Tense & Release Mindfulness Body Scan Meditation

My friends,

Welcome.

Thank you for showing up for this meditation.

This week we're going to be doing a mindfulness of kind of our body and our emotions and kind of what's being held and stuck.

So it's a tense and release meditation.

We'll go through our body kind of like a body scan and intentionally bring awareness to these different parts of the body.

In addition,

We will also bring tightness.

So we will tense up and then release the area next to moving on to the next area.

So you may have been familiar or done a yoga nidra.

This is similar but not.

With the yoga nidra,

It's a much more in-depth body scan intended for relaxation.

This is a tense and release meditation.

So it's a mindfulness meditation where we intentionally bring awareness to the body,

Tensing up and then releasing.

So I just wanted to clarify that before we get started.

Okay,

Coming into your space,

Into your breath,

Whatever is comfortable for you.

You can lay down if that feels better for you for today's practice or you can stay in a seated upright position.

Either one is fine.

We'll begin at the head and the top of the body and then work our way down through sections and then give one last overall body scan before we end.

Continuing to breathe,

Remembering there isn't anything you need to do with your breath.

However,

That's showing up for you today is perfect.

We'll start by bringing awareness to the top of your head,

Your skull,

Your hair,

Your scalp.

Noticing any sensations that are showing up the top of your head,

Back of your head.

As we begin to move to the face,

Moving around,

Around the ears,

Eyes,

Nose,

Nostrils,

The eyebrows,

The jaw,

Mouth,

Tongue,

Eyes,

Eyelids.

Begin to bring awareness to the face.

Are there any sensations showing up?

Where is that showing up?

Are you noticing any meaning that you're attaching to any of these sensations?

Isn't anything we need to do with that?

Just recognize.

Now begin to tense everything up in your face.

Spend a couple of seconds just tightening up as much as you can.

Then go ahead and actively release,

Release,

Release.

Begin to move down the neck and the shoulder blades on the front of the chest,

The heart space,

The back of the shoulders.

Just bring a gentle awareness to these areas.

What's showing up for you?

What's showing up in this space?

In a moment,

We'll actively tighten these areas.

Just allow anything that's showing up to be present.

Then begin to tighten,

Tighten,

Tighten,

Tighten,

Tighten up all of the muscles and sensations in the neck and the shoulders and the chest.

Then after holding for a few seconds,

Actively release,

Slowly letting go of everything and anything that's being held in this area.

Now we'll bring attention to the midsection,

All the way from the chest and the shoulders,

All the way down to the hips and everything that's in there.

The spinal cord,

The sides of the body,

All of the organs that are flowing,

Activating and working.

So bringing attention to your midline,

To your trunk,

Breathing in,

Recognizing anything that's showing up for you.

Is there any story that you're attaching to?

Is there any pain that's showing up?

Recognize that in this moment.

Continuing to breathe to and through those places.

In just a moment,

We'll go into that tensing and releasing.

Allow anything else that wants to show up here.

Allow it,

The space to show up.

Let's go ahead and tense up,

Tense everything up in the trunk,

Everything that you can.

Tighten it up,

Tense,

Tense,

Tense.

Hold it there for a minute,

Hold tight,

Tense up for just another minute,

Few seconds.

And then we'll go ahead and actively release.

Release everything that's been held in that moment,

Everything being held onto in this mid trunk section.

Now let's bring awareness to the shoulders and the arms and everything in there as well.

So bringing your attention back up to the shoulders and the clavicles and the chest,

Going into the biceps and the elbows and the forearm,

All the way down to the wrists and the hands and the fingers.

Feel everything in your arms.

Notice any sensations that are coming up,

Any memories that are coming up,

Anything else that is showing up for you in your arms.

Allow that to be present in this moment.

And then we'll tense up the arms and go into that tense and release.

Begin to tighten up everything in your arms,

In your shoulders,

All the way down.

Tight,

Tight,

Tight,

Tighten up.

Tense everything up as tight as you can in this area.

Hold for another few seconds.

And then we'll begin that releasing.

Go ahead and release,

Relax,

Let everything go.

Now we'll return back to the midsection.

Bring your attention to the hips,

To the bum,

To all of the organs that are sitting at the base of your spine.

Bringing your attention to that area.

Notice anything that's coming up,

Any stories that you're remembering,

Any memories or any associations.

Notice any pain,

Any tightness.

Allow that to come into the space as well.

And we'll go ahead and do our tense and release.

Beginning at the hips and the low mid back,

Begin to tighten everything up.

Tighten,

Tighten,

Tighten.

Tense everything up here at the very base of our midline,

Our midsection and our connection to our legs.

We're going to tighten everything up as much as we can in this tense moment.

And then hold for another second and release.

Let everything go.

Let it go.

Let it go.

Now we're going to bring our attention to the legs,

The thighs,

The knees,

The calves,

Ankles,

Feet,

Toes,

All of the joints and ligaments and everything that's connecting all of that from the hips all the way down,

All the way down to the feet.

Notice anything that's showing up here,

Any pain areas,

Any stories that are being attached to the legs.

Allow that,

The space and the attention that it wants in this moment.

And we'll come into our tense process.

Begin to tense everything up,

Tighten everything up.

Tighten,

Tighten,

Tighten.

Tense it all up.

Hold it tight in those legs all the way down from the hips through the thighs,

Down the calves,

Into the ankles and the knees and the feet.

Tighten it up.

Couple more seconds and release.

Relax.

Let it go.

Let anything go that's holding on in this moment.

Anything else in the legs you need to let go of.

Come back to that natural breath.

Come back to your breath pattern,

Whatever that is for you today.

Inhaling and exhaling into comfortable space.

Begin to do a full body scan.

You can start either at the base of the feet or the top of the head,

Whatever feels good for you and work your way to the opposite side.

As you continue to breathe,

Just go up one section at a time.

If there isn't anything that you need to do here in this moment,

You're just going to breathe through noticing anything.

Inhaling and exhaling and then gently moving up to the next section or down to the next section,

Whichever direction you're going.

Inhale.

Notice anything that's showing up.

Exhale.

Let go of anything that has shown up.

Inhale and exhale.

Moving on to the next section.

You should have about two more sections of the body left.

Inhaling and exhaling.

Continuing to breathe through the full body scan,

Making your way up to the last section in your body.

Inhale.

Noticing anything that's showing up.

Exhale.

Releasing anything and everything that needs to be let go of.

Continuing to breathe and just taking inventory of everything that you did in your mind's eye and in your body as you inhaled and exhaled all the way through this practice.

Tense and release through the different parts of your body.

Give yourself some additional acknowledgement for the practice that you just went through.

Continuing to breathe and take three collective breaths and then I'll ring the chime to bring us out of this meditation.

Inhaling deep,

Exhaling long.

Inhale deep,

Exhale long.

Inhale deep,

Exhale long.

Thank you,

Friends,

For being part of this practice and hanging out with your body as we did the tense and release.

That can bring up a lot so I really acknowledge that you stuck around and got through it and if anything comes up,

Remember that you can always breathe through it.

This is an opportunity to bring greater awareness to that mind-body connection.

Sometimes we get so busy we may ignore little sensations as they show up.

There may be some stuck emotions or energy in a particular part of our body and doing these kind of practices allows us to just bring mindfulness and awareness to it and then we can pick up our other tools and begin to process those things.

Thank you for this meditation of exploration and continue being mindful.

We will see you next time.

Thanks,

Friends.

Bye.