These relaxation exercises for self-mastery were created as part of the Fort Sill Resiliency Series to teach self-regulation skills, self-mastery techniques, and relaxation training to soldiers dealing with occupational and combat stress. They are useful for mastery over any kind of everyday living. The introduction is by David Rauls, 1SG, U.S. Army (RET), the primary force behind creating this military-friendly recording. Similar to our Stress Hardiness segments, these guided meditation and self-mastery exercises teach simple but powerful self-regulation skills, to train warfighters and military support personnel how to stay calm under pressure and maintain focus and cognitive flexibility through:

1. Conscious breathing
2. Key word repetition
3. Progressive body scanning
4. Guided imagery for deep relaxation
5. Guided imagery for restful sleep

Guided imagery is a complementary, mind-body therapy that consists of healing words and images, set to soothing music, to achieve specific healing or wellness goals. Repeated listening once or twice a day for two to three weeks ensures maximum impact. Each track of relaxation exercises for self-mastery was written and narrated by foremost guided imagery and holistic health expert Belleruth Naparstek, scored to the exquisite, calming music of Steven Mark Kohn, and produced by the Cleveland Orchestra’s noted audio recording engineer, Bruce Gigax.

Listening to a favorite relaxation exercise from these research proven self-mastery techniques for a half hour a day, five days a week, for six weeks, has been shown to significantly alleviate combat stress and reentry stress in active duty military and veterans. Optimal listening times for these relaxation exercises and guided meditations are upon waking up or falling asleep, but any available time is a good time.

Additionally, consider uploading these self-mastery exercises to your phone or audio device, to have handy at any time during the day as needed. Try a sample, listen to David Rauls' introduction and see for yourself why these self-regulation skills are such a strong word-of-mouth favorite with our U.S. military and veterans and referred by so many professionals serving the Army, Marines, Air Force and National Guard. 77 minutes.