My name is Adrienne Jarrett and welcome to this calm your racing thoughts,
Body scan meditation to help you find some sleep and rest this evening.
I particularly like body scans if you are struggling with racing thoughts,
Because instead of asking you to try to clear the mind,
We're going to give the mind something to focus on.
So how this works is that I will label parts of your body and please just in your mind's eye bring your attention to that space as I mention it.
See if you can take a breath here,
Imagine that your breath is breathing into that space.
And as you exhale,
You're feeling it just get heavier into the ground,
The bed,
Whatever support you may have beneath you.
And then if you ever get distracted at any point,
If those thoughts come back in,
If you start racing.
Don't worry,
It's okay,
It happens,
It happens to all of us.
Just come back to my voice,
Find wherever it is in the body we're moving through next,
And see if you can follow along.
And just repeat this process if you get distracted again.
The thing that.
.
.
Often is misunderstood about meditation that I learned quite recently actually at the time of this recording.
Is that people assume that it's about clearing the mind,
And that is the whole point,
The meditation is the clearing of the mind.
But I was listening to this talk by this Buddhist monk,
And he was saying that it's not the It's not the clearing of the mind.
That is the meditation,
It's the refocusing yourself.
To clear the mind every time you get distracted.
The key point is that if we focus on realizing that our mind is racing,
That we have got distracted and we're going on about whatever thoughts it might be,
That we've noticed this and that we come back to.
Whatever it is we're focusing on,
In this case today,
The body scan.
So with that in mind,
I invite you to just get a little bit more comfortable than what you can.
Settle in,
Just notice your body,
Notice anywhere that's maybe a little bit uncomfortable.
Can you even just make yourself 5% more comfortable?
And you don't have to lay on your back for this practice.
It is ideal if you can lay on your back,
Either palms on your chest or down by your side facing up.
But if you don't find that position comfortable,
You can lie on your side put a pillow between your knees.
If you're on your back,
Put a pillow under your knees.
Whatever you need to feel really snugly so that you can Let your mind relax.
You're not going to be distracted by something getting in the way.
Make sure you've got your snuggliest blankets on.
If you need to pause this audio while you get ready and get snuggled in,
Please do.
Otherwise,
If you're ready,
We'll get started.
And before we move into the body scan,
I'm just going to invite you to take a few deep,
Slow breaths.
Those deep belly breaths.
And just notice if this is something you're not already doing.
And if you're not,
I do invite you to start to feel your belly button expand as you take an inhale.
And then as you exhale,
Back out the nose,
Feeling your belly button draw in.
Try to make your exhale a bit longer than your inhale.
You can keep your own time if it helps to count.
Please do,
Otherwise just focus on slow,
Deep inhales with that belly button expanding.
And then slower exhales with that belly button moving back in.
And just do this for a few rounds.
And these deep diaphragmatic breaths really help to activate our parasympathetic nervous system,
Which is once again going to help us to drop out of those racing thoughts and get some rest.
And take a few more breaths here.
And try to continue this deep,
Slow breath throughout the practice.
You can lose your focus on it if you like,
But If you notice your breath starting to get shallow,
If you're getting quite distracted again easily,
Coming back to this slow,
Deep breath and just checking in,
Tuning in with yourself throughout this practice if that is something you need to come back to and then focus on the body.
So we're going to start at the forehead between your eyebrows.
Please bring your awareness there.
If you haven't yet closed your eyes,
Please do so now.
If you don't feel comfortable closing your eyes for any reason,
Please find a drishti or a spot somewhere ahead of you that you can focus on.
And.
.
.
Just want to have your eyes kind of like half closed so it's sort of a dream-like state.
And then bringing your awareness back to this forehead area.
I'm taking a deep breath here,
Feeling that belly button expanding once again.
And as you exhale,
Just notice,
Can you release any tension that you may be holding in your forehead?
Can you feel your skin expanding across,
Releasing,
Relaxing?
Can you feel your eyes getting a little bit heavier here?
And then drawing your attention down to your jaw.
Taking another one of those deep breaths.
Placing a little bit of a gap between your teeth.
Letting your jaw muscles relax and release.
You and your head is feeling heavier against the pillow and the support that you have beneath you.
And bringing your awareness now to the base of the front of your neck.
Shoulders drop down slightly,
You find a lot of space.
And your chest feels heavier,
Sinking into the support.
And shifting across to your right shoulder.
Feeling it get heavier,
Your bones are getting heavier into the ground beneath you.
Moving to your right elbow.
Your right breast.
Back of the hand.
The palm of your hand.
And then your fingers.
And then your whole right arm as one.
This feels heavier in the bed.
And then bringing your awareness back to the base of the front of the neck.
Moving across now to your left shoulder.
Your left elbow.
Your left breast.
The back of your hand.
The palm of your hand.
And all your fingers.
Now your whole left arm is one.
Just feels heavier.
Your bones are sinking in to the cushions,
To the support.
And then coming back to the base front of the neck.
Moving down slightly to your chest,
Your heart center.
Taking your breath here.
Now your belly button.
Feeling that expand and release once again.
And then your pelvis.
The front of your right hip.
In the back of your right hip and your glutes.
Your thigh.
My knee.
Calf muscle.
Shin.
Thank you.
My ankle.
Top of the foot.
Sole of the foot.
And your right toes.
And then feeling your whole right leg as one.
Sinking further into the support below you.
And then tracing your leg back up to your pelvis.
And across to the front of your left hip.
The back of your left hip and your glutes.
And your thigh.
Lift knee.
Lift calf muscle.
SHEN ankle.
Top of the foot.
You sole of the foot.
And all your toes.
And then your whole left leg.
As one,
Feeling heavier into the supports,
The cushions,
The bed,
Whatever you may have beneath you.
Just feeling that leg get heavy,
Your bones sinking in.
And then tracing back up to your pelvis.
And your belly button.
And your heart center.
And from here,
Feeling your whole body as one.
Just getting slightly more heavier.
Sinking in deeper.
Finding deep rest or sleep.
Here.
