Full Body Scan Meditation For Stress Relief

Taking the time now to find a comfortable position,

So being seated in your chair,

Just ensuring that your back is nice and aligned,

Your spine is nice and aligned,

You may also like to place your hands on your thighs or by your sides,

Whatever feels most comfortable for you,

You may also take a moment to settle into your environment,

Ensuring that you're in a quiet space where you won't be disturbed,

Also ensuring not just alignment of the back but also alignment of your shoulders and neck,

Making sure that you're in a comfortable upright position,

Connecting with the surface of the chair,

Your body against the surface of the chair,

Your legs,

Your waist,

Your back,

Also connecting with your feet on the floor,

Taking a moment to slow down,

Slowing down your thoughts,

Your energy from the day,

Making sure that throughout the meditation you can make any adjustments you need to feel more comfortable,

Whether you may like to reposition yourself or change your environment or adjust where your hands or your arms are,

Whatever you need to do,

You can just take the time to do so,

When you feel ready allowing yourself to slowly close your eyes,

Beginning now with just becoming conscious of any thoughts entering your mind,

Maybe thoughts of the day,

Random ideas that come into your mind,

Just acknowledging that throughout the meditation thoughts may continue to arise but also knowing that there's no need to engage in or dwell on these thoughts and if thoughts do arise,

Inviting you to perhaps redirect your awareness back to a sensation in your body,

It might be your breathing,

It might be a sense of touch on your chest or belly,

It just might be bringing awareness to another sensation that comes to mind,

Knowing that thoughts will continue,

You may like to visualize that each passing thought is a cloud in the sky,

New ones arise and then they pass,

Your thoughts are transient,

Always changing,

Inviting you now to explore each of the five senses,

Going through the five senses,

Bringing awareness to each in turn,

Inviting you to explore this sensation as you feel comfortable,

Beginning now with a sense of touch,

Connecting with this sense,

You may like to simply perhaps feel into the sensations in your hands,

You may be feeling a warm sensation,

Gentle touch,

Inviting yourself to tune into just in turn moving your thumb and touching each of your tips of each of your fingers in turn,

So starting with the first finger,

Just repeating this process a few times,

Paying attention to the warmth of the sensation of your fingertips connecting,

No rush at all,

Drawing your attention to the sense of sight,

You may like to with your eyes closed,

Draw attention to any textures or colors you see through your eyelids,

It may be unique textures or colors or patterns,

Sitting in awareness of these textures,

Just allowing them to arise and if this feels uncomfortable or difficult,

It may be easier just to rest your gaze gently on a space in front of you,

Drawing your attention to any sounds in the room around you,

First you may notice sounds in your body and in your near surroundings,

The sound of your breathing,

Maybe the sound of your stomach gurgling,

Moving outside of your body now,

You may also hear a clock ticking,

Allowing yourself to bring awareness to any sounds that arise,

Just now to your outer surroundings,

Be the sound of cars driving by,

The sound of a plane flying past,

Or any other external noises that come to mind,

You may like to pick one particular noise or sensation that resonates most strongly and just focus on that for a few moments,

May even be the sound of your computer whirring,

Bringing all your awareness to this sensation,

So for this you may like to observe any aromas in the room,

Any particular smells that come to mind,

And if nothing immediately resonates,

You may simply like to focus on feeling the fresh air entering your nostrils,

Feeling the coolness of the air,

Freshness of the air,

Observing it in your nostrils,

Perhaps a gentle warm inhale,

Observing this sensation for a few moments,

As you draw your attention now to your sense of taste,

Just paying attention to your taste buds and any remaining food or drink,

And to bring awareness to your taste buds,

Inviting you to simply tune in,

You may like to revisit your breath,

Allowing yourself to just observe the sensation of your inhale and exhale,

Just allowing yourself to tune in to where they are breathing,

Just allowing your breath to flow naturally,

Sometimes it may be challenging to focus on the feeling of air entering and going down your throat,

If this is the case,

You may like to instead place your hand on your belly and just feel the inhale and exhale through your belly,

Whatever feels more comfortable for you,

Observing your breath for a few more moments now,

Beginning to connect with a few different parts of your body in turn,

Going from head to toe,

So starting off with your face now,

Inviting yourself to furrow your eyebrows downwards and hold this for a few moments,

When you do this,

You may feel some tension in your eyelids,

Blinking quite heavily,

Just holding this tension in your eyebrows,

And then release,

Rest your eyelids,

Rest your eyebrows,

Focusing now on the lips and the chin,

Allowing your lips to stretch out nice and wide,

In a gentle slow smile,

And hold for a few moments,

And then release,

Bring your lips back to centre,

Resting your face and head nice and still,

Moving down into your shoulders now,

You may like to slowly arch your shoulders back,

Pushing your shoulder blades against the support of your chair very slowly,

Allowing your lower back to arch a little bit,

Perhaps feeling any tension in your shoulder blades for a few moments,

Holding again for a few moments,

And then release,

Bringing your shoulders back to a neutral position,

And drawing your back and spine aligned,

Resting your hands again,

Drawing your attention now to the belly,

You may like to place one hand over your stomach,

Or if you prefer,

You may like to place both,

And here the aim is just to simply observe the rising,

Falling,

The contraction and expanding of your belly,

As you breathe,

Again not trying to control the breath,

Just allowing yourself to bring awareness to the flow of the in-breath and the out-breath,

The flow of the contraction and expansion of your belly,

You may also like to bring your awareness to the feeling of warmth of your hand on your belly,

Perhaps feeling that soothing,

Relaxing touch,

Just holding this awareness again for a few moments,

Next moving down to the feet,

Just a few exercises now to bring your awareness to all the muscles in your feet,

Beginning by curling your toes upwards,

Focusing on your toes,

And gently curling them upwards towards your chest,

As far as you can,

Whatever you feel comfortable with,

Just holding for a few moments,

And then release,

Curling your toes back down,

Allowing yourself now to curl your toes downwards towards the floor,

Now moving the top of your feet out to the left,

Out to the right,

So you're at a 90 degree angle,

So left foot to go out to the left,

Just holding,

Perhaps feeling the tension,

The sole of your foot,

Your toes,

And bringing your feet back to a straight position,

Then you may like to just wriggle your toes,

Shake out your ankles,

And back to a neutral position,

Inviting you now to go through a scan through each part of the body,

From head to toe,

You're invited to scan each body part in turn,

When each body part is named,

You may like to gently shake it,

Or you may like to twitch it,

Or simply bring awareness to this part of the body,

So for example,

For the left hand,

You may like to simply move your hand slightly,

Or just adjust your position,

And for your eyes,

You may just like to blink slowly,

Beginning now with the face,

Your first finger,

Your third finger,

Your fourth finger,

Shifting to the right side,

Your right shoulder,

Your right upper arm,

Focusing on the right thumb,

Your first finger,

Your third finger,

Your fourth finger,

Now moving to the torso,

Left side of your chest,

Right side of your chest,

Ribcage,

Your whole spine,

Moving to the pelvic region,

Starting with the left side,

Finally focusing on the right leg,

Your right thigh,

Resting on the earth,

Taking a moment to appreciate the time and energy you're investing to relax and look after yourself,

Look after the needs of your mind and body,

Taking a moment of gratitude to appreciate this investment in yourself and your wellbeing,

Letting your whole body just sink into the support,

Allowing the muscles to relax,

If thoughts still arise,

You can still bring your awareness to any sensation that feels right to you,

Inviting you to tune into silence for a few minutes now,

Inviting you now to reconnect with your mind,

Reconnect with your body,

Allowing yourself to connect with a few of your senses once more,

Connecting with a sense of touch,

Placing your hand on your chest or your belly,

Just feeling that warm,

Soothing sensation,

Feeling of your gentle inhale and gentle exhale,

Tuning into your sensations that can help you reconnect with your body in these moments,

Maybe the sound of your breathing or the sound of your stomach or any internal or external noises,

Just reconnecting with a sensation of your back aligned,

Nice and aligned against the chair,

Feeling your legs,

The support of your chair,

The feet,

You may like to shift your legs slowly just to get back into your body,

Wriggling your toes and wriggling your fingers,

Taking one more deep breath in and out slowly,

When you feel ready,

Allowing yourself to slowly open your eyes up to the world around you,

Thank you so much for listening to my guided meditation,

This is my first meditation on Insight Timer and I look forward to posting many more,

Have a wonderful day.