Breath and Body Awareness Meditation

This is a basic breath and body awareness meditation. It promotes stress release and relaxation by allowing the listener to focus on their own breath and relax all of the muscles in their body.

Transcript

What we'll be doing today is a breath and body meditation.

So let's begin by closing our eyes and resting gently with our breath.

Breathing in and out through your nose and not forcing the breath in any way,

But allowing it to come and go in a natural way.

Breathe diaphragmatically,

Which means that your stomach rises on the inhale and recedes on the exhale.

And get in touch with that space in your body where you feel the breath the most.

This might be your stomach or abdomen.

You may feel your breath more in the rise and fall of your chest or perhaps in your nostrils.

Wherever it is simplest to feel the breath in your body,

This is your focus.

If thoughts arise as you meditate,

This is entirely normal.

Imagine them as clouds passing in the sky and use them as an opportunity to return to your focus,

Which is where you feel the breath in your body.

Breathing in and out through your nose and breath out.

Continuing to breathe normally at your normal pace,

Bring your attention to your nostrils and see what you might feel here.

Perhaps coolness on the inhale and a slightly warmer breath on the exhale.

Be mindful of whatever feelings exist here,

Even if you feel nothing at all.

And now let's take three long,

Slow,

Deep breaths.

Remembering to breathe diaphragmatically,

Breathing in and out.

Relax.

And bring your attention now to the top of your head,

Your scalp,

And allow it to relax ever so gently.

See if you can untense any muscles here or if you notice any sensation.

Breathe into your scalp,

Noticing on the inhale whatever sensation exists here and relaxing it deeply on the exhale.

Allow your attention to move down to your forehead and unclench,

Untense any parts of your forehead that may be causing wrinkles or furrowed brows and imagine a slight smile that comes to your eyes.

Imagine the edges of your eyes smiling upward and your forehead is relaxed and down.

Missing your sinus area and softening this area if there is any tension.

And moving over to your jaw area,

Slightly loosen your chin,

Let it hang down just slightly,

Opening the jaw and relaxing the muscles around the jaw.

And let your tongue rest in the bottom of your mouth.

Remember as thoughts come and go,

They are mere reminders of a chance to begin again to focus and right now we're focused on the looseness of our jaw.

Noticing the tongue on the bottom of the mouth and noticing the roof of the mouth,

Inside the roof of the mouth and see if you experience here any warmth or perhaps coolness as the air comes in.

And imagine in your mind's eye the palate parting down the center and each side moving down and into the mouth with relaxation.

And gently now bring the lips together,

The mouth closed and tip your chin slightly forward to elongate the back of the neck and let the muscles here go.

The neck and the shoulders are areas where many of us hold our stress.

Thank yourself for giving yourself the time to allow this area to relax.

Feel each shoulder,

The left shoulder and the right shoulder.

And imagine each shoulder is a block of ice and then allow each block of ice to melt down on either side,

Taking your muscles and tendons with it to totally feel the elongation of the neck and feel your shoulders move away from your earlobes.

Allow this softening to occur down the left arm and the right arm all the way to the tips of each finger.

Take your time,

Continue to breathe.

And gradually return your attention to heart center,

To your chest in the front of your body and do this same gradual relaxation of muscles from your chest to your lungs,

Even deep into your intestines,

Down through the abdomen and the stomach,

Letting the stomach completely out,

No need for holding here,

Let it go.

Many of our fears and anxieties live in our stomach.

So sending a few extra breaths to this area as we relax will relieve some of this built up stress,

Fear and anxiety.

And when you are ready,

Move your attention to your lower back.

Feel the chair or floor holding you up as gravity pulls you down.

So there is no need for you to do any work,

Just let the lower back ease into muscle relaxation.

And slowly move up your spine,

One vertebrae at a time,

Step by step,

Imagining the discs loosening,

The tendons loosening and the muscles softening,

One by one,

As you move all the way back up to the shoulders and neck where we started.

And once you have completed your journey back up to your shoulders and neck,

Let's bring our attention to the lower half of our body,

Beginning with the hips,

Again,

Grinding into the floor or the chair without any need to hold ourselves in any specific manner here.

Just let go,

Feel your left thigh and your right thigh and the back of your thighs all let go.

And when you get to your knees on either side,

Imagine if you will,

A healing white mist that circles around each knee,

Giving the knees a rest and letting them feel loose and free,

And allowing that mist to travel down your shins and your calves into your ankles where it swirls again,

Loosening up any tendons,

Any muscles or nerves and move slowly down your feet,

Relaxing the heels of the feet into the arches of the feet and the balls of the feet and imagining each toe separately,

The big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe and pinky toe,

Letting everything go so that your whole body is relaxed,

Your whole body,

Your whole body.

And using that same mist on the inhale,

Pull it up through your body from your toes to your ankles,

Your legs,

Your hips,

Into the abdomen and the stomach through heart center and all the way up to the crown of your head and breathe this mist through your body with exhales and inhales here on your own for the next minute.

I'll mind the time.

SheROs o And now,

As we end our meditation for today,

Bring your hands together at heart center in prayer mudra,

And bow to the divine light within yourself and those around you by saying Namaste.

Thank you for meditating with me today.

Have a good day.

Reviews

That was very soothing, thank you. Just like the good old days. I miss you.

Very relaxing. Simple practice in a slow unhurried way. Nothing complicated, so very good for the beginner. Also, would be a good meditation before sleep.
Thanks.