Relaxation exercise People with a hearing loss use many resources on trying to make out and understand what is being said – a kind of constant ‘listening work’. The required effort can cause tension in the neck and shoulders and consequently muscular pain. Relaxation exercises can be a good way to combat muscular tension and relieve muscular pain.

Relaxation exercises can be structured in many ways: To understand the basic idea of a relaxation exercise, you can try tensing the muscles in one of your arms and then relaxing your muscles again. When you do that with all muscle groups of your body, one by one, it is called ‘progressive muscle relaxation’.

The following is an example of a progressive muscle relaxation exercise: You can do the exercise sitting or standing.

Progressive muscle relaxation exercise

Sit in a chair or lie down. Use pillows or blankets to make yourself comfortable.

Focus your thoughts on your feet. Curl your toes – release while breathing out. Feel the relaxation. Stretch and spread your toes - release while breathing out. Feel the relaxation.

Tighten the muscles in both legs – feel the tension – release while breathing out. Feel the relaxation.

Stretch your legs – point the big toes towards your knee caps and stretch the knees – release while breathing out. Feel the relaxation.

Tighten your buttocks – feel how the body is lifted up – release while breathing out. Feel how the muscles relax.

Tighten the abdominal muscles and maybe the floor of the pelvis and the buttocks – release and feel the relaxation.

Imagine that you have an elastic belt around the lower ribs, where your midriff is. Feel how the elastic belt expands all the way round when you breathe in and how it contracts when you breathe out and relax the muscles.

Feel how your waist widens when you breathe in, and becomes narrower when you breathe out.

Imagine that every time you breathe out, the muscles in your body relax even more.

Make fists and feel the tension in your fingers, hands and arms – release while breathing out. Feel the relaxation.

Lift both shoulders and feel how the muscles tighten. Breathe out and feel the relaxation.

Clench your teeth, press your tongue up into your palate, wrinkle your forehead and squeeze your eyes shut. Feel the tension in the temples, jaw and back of the neck – release while breathing out. Feel the relaxation.

Imagine that every time you breathe out, the muscles in your body relax even more. Feel how your body feels heavier and more relaxed.

Finally, yawn, stretch your body and move all joints.