Expansive Relaxation

This practice will take you beyond the confines of your body and into a spacious, deep surrender. It offers boundless relaxation and is great right before bed, for aiding insomina, or as a deep restorative practice.

Transcript

As you settle in here,

Simply allow yourself to find a nice,

Comfortable position.

And whatever that means in your body,

So feeling free to sit cross-legged or maybe sitting in a chair with your feet flat.

Really anywhere else where your spine can be long and your body can be at ease and relaxed.

Once you find that space,

Just simply allow your eyes to close and your awareness to draw inward.

We'll begin here by simply noticing your breath.

So feeling the inhale slowly flowing in,

Expanding your body just a little bit out.

Feeling the exhale gently release as it softens the body in.

And just sticking with this for a few more breaths,

Starting to become aware of how the inhale opens your body.

How your exhale relaxes your body.

Inhaling,

Feeling a gentle widening.

Exhaling,

Feeling an effortless surrender.

Then we'll just take a little body scan.

So taking inventory of how your body feels in this moment and it might feel nice to start that at the crown of your head.

So taking your awareness all the way up to the crown of your head.

And allowing like a wave of relaxation to start to flow down from the crown of your head.

Feel this wave softening your forehead,

Your eyebrows,

Your eyes,

Your nose.

Feel your cheeks releasing and spreading.

The area between your nose and your mouth softening.

Relaxing your lips,

Your jaw,

The back of your head.

And feeling this relaxation start to flow down your neck.

Relaxing the front of your neck,

The back of your neck.

Feeling it sliding down the sides of your neck,

Starting to flow into your shoulders.

Feel it relaxing your collarbones.

Gently releasing your upper back a bit.

Just allow this relaxation to start to flow down both of your arms.

Feel it wrapping around your biceps,

Elbows,

Flowing down and around your forearms,

Wrist,

Tops of hands,

Palms.

Feel it flowing down and through each individual finger.

Almost like the relaxation could flow out of your fingertips.

Now observing as this relaxation starts to flow down and around your chest.

Relaxing the front of your ribs and the back of your ribs.

Feel it cascading down into your belly,

Your low back.

Imagine that it could pour into your hips,

Feeling your hips get a little bit heavier onto the surface beneath them just from this energetic weight pouring down.

Feel it flowing down into your thighs,

Wrapping around your knees,

Pouring into your shins and calves.

Eventually pouring into your ankles,

Heels,

Bottoms of the feet and tops of the feet.

And feel it flow into each individual toe.

Again,

Like you could feel it pouring out of the toe tips.

And then just become aware of your whole body in space,

Noticing this effortless sense of relaxation that is illuminating from the inside out.

Becoming aware once again of the breath,

How the easy breath in can just allow the body to expand.

The easy breath out can allow that sense of surrender as the body relaxes a little bit deeper.

Taking a few more deep breaths into your body.

Noticing if there's any spaces that need some attention.

This might be in your shoulders,

Your face,

Your hips or your feet or anywhere else.

Just simply send your breath,

Soothing breath into these areas,

Inviting them to let go.

And as you settle in here,

Just see if you could start to sense the outline of your body.

Sensing all the curves that make up your unique structure.

And noticing if you could start to imagine that you could breathe beyond the structure.

Noticing if your breath could just start to get a little bit bolder,

More expansive.

If it's supportive,

You could even imagine that your breath is a certain color.

Just envision that color starting to expand out from your body with each breath in and each breath out.

Sensing if you can allow this imaginary breath to start to flow further and further out.

Perhaps starting to take in the whole space around you.

Imagine that this could continue to expand.

Perhaps taking in the whole building that you're in or whole area that you're in.

And then taking it further,

Breathing a little bit bolder and seeing if it can start to take in the whole town that you're in.

And then perhaps the whole city,

Imagining that your breath could reach that far,

That your expansive energy could flow that far out.

And continue starting to visualize that this breath could take up this whole state that you reside in.

And then this whole country in which you live.

And then this whole earth in which you inhabit.

Perhaps envisioning that it could start to go beyond this planet into space.

And as you sit in this visualization of expansive breath,

Just notice if you could start to become aware of how your body feels and how your energy feels in this moment.

Sitting here for a few more breaths,

Allowing your mind to go wherever it goes,

But just simply allowing your awareness to remain on this expansive breath.

Cultivating this feeling of completely being boundless.

Take a very deep breath in through your nose,

Fill up your entire body and perhaps fill up all the space you've created.

Take a nice exhale out your mouth,

Feeling your body soften back into this space.

Coming back to feeling your breath within your body,

But almost imagining that you could pull all that expansiveness back into your unique structure.

Back into this container,

This vessel in which you reside.

Taking one last moment just to feel your breath and feel your body in this space.

Perhaps noticing any differences in how you feel now compared to how you felt when you started this meditation,

This practice.

And very gently just allowing your awareness to flow back into your body as your body lands right back in this space.

There is no rush,

You can take your time perhaps staying here,

Just letting the body sit and seep in this relaxation.

Or simply just allowing yourself to come out,

Opening your eyes when you're ready.

And there you have it,

A very deep breath in through your nose,

Fill up all the space you've created.

Reviews

Invaluable internal-exposure- style therapy for anyone w/ GAD, Agoraphobia, or any similar situation. I can say that for certain from all sides of the experience. Professionally in the best definition of the word. :)

Beautiful 💜

WOW! That was one of a kind. Thank you so much for getting me there.

Wonderful 🙏🏻

Beautiful meditation. Thank you so very much for offering just what I needed this evening. Namaste 🙏

Excellent and thank you

Really relaxing! Nice pace. I loved this. ❤️

Awesome 💖 The perfect practice to do in the evening, to put to rest the whirlwind of the day and welcome the serenity of the night 🤗 Thank you 💕 Namaste 🙏🏻

Beautiful, peaceful journey. I appreciate your guidance to peace and love. 😄💓🙏🏼