that PMR thing. Okay, here I go, clenching my toes. Now release. Wait, I think I was clenching my whole foot. Okay well I’ll do my feet over again. No, I’m clenching my calves. I’m supposed to do just my feet. How do I clench my thighs. I feel like I’m clenching everything from my boobs down?
I’m really bad at this. Why can’t I just clench one muscle group at a time? This is supposed to make me drop off to sleep. What is wrong with me that I’m so bad at this?
So at least half of the time I forgot all together and when I remember I hated the experience because I felt like I was doing it all wrong. This is a habit I’m happy to see the end of.
Which brings me to 10 out of 14 for habits I’m keeping.
