A Practical Guide to Relaxation Techniques: Breathing, Progressive Muscle Relaxation and More

“Just relax” is easy to say and surprisingly hard to do on command. The good news is that relaxation isn’t purely a mood – it’s also a physical state your body can be guided into, using techniques that are simple to learn, cost nothing, and can be practised almost anywhere. Here’s a look at some of the most well-established relaxation techniques, how they work, and how to actually do them.

Why deliberate relaxation techniques work

When you’re stressed, your body shifts into what’s often called “fight or flight” mode: breathing quickens, muscles tense, and your heart rate rises, all driven by the release of adrenaline. This response is useful in a genuine emergency, but most modern stress – a packed inbox, a difficult conversation, a long commute – doesn’t need that level of physical readiness. Relaxation techniques work by deliberately reversing parts of that response: slowing the breath, releasing muscle tension, and giving the mind something calm to focus on instead of the stressor itself.

Breathing exercises

Breathing is one of the few automatic body functions you can consciously control, which makes it a genuinely useful lever for calming down. NHS guidance describes a simple breathing exercise for stress, anxiety and panic that takes just a few minutes and needs no equipment:

1. Get into a comfortable position – lying down with your arms away from your sides and palms up, sitting with your arms supported and feet flat, or standing with your feet hip-width apart. Loosen any tight clothing if you can.
2. Let your breath flow as far down into your belly as is comfortable, without forcing it.
3. Breathe in gently through your nose, counting steadily from 1 to 5 (or as far as feels comfortable).
4. Breathe out gently through your mouth, again counting from 1 to 5.
5. Keep going for at least 5 minutes, and try to let each breath flow smoothly into the next without pausing or gulping air.

The NHS notes this is something you can do anywhere – at a desk, on public transport, before a stressful meeting – and that you’ll get the most benefit from practising it regularly as part of your daily routine, rather than saving it purely for moments of acute stress.

Progressive muscle relaxation

Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) takes a different route to the same destination. Instead of working through the breath alone, you deliberately tense and then release individual muscle groups, working through the body from one end to the other. As Dr Matthew Kampert, a sports medicine physician at Cleveland Clinic, explains, the technique “involves using breathing and visualisation to help you acknowledge and release the tension you hold in every area of your body.”

A typical PMR sequence looks like this:

1. Get comfortable, close your eyes if you like, and take a few slow, deep breaths from your belly.
2. Starting with your feet (or wherever feels natural), inhale and firmly tense that muscle group. Hold the tension for around 5 seconds, noticing how it feels.
3. Exhale and release the tension completely, letting the muscle go loose for 5 to 10 seconds. Notice the contrast between tense and relaxed.
4. Move upward through the body – calves, thighs, stomach, chest, hands, arms, shoulders, neck, and face – repeating the tense-and-release pattern for each group.

A full session, worked through slowly, typically takes 10 to 20 minutes, though even doing a handful of muscle groups (shoulders, hands, jaw – common places to hold tension) can help in a shorter window. Cleveland Clinic notes that PMR has research support for reducing anxiety, particularly alongside other approaches like cognitive behavioural therapy, and that many people find it useful as part of a bedtime routine because it helps shift the body toward a calmer, “rest and digest” state before sleep.

Visualisation and mindfulness

Not every relaxation technique is physical. Visualisation involves picturing a calm, detailed scene – a beach, a forest path, anywhere that feels peaceful to you – and mentally “walking through” the sounds, textures and sensations of that place. It’s a way of redirecting attention away from a stressful train of thought.

Mindfulness works similarly but focuses on the present moment rather than an imagined one: noticing your breath, the sensations in your body, or what’s around you right now, without judging or trying to change it. NHS guidance on mental wellbeing includes “paying attention to the present moment” as one of five recommended everyday habits for wellbeing, noting that this kind of awareness can help you “enjoy life more and understand yourself better,” and can change how you approach difficult moments over time.

Building relaxation into an actual routine

The biggest practical barrier to any of these techniques isn’t difficulty – it’s habit. A breathing exercise or a PMR sequence is genuinely simple, but it only pays off if you actually do it regularly rather than only reaching for it in a crisis. A few ways people make it stick:

• Anchor it to something you already do – straight after brushing your teeth at night, during a commute, or right before you get into bed.
• Keep the environment calm – dim lighting, a quiet room, or a comfortable chair all help signal to your body that it’s time to switch off.
• Pair it with something physical – some people find it easier to settle into a breathing or muscle-relaxation routine alongside something tactile, like a warm foot spa or a few minutes with a massage cushion, since the physical sensation gives the mind something calm to settle on.
• Don’t chase perfection – a distracted 5-minute session most days will do more for you than an “ideal” 20-minute session you only manage once a month.

Relaxation techniques aren’t a cure-all, and if stress or anxiety is seriously affecting your day-to-day life, it’s worth talking to a GP rather than relying on self-help alone. But for the ordinary, everyday tension most of us carry around, these are simple, well-evidenced tools worth having in your routine.

Sources: NHS, “Breathing exercises for stress”; Cleveland Clinic, “Progressive Muscle Relaxation”; NHS Every Mind Matters, “Stress”.