Welcome to your relaxation meditation.
Begin with your body lying either on the ground or on a mat,
Placing a cushion beneath your head and perhaps a small rolled-up blanket or towel underneath your knees.
You may cover yourself with a blanket so that you can be warm and supported as we go through this relaxation.
Gently close your eyes,
Place one hand on your belly and the other hand on your chest,
Noticing how your breath moves in and out of your body.
Bringing your awareness to your breath,
Take a deep breath in and gently exhale.
Take another deep breath in,
Feeling the belly rise and as you exhale feeling the belly soften.
Take another deep breath in and as you exhale blowing the air out gently through your mouth,
Exhaling as much as you possible can and then returning to your own natural breath,
Whatever pace feels most comfortable.
If you'd like to rest your arms next to your body you could do so.
Turn your palms up if your hands are resting next to your body.
You might feel your mind racing,
Worrying about the process or worrying about your to-do list,
Worrying about if you're doing this right or wrong.
Just let go of all those worries,
The thoughts,
The labels,
The words.
Right now we're going to put all your focus on your body and allow you to go into a deep relaxation.
Notice where your body is touching the ground or the surface beneath you.
What does the sensation feel like?
Notice your heels on the ground and send your awareness first to your left heel and then your right heel.
Feel each hip and your lower back,
The space where it touches the floor.
Send your awareness to your lower back and equalize them so that you feel grounded.
Then as you breathe in send your attention to your shoulders.
Notice where they're touching the floor,
The back of your neck,
Your head.
Allow gravity to hold you,
Support you.
Give yourself over to the force beneath you and just surrender.
There's nothing you need to do,
There's no way you need to go.
Now bring your awareness to the soles of your feet.
Now just the sole of your left foot.
Allow the sole of your foot to just release.
All the muscles let go,
Let loose.
Let gravity have more of your foot.
Feel the weight of it and think let go.
You might even feel a slight tingling in your feet just because you're bringing your awareness to your feet.
Now bring your awareness to the sole of your right foot,
Allowing gravity to hold it,
Just letting go.
And bring your attention to the toes on your left foot.
The big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe and pinky toe.
Now bringing your attention to the toes on your right foot.
The big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe and your pinky toe.
Allow your toes to rest and relax.
Bring your attention to the top of your foot,
All the way up to your ankle.
Bring your attention to the left foot,
Then the right foot.
Allow your ankles to release and let go.
Then bring the attention further up onto the calf muscle and the shin bone.
First your left leg,
Your left shin,
Your left calf muscle and then the right shin,
The right calf muscle.
Taking your attention up to your knees,
Then your left thigh,
Your right thigh,
Your whole left leg,
Your whole right leg,
Lets loose,
Turns loose,
All the muscles releasing,
Allowing Mother Earth to hold it.
The full weight of your legs,
Resting,
Releasing.
Moving that deep sense of relaxation up into your hips,
Your buttocks,
Allowing your weight to just let go.
Feeling your belly soften,
Your lower back releases.
Moving that deep sense of relaxation all the way up into your chest,
Your belly and your chest fully relaxed.
Moving that sense of release into your shoulders and all the way down your arms,
Down your left arm,
Into your elbow,
Down to your wrist.
The weight of your hands and arm just releasing,
Letting go.
Taking your attention all the way down to your left hand,
Palm of your hand,
Thumb,
Pointer finger,
Middle finger,
Ring finger and pinky finger.
The back of your hand releasing,
Resting.
And taking the attention to your right arm,
All the way down to your elbow and your wrist.
Your arm resting on the earth or resting on your belly,
Wherever your hands may be.
Taking the attention to the palm of your hand,
Into your thumb,
Your pointer finger,
Middle finger,
Ring finger and pinky finger and into the back of your hands.
Arms resting,
Arms relaxed,
Arms releasing down,
Allowing gravity to do its job.
And taking your awareness up into your throat and the back of your neck,
Allowing all the muscles in your neck to let loose.
If they were pulled tight like an elastic band,
They now soften and release.
Bringing ease to any tension,
Bringing release.
Taking your attention to your jaw,
Your mouth,
Your lips and allowing it to soften.
Your tongue releases down into the bottom of your mouth.
Your cheeks soften,
Your eyes rest in the sockets,
Floating and swirling in the pool of fluid that holds your eyes.
Allowing it just to release,
Floating.
Relaxing your eyebrows,
Your forehead,
All creases on the forehead,
Letting go.
And taking this deep sense of relaxation into the base of your skull,
Where the neck meets the head.
The back of your head resting on your cushion,
Allowing yourself to soften and release a little bit more.
Even your hair follicles release.
You feel your hair floating back,
Just allowing gravity to hold it,
Allowing Mother Earth to hold you.
And with this deep sense of relaxation,
You know that you are held and you are safe.
It's safe for you to relax right now.
It's safe for you to just be.
Your whole body supported.
Your whole body at ease.
Your mind rested.
Your body rested.
And soften in the state of deep relaxation.
Your breath is soft.
Your breath is easy.
The space embraces and cradles you.
You are perfectly safe.
When you are ready,
You can slowly start waking yourself up.
Or allow yourself to drift into a deep,
Restful sleep.
You can softly rub the pads of your forefingers against your thumb.
Move your thumb across each finger.
Gently flex your toes back and forth.
Waking the toes and feet,
Wiggling your toes.
Take a deep breath in.
Gently waking the body.
Allowing yourself this moment to come back to awareness.
I'll slowly count you back to full awareness.
You can play this recording,
This meditation each day.
And each time you play it,
You feel more relaxed.
Your relaxation skills are quite simple and you adapt to it easily and effortlessly.
On the count of one,
You slowly take a deep breath in,
Coming back to awareness.
On the count of two,
You're feeling calm,
Relaxed and incredibly at ease.
On the count of three,
Every muscle and nerve in your body is rested.
You feel wonderful,
Perfectly at ease.
On the count of four,
You take a deep breath in.
And on the count of five,
You gently flutter your eyes open,
Take another deep breath in.
And come to full awareness.
And should you play this prior to sleeping,
You will now allow yourself to drift off into a deep,
Wonderful,
Restful sleep.
Filled with positive dreams.
