Hi kids,
Welcome to this fourth practice in this series I'm putting together to help kids and families coping with COVID-19.
Today we're going to lie down for our practice and we're going to do a side step away from talking and thinking about the coronavirus directly and just do a practice to help us relax.
This is a great practice to do before sleep but also to just rest and relax any time.
So I want you to lie down on your bed or somewhere really comfortable,
Get yourself set up in a comfortable position,
Shuffle around and start by listening to our gong sound that we always start our practices with.
Here it is.
So I want you to start today's practice by getting yourself really comfortable.
So you're lying down and what I want you to do is squidge and shift and shuffle around,
Move your legs and your arms and your head and just snuggle into a really comfortable position.
Then when you think you're as comfortable as you can possibly get,
I want you to imagine something to make you even more comfortable.
I want you to imagine you're lying on the softest thing that you could possibly imagine.
So maybe you're lying on a cloud or maybe you're lying on your absolute favourite softest soft toy but it's a giant version of it and the whole thing's underneath you and you're lying on it,
Feeling so soft underneath you.
Or you can put anything there that you can imagine that's really,
Really soft and you could even say it out loud to each other.
Imagine how it feels lying on that super,
Super soft thing.
Let your body just soften and relax into that feeling.
Feels great,
Doesn't it?
And then what we're going to do is we're going to go around a few places in our body and we're just going to do an extra little bit of relaxing in each place and I want you to start with your two legs.
What I want you to do with your two legs is I want you to just imagine that soft,
Relaxing feeling underneath your two legs.
And I want you to let your legs just sink and soften and relax in and you might even like to give your legs just a little bit of a kind of move or a shuffle and then let them really sink down into the cloud or the soft toy or whatever soft thing you're lying on.
And then you're going to move up from your legs and you're going to go to your body,
Your tummy and your back.
And what I want you to do is have a little mini shuffle of that part and then let it sink and soften into your cloud or your blanket or your soft toy underneath that you're imagining.
You might like to even take a really deep sigh out as you soften your body into that soft blanket or soft cloud.
And then I want you to move up from there to your hands and your arms.
And the same thing,
Give them just a little shuffle,
Snuggle them around to get comfortable and sighing out and letting your arms spread and soften and relax down into what you're imagining,
Your soft,
Soft cloud or your soft,
Soft toy,
Whatever really super duper comfortable thing you're imagining yourself lying on.
And then one more thing,
This time it's your head.
So imagine the back of your head,
Give your head just a really,
Really tiny,
Tiny,
Tiny wriggle from side to side.
Breathe in,
Sigh out and let your head just rest back into whatever you're lying on.
And in your mind,
Imagine just that super softness.
Is it a cloud?
Is it a giant version of your favorite soft,
Soft toy?
Oh,
It feels so comfortable and relaxing.
And then to finish today's practice,
I just want you to take a handful of super soft but deep breaths.
So you're breathing in through the nose and blowing out through the mouth.
And then the next breath,
You breathe in through the nose and I want you to blow out through the mouth as if you're blowing a candle but you're trying not to blow the candle out.
So it's a really soft,
Soft breath where you're blowing out through the mouth and you could be blowing on a candle on a birthday cake but you're trying not to blow out the flame.
That's how soft your breath is.
Few more breaths out like that.
In through the nose and soft breath out through the lips.
Couple more.
That's great.
That's our practice for today and I want you to come back into the rest of your day or night or you might come back and be just saying goodnight and going off to sleep.
But we're going to finish off with our gong sound.
So just listen carefully.
Thank you.
I hope you enjoyed that practice today and you feel really,
Really relaxed.
