Let's begin,
Take a deep breath in and a full breath out.
As we prepare our body and mind for sleep,
Let's relax through a body scan along with a progressive muscle tension and relaxation practice.
We'll go bottom to top and take time to squeeze and then release the big muscles throughout the whole body while maintaining deep breathing.
Take a few more breaths as you come into your body and pay attention to how you feel.
Notice the sensations,
The temperature,
Any tension you might feel anywhere throughout the body without any judgment,
Just notice.
And we'll start with our toes and our feet.
As you inhale,
Squeeze your toes down and your heels in.
And then on the exhale,
Release and relax your feet.
We'll do this two more times.
As you take a deep breath in,
Squeeze your toes and heels in together and then relax out on the exhale.
Last time,
Inhale as you squeeze and exhale as you release.
Now let's try to isolate the lower leg,
The calf muscle.
Squeeze the muscle to the bone while keeping the feet and the quad muscle relaxed.
Inhale to try to tighten the calf and then exhale to let it go.
We'll do that two more times.
Inhale as you squeeze the calf muscle tight and exhale as you relax that calf muscle and let it go.
One more time,
Inhale to tighten and exhale to release.
Moving up the leg,
Let's try to do it again with the top of the leg,
The quad muscle.
On an inhale,
Tighten and squeeze and on the exhale,
Release and let go.
Let's do it two more times,
Trying to isolate just the quad muscle,
Keeping the bottom half of the leg relaxed,
Keeping the core of the body relaxed.
Inhale to tighten,
Exhale to release.
Last time,
Inhale,
Squeeze the quad muscles and exhale to let them go.
Now let's bring our attention to the core of the body,
The front belly and the back.
We're going to squeeze them together and tighten as you inhale and then let it all loose and let it all go on the exhale.
Two more times,
Pull the belly toward the back,
Pull the back toward the belly on the inhale and then exhale to let everything hang loose.
One more time,
Inhale to tighten and squeeze those core muscles and exhale to release and relax it down.
Now let's isolate the chest,
The shoulders and the upper arms,
Keeping the forearms relaxed and keeping the core relaxed.
On an inhale,
Squeeze the chest and the shoulders in together and on an exhale,
Release and let go.
Two more times,
Inhale to squeeze the chest and the shoulder muscles and exhale to relax and release.
Last time,
Inhale,
Squeezing that upper body and exhale to let it all go.
Now we'll move on to the forearm and the hands.
Try to keep the upper arms relaxed.
On the inhale,
Make fists with your hands and feel that tightness move into the forearm and on the exhale,
Release and let go,
Allowing those fingers to go wide.
We'll do that two more times.
Make a tight fist with your hands on the inhale,
Release and let go on the exhale.
One more time,
Squeeze the hand and the forearm and on the exhale,
Release and let it go.
Now let's move to our face,
Which has many muscles.
Let's squeeze our eyes shut,
Bring our mouth tight together,
Make a funny face on the inhale and on the exhale,
Release it all.
We'll do that two more times.
On an inhale,
Squeeze everything together and on an exhale,
Let it all go.
Last time,
Inhale deeply as you squeeze all those face muscles together and exhale to let it go.
Let's move to our whole body all at once.
We'll take a deep inhale and as you do,
Squeeze your toes,
Your legs,
Your core,
Your chest,
Your arms,
Your hands,
And even your face and then exhale completely,
Letting all the muscles relax.
We'll do that two more times.
Take a deep breath in as you squeeze every muscle from your toes to your face and then exhale to release and relax.
Last time,
Inhale as you squeeze everything,
All the muscles in toward the bones and exhale as you let it all go.
Take a few moments to savor this feeling,
Notice the sensations,
Hopefully you're feeling more relaxed in your body.
Take a deep breath in and a full breath out.
Enjoy your sleep.
