Self Compassion

This is a self compassion meditation with progressive muscle relaxation. In this guided practice, we move our awareness through each part of the body, breathing deeply and relaxing the muscles. As we do this, we feel gratitude and compassion for the body. This helps with physical and emotional healing. Composer: Kevin MacLeod

Transcript

Guided Meditation for Self-Compassion Let's start by closing our eyes and breathing deeply in and out all the way down into the lower belly.

Now bring your awareness to your forehead.

Notice if there's any tension in the muscles and relax them.

Feel your forehead becoming soft and smooth.

Now bring your awareness to your scalp.

Relax the muscles at the top of your head,

The back of your head,

And the sides.

Bring your awareness to your cheeks and relax your cheek muscles.

Feel the muscles around your mouth.

Relax your mouth.

Now bring your awareness to your jaw.

Allow your jaw to relax and fall back slightly.

As you relax the muscles of your face and jaw,

Consider all that these muscles do for you.

How they help you to eat,

To smile,

And to communicate with other people.

As you contemplate these things,

Allow yourself to feel gratitude and compassion for your face and jaw.

Now bring your awareness to your neck.

Feel the muscles in the back of your neck.

Notice any tension and let it go with the breath.

Feel the muscles in the sides of your neck and relax them.

Feel the muscles in front of your neck and your throat.

Notice if there is any tension in these muscles,

Especially around the voice box.

As you breathe and relax these muscles,

Contemplate all the things that your neck does for you.

How it holds up your head all day long and how it helps you swallow and talk.

Allow yourself to feel gratitude and compassion for your neck.

Now bring your awareness to your shoulders.

Notice any tension in your shoulders and just relax them,

Allowing them to droop downward.

Consider how your shoulders help you to move your arms and lift things.

Allow yourself to feel gratitude and compassion for your shoulders.

Now bring your awareness to your arms.

Notice any tension in your arms and let it go.

As you relax your arms,

Consider how fortunate you are to have arms if you have them.

Not everyone does.

Contemplate all that your arms do for you and feel the gratitude that wells up inside of you with this understanding.

Now bring your awareness to your hands.

You may notice your hands growing warmer and you may feel the energy tingling in your fingers.

Consider how amazing it is to have hands and all that they do for you.

Most of the time we don't think about our hands because the muscle memory in our hands knows how to do many things automatically.

Take a moment to contemplate the miracle of having hands and allow yourself to feel deep gratitude and compassion for your hands.

Now bring your awareness to your chest area.

Notice any tension in the chest muscles and let it go with the breath.

Now bring your awareness to your stomach and abdomen.

As you breathe deeply,

Release any tension in the abdominal muscles.

Just allow the muscles to be soft and loose.

Notice how your whole body relaxes when you relax this area.

Many of us are critical of this part of the body.

Take a moment to consider all the amazing things that your internal organs do every day without you even having to think about it.

Allow yourself to feel gratitude for all these organs and tissues,

Even if some of them are not perfect.

If you have any problems in this area,

Take a moment now to direct loving feelings and healing energy towards them.

You can do this by simply relaxing,

Breathing into the area,

And feeling gratitude and compassion.

If you like,

You can place a hand over the problem area and direct healing energy through your hand.

Now bring your awareness to your back muscles.

If there is any pain or tension in your back,

Breathe into it and let it go.

If your back is working well,

This is something to be very happy about.

If you are one of the many people who has back pain,

Allow yourself to feel compassion for your back.

Breathe in the pain without resistance,

And slowly breathe out compassion to your back.

Breathe in pain,

Breathe out compassion.

This is an ancient healing technique called tonglen.

As you relax and breathe deeply,

Allow yourself to feel gratitude for your back.

Thank your back for taking care of you as well as it can.

Now bring your awareness to your hips and your upper legs.

Notice any pain or tension in these areas.

Relax and let it go.

If your hips and legs are working well,

Consider your good fortune.

If these are problem areas,

Breathe into them and imagine bathing them in soothing light.

The light can be any color that feels good to you.

Let go of any pain or tension and allow yourself to feel gratitude and compassion.

Now bring your awareness to your knees.

Knees are so amazing.

Consider all that your knees do for you.

If your knees are suffering from any pain or dysfunction,

Take a moment to bathe them in warm,

Soothing light.

Let the muscles around your knees relax.

Allow yourself to feel gratitude and compassion for your knees.

Now bring your awareness to your lower legs and your feet.

Not everyone has feet.

Take a moment to contemplate how much your feet have done for you throughout your life.

As you breathe in and out,

Bathe your feet in warm,

Soothing light.

Notice any feelings that you have in your feet.

Notice your ankles,

The tops of your feet,

The soles of your feet,

And your toes.

Allow a deep feeling of gratitude to well up inside of you.

Feel love and compassion for your feet.

Now as you continue to breathe,

Feel the energy of your whole body,

All the parts working together in harmony.

Allow yourself to sink into this subtle energy and flow with it.

Now you can choose to either drift into a peaceful sleep or prepare to come back to the present moment.

As I count from five to one,

Allow yourself to come back slowly.

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

When you are ready,

Slowly open your eyes.

Stretch.

And come back to the present moment.

Reviews

This is an excellent daily meditation! Thank Youuu.

Absolutely delightful - so soothing. Thank you 💚🤍💛

So peaceful, I was asleep even though that was not my intention at all!

Wonderfull! Thank you for reminding me to listen and take care of my body

That was lovely, thank you! Very relaxing, and yes so important to be grateful for the body that walks us through life 🙏

This was a beautiful way to begin my day. thank you

Thank you. The gratitude and self love were amazing!

So beautiful- made my body so relaxed and made me so appreciative of every part of my body!

Very nice thank you!

Very soothing and relaxing. I recommend it to help fall asleep.

I love this practice. Not only does it help me relax, it also makes me appreciate what I already have in this moment. It leaves me feeling rich in blessings. Thank you Diane ❤

Great body scanning meditation for the morning/night! ❤️

Nice combination of relaxation body scan and gratitude for all of our body .

Thank you so much for this meditation. It really helped with my anxiety and I feel relaxed now.

Fantastic body scan! I had forgotten how relaxed I could get. Lovely.

Excellent. Very calming voice.

I really needed this today. Thank you so much. It was beautiful. It was relaxing.

Very therapeutic

Voice quality, script and background music all worked well for me! Not too short, not too long. Thank you!

Thank you so much! I am grateful for this meditation!