Hello my friends.
Welcome to this peaceful and cozy meditation for your evening routine.
Before we get started,
Make sure that you've taken care of anything pressing and wrapped up your day so there's nothing left to do but relax.
Let's begin with our eyes open today,
Becoming aware of our surroundings and we'll start with a gentle stretch that you can do while sitting down.
On your next inhale,
Sweep your arms out to the sides until they touch overhead in a big luxurious stretch.
Stretch upwards as much as feels comfortable to stretch the muscles and decompress the spine.
And on an exhale,
Lower the hands back down by your sides.
Once more,
Sweep up on an inhale and this time bring your hands over to the right side,
Creating a crescent moon or banana shape.
So you're getting a nice stretch down the side of the body,
Down to the left hip,
And keeping the chest up and proud so you're not collapsing down.
And then return to center,
Lowering the arms back down.
Inhale,
Raising the arms back up and this time bringing the hands over to the left side,
Feeling the nice big stretch down the right side of the body.
And return to center,
Lower the hands back down to a neutral position,
Resting them in your lap.
And whenever you're ready,
You can close the eyes.
Taking a few moments to settle in here,
Relaxing the muscles underneath the eyebrows.
Unclench the jaw and the cheeks.
Settle the shoulders down,
Back,
And away from the ears.
Take a deep breath into the chest.
Take another deep breath into the belly.
And one more deep breath into the belly for good measure.
Relax your hands,
Resting them in your lap.
And continue to move downwards through the lower body.
The thighs,
The calves,
The feet.
Scanning through the body,
Top to bottom,
Side to side,
And front to back,
Making any adjustments you need to ensure you're in a relaxed position.
Take a deep inhale and on your next exhale,
Sigh it out.
And just let the breath fall out of the mouth if it wants to.
Letting go as you exhale.
Let go of your day,
Whatever came before this.
Let go of anything you may be worried about and set it aside for now.
You can always come back to it later.
But for now,
Keep breathing in through the nose and out of the mouth.
And it's okay if you notice thoughts popping up from time to time or quite often.
That's normal.
This is potentially just a sign that your mind is processing the day or preparing for tomorrow.
And once you notice this,
As easily as the thought came,
Let it go.
And as always,
Keep breathing.
Nice slow inhales and exhales.
Cultivating feelings of peace and relaxation in the body.
Perhaps it starts as a warm feeling in the chest.
Perhaps it grows and expands from there.
Perhaps it comes from a grounded feeling of your feet on the floor.
And not forcing it,
Just continuing to observe and accept how things are in the present moment.
Melting the shoulders down,
Unclenching the jaw,
And unknitting the brows.
And just for a moment now,
Let go of any effort.
Any effort to feel good and not feel bad.
And allow whatever comes up in the body,
The mind,
And the heart.
And when you're ready,
We'll come slowly back into the room where you are.
Bring the attention to the sounds that you can hear around you.
Maybe there's the hum of a heater.
Or if you're lucky,
The crackle of a fireplace.
Perhaps you can hear the sound of the rain outside.
And now slowly opening the eyes again,
Noticing how you feel.
Having just taken a few moments to breathe and be present before moving on to the next part of your evening.
Thank you so much for meditating with me today.
Leave me a comment.
What's something that is helping you feel cozy this time of year?
I'd love to hear your ideas.
Take extra good care and I'll see you again next time.
