Relaxation - Breathing Through The Body

Ann shows you how to use your breath to relax your body in this 30-minute meditation, let go of troubling thoughts and soothe your emotions. It is ideal if you would like to relieve stress, find emotional peace, sleep better and deeply relax.

Transcript

This time now is for you.

It is a time that you dedicate totally to yourself.

Let the outside world stay outside as you turn inward.

Make yourself comfortable.

Make sure that your clothes are loose and that you'll be undisturbed.

Find a place where you feel relaxed.

Lie down if possible.

Become aware of your breath.

How do you breathe?

Which part of your body moves as you breathe?

Do you breathe to your chest?

If so,

Which part of it?

Do you breathe to your belly?

Is your breath shallow or deep?

Feel the difference in your body when you breathe in and when you breathe out.

Watch your breath.

Feel it.

Now direct your breath consciously to your lower abdomen.

As you breathe in,

Let your tummy expand.

As you breathe out,

Feel it sink.

Breathing in and letting the belly rise.

Breathe out and letting it sink back down.

Breathing in and breathing out.

Become aware now of the flow of your breath.

Do the in and out breaths merge together?

Or is there a pause between the inhale and the exhale?

If you pause,

For how long do you pause?

Now listen to that gap.

When you breathe in,

Let your body expand to its maximum and then immediately let the breath flow out again,

Effortlessly.

And as the last bit of breath is taken in again with a long,

Deep,

Full inhale,

The breath becomes circular.

Breathing in,

Breathing out,

Letting the breath flow.

With each cycle of inhale and exhale,

Feel the capacity of the body increase,

Your capacity for life increasing.

Draw the breath in,

Expand and let go.

Feel your body.

Become aware of stiffness or pain or blockages.

If there are blockages in your body,

Direct your breath to that point.

As you breathe,

Your torso expands,

Letting go of the tension in the tummy and the chest,

The top of the shoulders and the nape of the neck.

As you breathe in,

The tension loosens and the out-breath takes it away.

You're drawing in life,

Energy,

Chi,

And you're letting go of the tensions of work of the people around you.

Turn inward.

With each cycle of the breath,

You begin to sense who you are.

Your sense of self expands.

Now we're going to go through the body in a deep relaxation of all the muscles and muscle groups,

But we'll do it gently,

Sensing the muscles and letting the tension release.

Relax with the rhythm of your breath.

Breathing now in that circular breath,

Letting it flow through you,

In you,

Like a wave washing on the shore.

You are letting it wash over you,

Through you,

Like a wave,

Washing over and through your entire body,

Relaxing.

Direct your attention to your head,

To your scalp.

Can you feel your scalp?

How does it feel?

Putting each in-breath to the scalp and with each out-breath,

Let go of tension,

Breathing it out,

Letting it go.

You're forward.

Is it tight?

How does it feel?

Take the breath to it,

Drawing the breath in,

Loosening,

Washing,

Cleansing,

Relaxing.

Letting the out-breath take away the tensions,

Feeling the muscles around the eyes relax,

Letting go of the squinting,

The obsessive desire to see.

Relax.

Relax so you can just be aware of what there is around you.

The nose,

The cheeks,

Let them relax.

The mouth and the jaw,

Loosen the jaw,

Move it gently,

Letting the out-breath take away the tension.

Become aware of the neck and the shoulders.

Breathe in.

Let the neck and shoulders expand with the in-breath and when you breathe out,

Feel the tension release.

Let the number of cycles of the breath repeat this process.

Feel now with your mind's eye to your shoulder blades,

Breathe to the tension between your shoulder blades,

Breathing fully so that you feel your shoulder blades expand into the surface beneath you and let go.

Letting go of the tensions with each out-breath.

Let your awareness flow,

Full deep breaths,

Feeling the whole of the top of your torso expand.

The breath now brings light down the spine.

With each breath,

Light travels down the spine,

Loosening it,

Opening it up.

Keep the breath circular so that the energy flows constantly through you,

Bringing in the new,

Taking away the old.

Feel your buttocks,

How tight are they?

Relax.

Let the tension go.

As you focus on the buttocks,

Breathe in and as you breathe out,

Relax and let go.

There's a shift in the weight of your body as you let go and relax into the surface beneath you.

The breath now travels down through the top of the head,

Through the neck,

Into your shoulders,

Down the spine and into your buttocks.

A circular breath,

A cleansing breath.

You're beginning to feel relaxed,

More and more relaxed.

And as your back becomes relaxed,

You're aware of the tension in the front of your body,

Your chest.

Let the tightness in your chest release.

Expand your breath.

With every breath,

Expand your chest as if you're breaking through ties that bind you.

Feel your rib cage expand.

With every in-breath,

You feel the ribs from the bottom to the top expand,

Feeling each rib like a ripple expand with the breath and the tension melts into every out-breath.

The breath travels now to the lower abdomen so that with each of the breaths,

The belly expands,

The fullness of life returning to its center.

Bring the breath to three inches below the navel.

Energize your body.

Let go of the sloth and stagnation.

Let go of everything that blocks you from living life to the fullest,

From feeling fully alive.

Your breath now is very,

Very full.

With each in-breath,

Your back pushes down into the surface beneath you and your front expands upwards.

You can feel the life coming back into your body and the tension disappear.

And this life expands out through your limbs.

Life inside you searching for an outlet.

With each out-breath,

Energy expands out through your limbs,

Down the top of the thighs and up and out through the shoulders,

Letting go of tension,

Breaking through blockages.

With each cycle of the breath,

The energy travels further down the limbs to the knees,

The elbows.

The tension disappears as you allow the life in you to fully expand,

Free.

The energy reaches your hands and your feet.

Your whole body is pulsating.

A full,

Strong pulsation.

And the breath is now coming in of its own accord.

You have no need to direct it consciously.

The breath,

Like a river of light,

Comes in through the top of the head and down the spine and fills the torso,

Expands out through the arms and the legs.

You pulsate with the breath,

With energy,

With light.

Free.

Free from the blockages that day-to-day life has created.

Let the breath do its work.

You feel.

You watch the breath expand you and you feel the energy flow through you.

You feel yourself expanding beyond your normal limits.

The breath is taking you further than you've ever been.

You're floating.

You're light.

You are light.

Allow yourself now to be taken.

To be taken to a wonderful,

Wonderful place.

A place of peace.

Of calm.

Of beauty.

It may be a place you have already visited.

Or it could be a place that just comes to you now.

Allow yourself to explore it with all your senses.

To feel the air around you.

To sense the light on your eyelids.

And see the play of light in the environment.

The way the colours change,

Their contrast,

Their subtlety.

You're feeling utterly secure and at peace in that place.

This is your sanctuary.

This is the place you can go to whenever you need to escape.

Whenever you need to escape from the tensions of life.

This is the place where life is felt in its purity,

Where you can get back in touch with that purity of life in you.

And as you lie there,

Feel the life pulsating through you.

Feel it flowing through your whole body.

So bring your attention now to the area in the centre of your chest.

Your heart.

The centre of wisdom.

Feel the breath pulsating with the heart.

There is a unison of the breath with the heart.

They match each other.

They go together.

Let the life flow into the heart centre.

And with each in-breath,

Let that heart centre expand.

Feel it expand in your body.

See it in your mind's eye,

Expanding.

Let go of the emotions that contract you.

The emotions,

The frustrations,

The angers,

The hurts,

Desires,

Confusion.

These are the emotions that close your heart centre down.

These are the emotions that lock into your physical body and cause tension.

So now,

With every in-breath,

Draw the breath in to the heart centre and feel that centre expand.

And as it expands,

These emotions drop away.

The feeling of being misunderstood,

Of being unloved,

Of struggle.

Breathe in life and let these emotions go.

With each out-breath,

Let those feelings dissolve.

And as they disappear,

Your heart begins to glow.

And there's a warmth that begins to expand out through your body.

This is the quality of the heart.

The quality of the heart is love.

So with each in-breath,

Let this feeling of love expand.

Let the feeling of confidence and trust grow as well as you feel your whole being expand.

With every in-breath,

Comes a greater sense of wellbeing.

A sense of peace.

Of love.

Of oneness.

That warmth is now totally surrounding you.

The warmth of the heart.

Keep that feeling with you now as you prepare to integrate into the world outside.

This is the quality that will allow you to keep relaxed.

To be at peace.

Remember the feeling in your body.

Know that you can recreate that whenever you choose.

As you think now of the place where you are,

Of the people and the things in your life,

Let the heart energy expand to embrace them,

To embrace the world outside.

Let the feeling of love,

Of confidence and trust embrace everything in your life.

Keep this feeling with you.

Know that the more you practice creating it,

The more you imagine it enveloping the world around you,

The more at peace you will be,

Both on the inside and the out.

There will be no difference.

All will be one.

The breath is life.

Nurture yourself.

Give yourself life.

Give yourself love.

Give out time to yourself.

Reviews

Beautiful meditation. Calm voice, nice mellow music, and good quality, well balanced audio.🙏

Very relaxing - thank you

Thankyou 💐🙇‍♀️

Beautiful words. Namesta

Beautifully soothing sounds and nurturing guided practice. Namaste 🙏

That was so soothing. Gentle tone, I loved the background sounds. Not disturbing at all and the violin music was so mellow! Just lovely! Thank you.

So beautiful and thoroughly relaxing! Everything about it is beautiful