My relaxation procedure

I've been posting uber-long descriptions of experiences so far, so I thought I would change it up a little tonight. Below is the method I've been using to go into a fully relaxed state. It's something I've adopted from some of the NLP (Neurolinguistic Programming) stuff I've read.

My method is just an adaptation of the progressive relaxation exercise that so many are familiar with. There's really only a few small things I do differently. I work my way up the body tensing and relaxing each muscle or muscle group as I go up. This much is pretty standard. I will typically go in the following order:

-Feet
-Back of calves
-Front of calves
-Quads
-Hamstrings
-Pelvic area, including the PC muscle
-Lower back
-Abdomen
-Upper back
-Chest
-Arms
-Back of neck and shoulders
-Front of neck
-Face, tongue
-Scalp
-Whole body

When I get to each body part I tense the muscles there and slowly breath in. As I breath in I imagine the tension in that body part is a certain color and then visualize pulling that tension upward into my chest area. I actually see the color swirling. It doesn't matter too much what color you use. I choose whatever color comes to mind on the fly.

Once I've pulled all the tension out of every fiber of that body part, I slowly breathe out and feel/see the tension escaping my body through my breath. At the same time I am SLOWLY relaxing the tensed body part. Doing it very slowly is very keyto really feel that relaxation taking place. Sometimes I will add in the visualization of a long balloon that has slowly run out of air in place of the body part as well.

That's really all there is to it. Nothing extraordinary IMO, but I think it is an effective adaption of the typical progressive relaxation exercise. It also sets your imagination in motion to begin whatever meditation or exercise you choose.