Hello.
I hope you're having a great day.
One of my favorite forms of meditation when I'm feeling stressed or when I need to wind down at the end of the day is a body scan meditation.
It's a perfect way to ground myself in the moment to let go of unnecessary stress or just to calm my busy mind after a really long day.
You can take a break in your day and do this too but it's something I really like to do right before I'm going to bed.
So to begin find yourself in a comfortable position laying down.
If you choose to sit that's perfectly fine as well but to really relax and to fall into it I recommend laying down.
Let's begin by taking a nice long slow inhale through the nose and then sighing it out your mouth.
Let's do that again a nice long slow inhale in through the nose and then just gently sigh it out.
Now continue to breathe naturally and just take this moment to notice your breath.
Notice it as it enters your nose goes down your lungs into your belly and then returns out.
Just get curious about it just notice it without judgment.
Perhaps this is the first time that you've been able to slow down and actually notice your breath in a while.
Just take this time for you right now.
Whatever's happened earlier in the day or before now is in the past and whatever's to come after this can wait.
Right now all that matters is you taking a moment for yourself and letting go of all of the rest.
So let's bring our attention to our feet.
As you continue to breathe naturally in and out just notice your feet and on the inhale tighten your feet.
Exhale let that go.
Let's do that again inhale tighten your feet bringing tension there.
Exhale let that go.
Moving up to your calves inhale tighten.
Exhale let that go.
Continuing to travel up our bodies to our legs and our bottom.
Let's pause for a moment and just hold gratitude.
Gratitude for our legs and how far they've allowed us to travel.
Every step we have taken has led us to where we are right now and the gratitude for how far they will allow us to continue to go.
Inhale tighten your legs tighten your bottom.
Exhale release.
Grounding ourself further in this moment connecting our breath and our body.
Bring your awareness to your belly and let's pause and just notice the rise and fall of our belly as we breathe in and out.
As we inhale our belly rises and as we exhale it descends.
You may even want to put your hand on your belly now and just notice the natural movement,
The simplicity of it.
Now in a moment I'm going to ask you to tighten your belly but before I do I'd like you to as you tighten envision a ball of light and as you tighten that ball is going to be collecting all of the stress,
All of the anxiety,
All of the things that no longer serve you within it and then when you exhale that ball will dissipate and let go.
So let's try that now.
Inhale tighten your belly building up all of that energy filling it with all the stress,
The anxiety,
The things you don't want anymore.
Exhale let that go.
Now let's do that one more time and on that exhale really blow out the air and let that energy leave your body.
Inhale tighten building up that energy.
The light is growing,
The ball is growing.
Exhale let that go.
Noticing your body now may feel a little lighter,
A little more grounded.
As we continue to travel up our bodies to our shoulders,
Another place we tend to carry the weight of the world on.
Inhale shrug your shoulders up and on the exhale feel anything else that you need to let go of.
Shoot down your arms and out your fingertips now.
Inhale shrug those shoulders up again one more time building that tension.
Exhale let that go.
Moving up to our head now smooth out any tension in the forehead.
Release any tension in the jaw.
Just connect with your breath allowing that busy brain to relax for just a moment letting go and finally moving down to your heart and just placing your awareness on the beat of your heart.
Noticing the power that is within you.
That heart beats within you every day guiding you,
Helping you to connect with your breath and your body.
It comforts you in hard times.
It gives you strength when you need to persevere.
Its constant beat is always there to support you.
Holding gratitude for that now.
Continue to breathe in naturally connecting with your breath and silently repeat I let go.
I let go.
I let go.
Take a nice long slow inhale in and let that go.
Have a relaxing rest of your day.
Thank you for meditating with me.
