Welcome to this guided relaxation exercise.
Just find a quiet place where you won't be disturbed and a comfortable seated posture.
Next,
Allow your awareness to settle on your breath,
Breathing in and then out,
About three seconds in and then about three seconds out,
Noticing the coolness of the air as you inhale and the warmth as you exhale.
Now if you lose your concentration and focus,
Don't be concerned,
Just gently escort yourself back to this relaxation exercise.
Sometimes people find it helpful and supportive to visualize a peaceful calming color,
That color flowing into them with the inward breath.
You also want to find a color that represents tension and stress and to picture it to feel that color flowing out of you with the outward breath.
So just take a moment or two now to find a calm as you settle in to this guided exercise designed to help you unwind at the end of a busy day.
Now if you could bring your attention and your awareness to the top of the head and to all of the tiny little muscles that run across and through the top of that head through the scalp and just allow them to spread out and to become nice and loose and limp.
And as this happens,
Just starting to notice and to feel a sense of calm and relaxation beginning to make its way on down over the sides of the head,
Down through the temples and then on down through those ears so that even the tiny little ear muscles can begin.
Noticing the muscles of the forehead,
Are they tense and scrunched or are they lightly relaxed?
Supporting them now in the next outward breath.
As the eyes rest ever so gently now,
The eyes resting gently and the muscles down through the face now.
You're getting there,
A lot of tensions,
A lot of stresses compound,
Some people clench.
So just taking a moment now to support the jaw,
To release,
Allowing the teeth to part just a little bit and the tongue to rest gently in the mouth.
But just continuing on down with this peace and calm down through the muscles and now flowing on out evenly over the shoulders.
You might be starting to feel like the weight is being lifted,
Like the responsibilities,
The busyness,
The challenges of the day are just starting to drop off in a way.
As the body and the mind,
Down into the upper arms,
Those biceps,
Those tricep muscles are starting to loosen up.
And as they loosen up,
You loosen up a little bit more yourself.
And this increased sense of peace and calm at the 12.
And on down through the forearms,
Forearms,
Down through those wrists and into the hands.
The chest is another location in the body where tensions come.
Just sinking on down now.
A nice sense of peace and calm,
Beginning to feel the relaxation,
Just resting for a few more moments.
