Hey there and welcome to a 10-minute guided meditation on total relaxation.
Find yourself in a comfortable position.
I recommend lying down.
It might feel nice to put a pillow underneath your knees and have some sort of fabric to cover your eyes.
And start by just breathing in and out through the nose.
And as you breathe,
Bring your awareness to the sounds around you,
To the sensation of having a body,
Of being made of matter.
And let gravity do some of the work for you.
See if you can release into the floor or the cushion or the chair.
Breathing in deeply now and releasing as you release the breath.
Let your inhalations and exhalations be smooth and circular in and out,
Like stirring a pot of melted chocolate.
If your eyes aren't closed,
Feel free to do so.
And if your eyes are closed,
See if you can let your eyeballs soften behind your lids,
As if the space behind your eyes was a scoop of ice cream melting.
And the small muscles in the corners could let go.
Now I invite you to imagine you are lying or sitting on warm sand.
It might feel nice to give your body a little shimmy to sink a little deeper into the sand.
Perhaps you hear the sound of an ocean in the distance,
The feeling of that perfect temperature on your skin.
And for the next few breaths,
Focus exclusively on your exhalations.
Let the inhalations be passive.
Let your body do its thing for those.
But bring your awareness to the exhalations.
Focused and then letting go on the inhalations.
Focused again,
Letting go.
In and out.
And now begin to extend your exhalations very subtly,
Little by little,
Every exhale a little longer than the last.
As thoughts,
Sounds,
And other sensations arise,
Come back to your exhalations.
And if there's anything that needs to be heard or experienced,
That's okay.
Bring it along for the ride.
Welcome it as part of your experience and return to the exhalations.
Feel your body begin to soften.
Allow that image of warm sand to surround you.
With a deeper and slower exhalation.
Notice everything that arises and welcome it into your experience.
It may help to label it as pleasant or neutral or unpleasant.
Can you be okay as you are with your full experience of this moment?
Come back to that image of lying on warm sand and notice how hard it is to tell where your body begins and the sand ends.
As the breath moves in and out,
Watch as your body begins to fully release into the sand,
Melting,
And cascading down until there is only sand left.
Feeling a deep sense of relaxation and ease.
Nothing but the breath to focus on.
And then let go of your focus of any effort,
Any doing,
And rest.
You are welcome to stay in this position for however long serves you if you're ready to come out.
I invite you to do so very slowly with small movements and the fingers and toes and keeping the neck relaxed as you press yourself up to a sitting position where you can then open your eyes and bring some of that peace,
That stillness,
That ease into what I hope is a lovely rest of your day.
Thank you for joining me and I'll see you next time.
