Welcome to this mindfulness meditation for stress relief.
We'll begin by finding a comfortable place to lie down,
Making sure your head is in a comfortable position,
Allowing your arms to fall on your side and releasing any tension in the feet and the ankles.
And we'll start by connecting with the breath,
Noticing where your inhale is going in your body.
And maybe it's causing a rise and a fall in the belly or in the ribs,
Maybe in the back of the ribcage.
And begin to take one deep intentional inhale into the belly and let it all go.
We'll do that two more times.
Inhale and release.
Deepest breath yet.
Inhale and let it all go.
Any tension that you might feel in your jaw or in the back of your neck.
On your next exhale,
Let that all go.
Maybe you can even create more space in the back of the neck here,
More length between the vertebrae,
More air between each one.
Drawing focus and awareness back into the belly,
Just above the navel below your ribcage where your solar plexus is.
Find any tension that might be resting in there.
Maybe it's really subtle.
On your next series of exhales,
Release the tension that might be resting here.
Let it fall down into the floor or the mat or the bed.
Notice anything you may be carrying in your hips and let that go as well in your next couple of exhales.
Drawing the focus to the hamstrings,
To the thighs and allowing any tension to just melt away here.
Appreciating the strength of our bodies,
Our limbs,
Our legs able to hold us,
The earth able to carry it all.
And now drawing the focus down the calves,
Towards the ankles and finally to the feet.
And anything here that might be held on to,
Clenching and all of the work that we put our feet through on your next couple of exhales,
Allow that tension to be released.
Drawing the focus back up to the shoulder blades and the points of contact with the floor or your bed or mat.
And on your next couple of exhales,
Allow all the tension of the shoulders that work so hard for us and overdrive to store things for us,
Allow that to fall away.
Take a moment to scan through the body,
Anywhere else that needs a little bit more tenderness and attention,
Anywhere that might want a little bit more release.
Just let yourself focus there for a moment.
And when you're ready,
Gently wiggle the fingers,
Maybe wiggle the toes,
Allow your head to gently roll to the right,
To the left,
Side to side,
Sending the signal to the body that we are present,
Alert and aware.
And when you are ready,
You can open the eyes.
