This meditation is for relaxing the body.
The tension you hold in your body is the tension you hold in your mind as well.
So let's begin by connecting into the breath and relaxing our whole bodies on the inhale and the exhale.
The breath is the way to anchor our attention in the body.
So focus on breathing in,
Filling up with a fresh energy,
And on the exhalation to release and relax the body.
Use the exhalation to release,
To relax,
To let go.
In focusing on the physical,
With each exhalation,
Relax the muscles of the body.
Focusing on this muscle relaxation,
On the exhalation,
Is the focus of this meditation.
With each exhalation,
Feel your body softening.
Feel the tone of the muscles in the whole body softening.
You may also feel heavier.
As the body relaxes more,
As more tension is let go,
Gravity is able to support you more fully.
So with each exhalation,
Feel the body get heavier.
With each exhalation,
Relax a bit more tension in the muscles.
Inhale that fresh energy and exhale and release more fully into the ground.
Let's turn our attention to areas of the body.
Relax the tension in the head and the face.
Exhale and soften the muscles of the face.
And now bring your attention to the shoulders.
With each exhalation,
Soften the musculature in the shoulders.
Let the tops of the shoulders move down towards the ground.
Let the shoulder blades soften and let them find their natural support on the ribs.
And now to the ribs,
Inhale,
Expand the rib cage naturally and exhale.
Relax the ribs,
Relax the breath and allow the ribs to hang on the spine.
And now to the lower back.
Inhale into the lower back and exhale,
Allowing the lower spine to find its natural support in the pelvis.
Breathing into the pelvis,
Into the hips,
Into the sacrum.
With each exhalation,
Softening the tissue and the muscles in and around the pelvis.
You may feel yourself getting heavier.
Extend this awareness into the arms and soften the tension through the upper arms and the lower arms,
All the way through the fingers and the palms of the hands.
And now down through the legs.
First the right leg from the top to the bottom and the left leg from the top to the bottom.
With each exhalation,
Softening the muscles,
Allowing gravity to take more hold.
Now notice the overall tension in the body.
Is there anywhere that sticks out?
Inhale and release the muscular tension from any area of the body that you've noticed that still has tension.
Now let's look at the center of the body.
The skeleton system from the skull down through the spine into the pelvis.
And starting with the center of the skull,
Breathe into the center of your head and exhale and relax the center of your head.
Imagine your eyes moving into the center of the head.
Imagine your ears moving towards the center of the head.
With each exhalation,
Soften your skull and now allow the muscles of the face to relax.
Bring your attention to your mouth.
Let the tongue move down towards the throat and soften your jaw and soften the muscles that attach to the jaw and the neck.
Follow this release from the mouth down the neck,
Down the center of the chest through the heart,
Down through the digestive organs in the belly and into the pelvis.
And let all of that release build up into the pelvis as your hips and pelvis connect more fully with the ground.
Feel the ground getting more concrete.
Feel the ground getting more solid as your body settles more fully into the ground.
Now what is your overall impression of the softness of your body,
Of the amount of muscular tension that you had at the beginning of the meditation and now?
Do you notice how much muscular tension you've released from your body?
Does that feel relaxed?
Go ahead and relax a little more.
Use the breath and go a little further.
What does it mean to soften more?
What does it mean to melt?
Let everything go to allow the ground to support us fully,
To allow gravity to do its job.
Continue to relax.
Now connect into the whole body and with each breath inhale and fill the whole body and exhale and soften whatever else is left.
Inhale and fill the whole body and exhale and soften whatever tension you notice is left.
Find your inner stillness,
Find your softness here and continue to release any tension that remains.
This concludes the meditation on relaxing the body.
