Welcome to this body scan meditation.
Begin by making yourself comfortable,
Either sitting or lying down.
If you're sitting,
Allow your back to be straight but not stiff,
And your hands could be resting gently in your lap or at your side.
If you're lying down on a bed or a mat,
Just have your arms by your sides and your feet falling away from each other,
Allowing your eyes to gently close if that feels comfortable.
We're going to start by taking some long,
Slow,
Deep breaths.
Breathing in fully and exhaling slowly.
Breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth.
Feeling your stomach expand on the inhale and relax and let go as you exhale.
And let go of any noises around you,
Any distractions.
Just allowing them to be there,
Not giving any thought to them.
And begin to shift your attention from outside to inside yourself.
Now slowly bring your attention down to your feet.
Begin by observing sensations in your toes.
Just noticing what sensations are here in the toes.
Maybe there's some coolness or tingling.
Just observe what you find while moving your awareness to the soles of the feet,
Noticing what sensations are here.
The tops of the feet,
The ankles.
Just holding both feet in your awareness now.
Breathing into the feet and on the exhale,
Allowing them to soften and relax.
Moving your awareness to the lower legs,
The calves,
The shins and the knees.
Just noticing what sensations are here.
Breathing into the lower legs and on the exhale,
Just allowing them to soften and relax.
Moving your awareness up to the thighs,
The buttocks,
The hips and the pelvis.
Just becoming aware of what sensations you can feel in these areas.
Noticing if there's any tension,
Any sense of holding,
Any stress,
Any contracting of the muscles.
And if there is,
Just breathing in to those areas.
Breathing into the tension or the discomfort.
Breathing into the thighs,
The buttocks,
The hips and the pelvis.
And on the exhale,
Just allowing all the muscles in these areas to soften and relax.
Letting go.
Moving your awareness up to the lower abdomen and right round to the lower back.
Noticing what sensations are here.
We're not judging the sensations,
We're not labelling them as good or bad.
We're not getting caught up in the stories of the feelings here.
We're just observing what we find.
Breathing into those areas and on the exhale,
Allowing them to soften,
Relax and let go.
And when you feel that you've relaxed and let go,
Just seeing if you can relax a little bit more,
Even more.
Moving your awareness up to the chest and the upper back.
Breathing into the chest and the upper back.
And on the exhale,
Just allowing them to soften.
Letting go of any tension.
And moving up to the shoulders,
The place where we often hold tension.
Noticing what's here.
Breathing into the shoulders.
And on the exhale,
Just allowing any tension to roll away.
Allowing those muscles to soften and relax.
Moving down to the arms,
Past the elbows,
The wrists,
The hands,
The fingers.
Just noticing what you find here.
What sensations are here?
Maybe there's some difference between the left and right arm,
Or the left and right hand.
Maybe there's heat.
Maybe there's coolness.
Maybe there's tingling in the fingers.
Just be curious about what you find.
Breathing into the arms and on the exhale,
Just allowing them to soften,
To relax,
To grow heavy.
Moving up to the neck,
The back of the neck,
The back of the head,
The crown of the head,
Down the sides of the head,
The ears.
Just allowing all the muscles in the scalp to soften.
Softening the brow,
The space between the eyebrows.
Soften and relax all the little muscles around the eyes.
Just allow them to soften.
Allow the cheeks to soften,
The jaw,
The tongue,
The mouth.
When you feel like the whole of the head is soft,
Just relax it a little bit more.
Just let go a little bit more.
Notice the sensations of where your body makes contact with the floor.
Having a sense of being held by the earth as you relax here.
You are safe.
Holding the whole body in your awareness now,
From head to toe.
Breathing into the whole body and out from the whole body.
And on the exhale,
Allowing the body to be heavy as you feel yourself sinking further into the mat or the chair.
Surrendering to this moment of total relaxation.
We are just going to spend some time in this relaxation.
