Relaxing The Body, Calming The Mind

This is a body scan using Progressive Muscular Relaxation (PMR) and incorporating an iRest yoga nidra sankalpa. PMR is an evidence-based practice that relaxes tight muscles and tension in the body and mind. Including the sankalpa in the practice allows the listener to personalise the practice to their individual goals and values.

Transcript

Be aware of your whole body.

Notice sensations through the body,

As you also notice your breathing,

Breathing in deeply,

Breathing out slowly.

Notice where your awareness is.

Are you aware of breathing?

Are you aware of your body?

If not,

Just gently bring your attention back.

And bring to awareness your personal intention for meditating.

Mentally repeat this intention.

Now bring to awareness your heartfelt desire,

Repeating the words of your heartfelt desire and connecting with living this heartfelt desire in some way.

Can you connect with that,

What it feels like to actually be living your heartfelt desire?

And now invite another image into your awareness,

Your inner resource.

A special place,

Person,

Object,

Mantra.

Something you can connect with that reminds you that you're okay.

And can you imagine this inner resource in front of your closed eyes?

Let that image dissolve out of awareness.

Now listening as I name an area of the body,

And as I name that area of the body,

I'll invite you to either contract the muscles there or to focus on the sensations of relaxation.

So we're going to begin with the right hand,

Wrist and forearm,

Just bringing your attention there.

And making a fist with your right hand,

Holding that tension,

Feeling the muscles tight.

Let the fingers uncurl.

Let the arm be supported,

Perhaps as a sensation of heaviness or other sensations,

Just noticing And now compare the left hand and forearm to the right.

And now we'll make a fist with the left.

So with the left fist now,

Just holding that hand and forearm tight as you can,

And then release.

And really let go through the forearm,

Hand,

Fingers,

The left hand.

Noticing both hands together,

Left and right.

Noticing the sensations in the left and right hands.

Now we're going to take our attention to the whole arm,

Left and right side.

And with the arms extended,

We're once again going to make a fist,

But we're going to hold the arms tight right from the hands at the fist all the way up to the shoulders.

So clenching those arms tight as you can,

Holding the muscles tight,

Feeling the tension.

And then release.

Arms supported by any surfaces they're resting on,

Just noticing sensations through the shoulders and along the arms,

Maybe tingling the fingers or a sense of warmth.

What sensations do you notice along the arms?

We're focusing on the tops of the shoulders.

We're just going to hunch the shoulders up,

Draw them up towards the ears,

So really lifting them up,

Feeling shoulders tight.

You might also feel that into the upper back as you hold the shoulders up and then let them back.

Really have a sense of letting those shoulders go,

Dropping away from the ears.

Feel free each time we've done the contract relax,

If it feels good to move gently,

Just to create even more of a sense of letting go through the area that we've been focusing on.

We're going to now pay attention to the face,

The muscles of the face.

It's lots of little muscles there,

And we're going to scrunch them all up as tightly as we can.

And then release them.

And notice a change of sensation from when the muscles are tight to when they're relaxed.

And then focusing on the forehead,

Just lifting the forehead up,

So eyes coming down and forehead up,

So you're creating a different type of tension and extension.

And then release.

Forehead's an area where a lot of tension can be held,

Just noticing what you're experiencing through the forehead,

Temples,

The jaw joint.

And then bringing awareness to the tongue inside the mouth,

I'm going to lift the tongue to the roof of the mouth and just press it against the roof of the mouth.

This creates tension in the jaw,

Just noticing that.

And then release.

Feel free to move the jaw if that helps.

Then we're going to take awareness to the back of the body,

So just noticing the position that your back's in and noticing the surfaces supporting your back.

And we're going to press the back against these surfaces,

Really pushing down,

Contracting the muscles of the back.

And releasing,

Relaxing,

Noticing what you experience in the muscles of the back.

And then bringing awareness around to the front of the torso.

In a moment,

I'm going to ask you to breathe in and hold your breath,

And I'm not going to hold it for any length of time,

Just long enough that you can notice tension starting to build in the ribcage and through the chest.

So with this one,

Just at any time,

You exhale.

So breathing in and then hold the breath,

Breathing out,

Letting go.

Really have a sense,

Not just letting that air be exhaled,

But also letting go of any tension that you might have been holding through the chest.

As we bring awareness to the abdomen,

And just imagine you're about to be hit in the abdomen and you're going to clench your tummy tight as you can,

Really drawing the tummy muscles in tight as you can and hold that tension.

And then release,

Let the abdomen be soft,

The sides of the waist soft.

So we take attention to the pelvis and hips and just contracting through the core,

But more tightly than what we normally would.

So through the pelvis,

Nice and tight,

Holding those muscles tight and release,

Relax.

So breathe in deeply,

Breathe out slowly.

And notice the position of your legs.

And if it's possible for the legs to be straight,

Just for a moment,

Don't worry if not,

But what we're going to do is we're going to press the legs against the floor beneath us.

So just pressing those legs down,

Holding both legs tight as you can.

And then relax,

Release through the legs.

Focusing on the right leg now,

We're going to point the toes of the right foot down strongly towards the floor at the same time contracting the whole right leg.

Holding that right leg tight.

And relax.

Notice sensations along the right leg.

And then comparing the right leg with the left leg.

Any difference in sensations?

And do the same with the left leg.

So we're going to point the toes of the left leg strongly as we contract the whole left leg,

Holding the muscles of the left leg tight as you can.

And then relax.

Notice the change of sensations.

How does the left leg feel now?

Left and right legs in awareness.

As we now take our attention to both feet and with your toes,

Draw your toes towards your nose.

So really flex those toes back towards you.

Hold the feet,

You might notice through the legs as well,

Tight and relax.

Aware of your whole body and just taking a couple of slow deep breaths and noticing what you're experiencing,

Sensations in the body.

And now with an awareness of the whole body,

I'm going to invite you to contract all of the muscles together that we've just paid attention to.

So all the muscles of the body,

Tight as you can,

Holding that tension,

Feeling the tension throughout the body.

And then release.

Really letting go,

Letting the body be supported by the surfaces that you're resting on.

So we just rest here,

Awareness to the breathing and bring into awareness your inner resource.

This image that for you is associated with feelings of calm,

Safety,

Knowing that deep within you are okay.

Just allowing your inner resource to unfold with as many senses as you can.

And know that this inner resource is there that you can draw on it at any time,

Both during meditation practice and as you go through your day.

Just letting go of that image now and bringing back to awareness your heartfelt desire for your life,

The statement that you have created for yourself,

Mentally repeating that with meaning.

And letting it go on an exhale and bringing to awareness your intention to meditate today and mentally repeating this.

And now letting the eyes open as you take in what's in your field of vision.

And just stay for a moment or two longer in the position you're in and notice what you're experiencing in the body,

What are you aware of?

And we'll bring this practice to a close.

Reviews

I really enjoyed this meditation. I felt much more relaxed after the practice.
Thanks Sue.

Thank you. Very helpful for me to revisit PMR at this time. I liked the casual feel of this; and the birds in the background.

Very comforting and easy to follow. Will do again. Thank you 🙏🏻💕