I'm going to be taking you through a body scan meditation and this particular practice is actually going back as far as the 1970s when it came from the mindfulness based stress reduction program that Jon Kabat-Zinn came up with.
It did obviously gain a lot of popularity back then and has continued to do so up until today's world.
There are so many benefits of doing this one.
For instance it helps to calm the nervous system and it does have profound effects on releasing stress from the body.
It can also help with managing anxiety and it can help with sleep as well.
The best way to do this one is laying down maybe on the grass or you are getting ready for bed.
Either way it's just nice to take some time to be fully present in this moment whilst listening to my voice as I step you through your different body parts and help you release a little bit more tension.
So let's get going finding a comfortable position.
Letting the feet fall out if that feels comfortable.
Maybe the legs a little bit more than hip width distance apart.
Finding a way to find that sweet spot between your low back and the floor.
Not too much arch,
Just a little to find a nice long straight spine so you can make sure that that head is away from the shoulders and you slightly feel yourself growing a little bit taller but with ease.
Feeling those shoulders drop away from the ears,
Arms hands loose down by the side of the body and you can have your palms facing up or facing down.
It doesn't really matter,
Just find something that's comfortable for you to withstand the full length of the meditation with minimal movement as possible.
I like to take a few stretches throughout the mouth,
Just maybe opening and widening,
Getting a nice loose jaw,
Letting that tongue fall down from the roof of the mouth and just having a slight parting of the lips.
Feel the muscles on your face start to relax now as we start to sink ourselves a bit deeper into this nice comfortable elongated comfy position.
Take a deep deep inhale through the nose,
Exhale mouth.
Inhale through the nose,
Exhale mouth.
Last one.
Bringing your awareness now to the left big toe,
Direct your full focus to this area of the body.
Maybe you can even feel the pulsing sensations of the blood flowing through this area.
Maybe you're just simply trying to bring your attention back to my voice as you feel those other thoughts streaming in,
What you did today,
What you haven't done,
What you could do better.
So every time you feel as though that your mind is drifting off,
And it will,
Find a way to come back to my voice and concentrate back on the body part that we're in.
Moving our way now down towards the little pinky toe on the left foot.
Just feeling each and every part of the foot pull,
Even more relaxed.
There's no tension in the arch of the foot,
The balls of the feet are nice and soft,
As if someone's giving you a foot massage.
Working our way down the side of the foot,
As we then start to concentrate on the heel.
Just feel the weight of the floor,
Or the bed,
Or the ground,
Wherever you're at,
Take that away from your left foot.
Working our way up towards the ankle.
You notice that with every exhale,
Just releasing a little bit more tension.
Nice steady in through the nose,
And out through the nose.
Making our way now up towards the shin area.
As we feel the back of the calf,
Just melting the muscles away.
Taking an inhale here,
And release.
Moving your awareness to the kneecap now,
As you start to feel as though that there's nothing but smoothness around that area.
The back of the knee is light,
And it just feels like it's effortlessly laying there.
As we move our way up to the thigh,
You start to notice if there's any other tension areas being held here.
If there is,
Just direct your focus to that area,
And take a few more rounds of breath.
Help release it bit by bit.
Moving our way up the left side of the body,
Towards the hip.
Feeling the hip and the bum just sink back down into the ground.
There is no tension,
Just ease,
As we take some breaths.
Moving our way towards the right big toe now.
Feeling that pulsing sensation just slightly guide the attention towards that spot of the foot.
Relaxing all five toes,
Making your way to the right pinky foot.
Maybe wiggling the toes just a little bit,
And then restoring it back to stillness.
Feeling as though someone's walking that massage all the way down the arch of your foot,
Down the sides of your right foot.
As they make their way to the heel,
Push it in a little bit harder.
Releasing any tension from the day,
And helping you sink deeper into this pose.
Making your way to the ankle joint now,
As we feel that weightlessness come to the right foot,
All over it.
Moving our way up to the shin now,
And feeling the right calf muscle just melt away from the bone.
Just thinking about every breath is releasing a little bit more tension,
Creating that ease,
Creating that softness.
Finding our way to the right knee.
Loosening the tension around there,
Thanking our knees for keeping us upright all day.
Moving your awareness up and towards the right thigh now,
Seeing if there's any kept tension in any of these areas,
As we take a few more deep breaths here.
Finding your way towards the right hip,
And the right bum cheek.
Feeling that low back just drop away,
As you feel as though that the whole ground is just cuddling you and holding you,
Soft as a cloud,
But as firm as a nice warm hug.
Bringing your awareness to your belly now,
Just letting it flop out,
As if you've had a nice big lunch for the day.
That's the end of the day,
And you've just unbuttoned those jeans,
Ripped them off.
Let it all hang out,
Take a few breaths here.
Again,
Releasing that low back,
So supple and soft.
As we move our way up to the chest area,
Feeling the collarbones come free,
The ribcage loosen,
The breastbones soften in.
Easing any tension throughout the neck and the shoulders,
And we feel our head just drip back into the back of the pillow,
Back of the ground.
The shoulders sink and mount,
Being softened by each and every breath that you take.
Making our way down the left side arm,
Feeling that bicep just kind of hang,
Or be chicken wings,
As my little boy would say.
Feeling that ease in the elbow,
And just releasing the hand,
All the fingers,
The thumb,
Maybe even squeezing the palm in for a breath,
And then releasing the hand out.
We'll do one more like that,
Making a fist with your hand as you inhale,
And then exhale,
Release it.
Let the fingers just naturally curl in a little bit here,
As the palm starts to sink even heavier into the grounding.
Falling our way across the collarbones,
Over to the right side now,
The right bicep starts to become that real soft and subtle chicken wing.
Sorry to take your mind thinking about food.
We're going to come back and bring our awareness to the right palm now.
Let's do that breath as we make a fist with all fingers touching the palm,
Inhale,
Exhale,
Release.
Last one.
Let those fingers slightly curl as the palm becomes super heavy now.
Making our way through the neck area,
Maybe even turning your head side to side slightly,
Back and forth,
Up and down,
Just micro,
Micro,
Super small movements,
Nothing big here,
Just gently feeling the ease in that movement.
Now we're going to come back to neutral,
Chin slightly coming down towards the chest,
As we take a few breaths here.
Bringing our awareness back to the face.
Back to the face.
Feeling the jaw loosen now as the tongue falls down from the roof of your mouth.
Feeling those cheeks just melt away.
Feeling the tension ease from the ears all the way down the jawline.
Your eyelids are soft.
Massaging you across the brow of your forehead,
The temples,
The ears,
And moving their way through your hair,
Through your head,
As you get that nice scalp massage as if you were getting your hair washed at the salon.
Let's now move the jaw just a little bit more and release that last little bit of tension.
As we then start to come into a space of utter bliss.
I'll leave you here with the music as you drift off to sleep.
If you need to start your day,
Then you can start to make your way up out of this pose,
Gently wiggling your toes and your fingers.
Otherwise,
I'll leave you here.
Have a beautiful day.
