Full Body Relaxation Meditation

This is a powerful practice to release tension from the entire body. Here you will practice a wonderful way to de-stress and restore inner balance, as well as to prepare yourself for sleep. Be more connected to your body and allow your mind to drift.

Transcript

We're going to take a little look at a progressive full body relaxation.

This is an amazing practice to do whenever we want to become more aware of our bodies and to feel maybe a little bit less in our minds and a little bit more embodied and grounded.

It's also an amazing relaxation to do at the end of yoga and also an amazing thing to do just before sleep if you want really deep and peaceful sleep.

So I hope that you enjoy it today and that it brings you a sense of relaxation and embodiment whatever you're doing,

Wherever you are.

So you can begin by either lying down or sitting down with an upright spine.

If you're wanting to do this before sleep then do this in bed,

Get nice and cozy,

Make sure you're lying down.

If you want to do something a bit more active after this and maybe heading into your day or staying a bit more wakeful then I invite you to sit up.

Sit cross-legged or sit in a chair,

Sit in a way that's comfortable but that you have an upright spine.

So take a moment to just become aware of your breath.

Take in a deep breath using the full capacity of your lungs as you breathe in and emptying your lungs completely as you breathe out.

Take a moment just to scan your body.

So starting from the tips of your toes just having a mental scan through your body observing if there's any tension anywhere,

How your body feels right now today.

Scanning all the way up to the top of the head,

You don't need to change anything just observing how is your body doing today.

And then letting this go you can have a little scan through your mind,

Think about the thoughts that you've been thinking leading up to this practice,

Any thoughts that are going through your head right now.

Just observing what's arising and then letting it go.

Bringing your attention to your heart center and taking a moment to just tune into your feelings.

Is there any emotion that you're feeling right now,

What emotions or feelings are you aware of right now?

And then letting this go we can really begin our progressive relaxation.

So bringing your awareness to your toes and as you inhale you can even squeeze your toes a little bit,

Crumpling them,

Folding them over,

Scrunching them up and as you exhale you can relax all of the muscles in your toes.

Next up bringing your awareness to all the muscles in the tops of your feet.

If you're able to then activate any muscles you can,

Any muscles that you can feel,

Control over in the tops of your feet and as you exhale,

Your next exhalation completely relaxing the tops of your feet.

Bringing your awareness to the soles of your feet,

To any muscles in and around the soles of your feet,

Scrunching up all the muscles in your feet and anywhere in your feet,

Especially those that relate to the soles of your feet and with your next exhalation completely relaxing your whole foot.

Bringing your awareness to your ankles,

Maybe pointing your toes or flexing your toes,

Holding this movement,

Squeezing any muscles that you can around your ankles and with your next exhalation completely relaxing your ankles.

Bringing your awareness to the lower portion of your legs,

Your calves,

Your shins.

With your next inhalation,

Squeezing all of the muscles that you can in your calves and your shins.

Moving on to this as tightly as you can and then with your next exhalation completely relaxing all of the muscles in your calves,

Your shins,

The lower portions of your legs.

Bringing your attention to your knees,

The backs of your knees,

The fronts of your knees.

With your next inhalation,

Squeezing all of the muscles in your knees.

Holding on to this for a moment,

Intensifying this as much as you can and then with your next exhalation completely relaxing every single muscle in your knees.

Bringing your attention to the top portion of your legs,

To your thighs,

To the tops of your legs.

With your next inhalation,

Squeezing any muscles that you can in the top portion of your legs.

Holding on to this,

Squeezing it as tightly as you can and then as you exhale completely relaxing all of the muscles in the tops of your legs.

Bringing your attention to the muscles of your pelvis,

The muscles around your buttocks,

The lower portion of your torso.

With your next inhalation,

Squeezing any muscles you can in your pelvis,

Squeezing the pelvic floor,

Squeezing the buttocks,

Squeezing the muscles in the lower portion of your torso,

The pelvic basin.

And with your next exhalation,

Completely relaxing all of the muscles in your pelvis,

All of the muscles in your buttocks,

All of the muscles in the lower portion of your torso.

With your next inhalation,

Bringing your awareness to the middle of your torso,

To the area around your solar plexus,

The area around your diaphragm,

The area around your belly button.

Squeezing in the muscles of the abdominals,

Squeezing in the muscles of the lower back,

The mid back as you take your next inhalation.

And as you next exhale,

Completely relaxing all of the muscles in the middle part of your torso,

In your lower back,

In your mid back,

Around your belly.

With your next inhalation,

Becoming aware of all of the muscles in your upper chest,

In your shoulders.

With your next inhalation,

Squeezing all the muscles you can in your upper chest,

Upper back,

Shoulders,

Any of the muscles around this area,

Squeezing them as much as you can.

And then as you exhale,

Completely relaxing all of the muscles in your upper chest,

Upper back,

Shoulders,

All of the muscles around your heart space.

Next inhalation,

Bringing your awareness to your hands,

Your fingers.

Bringing your breath here and then with your next inhalation,

Squeezing your hands into fists,

Squeezing all of the muscles you can in your hands,

Clenching for just a moment.

And then with the next exhalation,

Completely relaxing all of the muscles in your hands,

In your fingers,

The palms of your hands,

The tops of your hands.

Bringing your awareness to your wrists.

With the next inhalation,

Either pulling your palms back or bringing your palms down,

Making any little movements that you can feel a stretch in your wrist.

Taking a breath here and as you exhale,

Completely relax this movement,

Completely relax all of the muscles in your wrists.

Bringing your awareness to the lower portion of your arms.

Bringing your awareness to everything underneath your elbow,

Everything above your hands and wrists.

When you're ready,

Squeezing these muscles,

Squeezing any of these muscles that you can find,

Holding for a moment and then as you exhale,

Completely relaxing all of the muscles in the lower portion of your arms.

Bringing your awareness to your elbows.

With the next inhalation,

Squeezing the muscles in your elbows.

With your next exhalation,

Completely relaxing all of the muscles in your elbows.

Bringing your awareness to the upper portion of your arms,

Your biceps,

The tops of your arms.

When you're ready,

Starting to tense these muscles,

Activating any muscles that you can in the top portion of your arms,

Holding for a moment and then when you're ready,

As you exhale,

Completely relaxing all of the muscles in the upper portion of your arms.

Bringing your attention to your neck,

Making any little movement without over straining,

But so that you can feel the muscles in your neck engaging,

Activating.

Hold these muscles and then with the next exhalation,

Completely relaxing all the muscles you can in your neck.

Bringing your awareness to your head,

To your jaw,

To your temples,

To all of the muscles in your face.

With your next inhalation,

Scrunching up and activating all of the muscles in your head,

In your face,

In your jaw that you can.

Holding onto these for a moment,

Really feeling that activation and then as you exhale,

Completely relaxing all of the muscles in your head,

Your jaw,

Your face.

Allowing this feeling of relaxation in your face to melt throughout your whole body.

Allowing your mind to travel throughout your body,

Just scanning,

Seeing if there's any little muscle anywhere that's still holding on that doesn't need to.

And with your next exhalation,

Letting it go.

And as you breathe in,

Visualize that you're inhaling a sense of total relaxation.

And as you breathe out,

Visualize that your body is becoming heavier,

Settling into the ground underneath you,

The chair underneath you,

The bed underneath you.

Allowing this feeling of relaxation and heaviness melting into whatever is underneath you,

Supporting your weight.

And allowing this feeling to take you to the depths of your relaxation.

Help you to feel as relaxed as you can possibly feel.

So if you're doing this meditation before bed,

Then maybe stay here.

You may wish to stop the recording here and just drift off and have a wonderful night's sleep.

But for those of you who are wanting to come on to do something a bit more wakeful after this,

Then taking in a nice deep breath.

Becoming aware of your whole body,

Becoming aware of the space around you.

And allowing this relaxation to now bring you to a place of energy that your muscles,

That your physical body has had a chance to really relax itself,

To let go of all of this tension.

And so now this lack of tension is filling your body with a new sense of energy.

And you can feel this wave of energy starting at the very tips of your toes.

And imagine that it's travelling up throughout your whole body filling you with a tingly,

Light,

Energetic feeling.

Helping you to be ready for whatever your day next holds for you.

So taking two more breaths in this practice of just filling your body up with this energy,

This lightness.

When you're ready maybe wiggling your fingers,

Wiggling your toes,

Your final little check in with your extremities.

And then opening your eyes.

Taking a moment to just observe the space around you,

Observe the shapes and the colours.

Taking a nice deep breath with your eyes open.

And then coming whenever you're ready.

Taking your time and heading into your day.

So I wish you an amazing day.

I hope that you've enjoyed this practice.

Namaste.

Reviews

Good way to start or end your day. Thank you!

This was wonderful. I fell asleep halfway through, totally relaxed. Thank you for sharing this @

Very relaxing and lovingly shared- thank you 🙏