Hello,
My name is Elka and welcome to this gentle practice to give you a break.
We will practice a very short body scan that will allow you to focus and begin to settle,
Finding relaxation throughout the muscles of the body and the mind.
Find a place now where you can sit or lay down and become still for the next few moments.
If it feels comfortable,
Close your eyes or choose to soften your gaze on something you find beautiful and relaxing.
Begin now to feel into your shoulders.
With your next breath in,
Gently squeeze the shoulders up towards your ears.
Continue with your breathing while holding the shoulders with a little light tension.
And with your next breath out,
Release the shoulders down the back,
Perhaps even releasing with a sigh.
Do this a few more times,
Gently breathing in and squeezing the shoulders up and finding a small gentle amount of tension.
And when you breathe out,
Add a little sigh as the shoulders drop down and relax,
Begin to soften.
Feel yourself decompressing,
Letting go.
Now welcome your awareness to move to the muscles of the face.
Feel around your eyes,
Your nose,
Your lips.
Feel deep inside your cheeks and your jaw.
Notice if there is any tension here,
Begins to reveal itself when you take a closer look.
Feel into these muscles of your face and neck and breathe into anywhere that you might feel or sense any tension or holding.
Breathing in and letting go as you breathe out.
And could you now welcome the awareness to move inside your shoulders?
Feel deep inside the shoulder joints and now welcome all the sensations down inside your arms.
Feeling all the activity inside your arms,
Your wrists,
Your hands.
Notice your fingers gently curled.
Notice if there is any tension here inside your shoulders,
Your arms,
The wrist joints,
The fingers.
Being gently guided where it is needed to go.
Feeling inside your chest now,
Air swirling around your ribs and deep inside your belly.
Watch and listen as you breathe.
Now notice all the sensations inside your right hand thumb.
Feeling the tip of the thumb,
Inside the thumb and air and space around the thumb.
And now move your awareness to the tip of the index finger.
Now your middle finger,
Ring finger,
Little finger,
Welcome all the sensations inside the right hand,
Right wrist,
Lower arm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Shoulder joint,
Right collarbone,
Piece of the throat,
Left collarbone,
Inside the left shoulder joint,
Upper arm,
Elbow,
Lower arm,
Left wrist,
Left hand thumb,
Index finger,
Middle finger,
Ring finger,
Little finger.
Now feel the whole left hand and now the whole right hand.
Could you welcome both hands together as one sensation?
And could you move your awareness down inside the right big toe,
The tip of the second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe and little toe?
Feel the sole of the right foot,
The heel of the foot,
Top of the foot.
Feel the front of your ankle and lower leg,
Inside the knee,
Upper leg,
Right hip.
Now feel inside the navel center,
Two inches below your belly button.
And welcome the left hip,
Upper leg,
Knee,
Sensations of the lower leg,
Ankle,
Top of the left foot,
Big toe,
The tip of the second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe and little toe.
Soothe the left foot,
Heel,
Your whole left foot as one sensation,
The whole left leg as one sensation,
Your whole right leg as one sensation.
Feeling the whole right leg.
Could you welcome both legs together as one sensation?
Both legs together as one,
Both arms as one,
Both arms and legs as one sensation.
Feeling both arms and both legs at once.
Could you welcome the feelings in the right side of your chest and feel over to the left side of your chest?
Feel up inside the right jaw,
Left side of the jaw.
Feel inside the right cheekbone,
The left cheekbone,
The right eye and eyelid,
Left eye and eyelid.
Now welcome both eyes together.
Feeling all the sensations in both eyes together.
Could you welcome all the sensations in the face at once?
Feeling all the sensations of your face and feeling into the center of the forehead.
Feeling the center of the forehead and up inside the right side of your brain.
Feeling the sensations in the right side of your brain and now feel the left side of your brain.
Float back and forth from right side to left side.
Now could you welcome the whole brain as one sensation?
Feeling the front of the brain,
The back of the brain,
The top of the brain,
Inside the whole brain as one sensation.
Now could you welcome your whole body at once?
Feeling your whole body as one sensation.
Noticing the whole body.
Take your time as you notice the crown of the head and feel the weight of the head.
Feeling the weight of the arms,
Feeling the weight of the chest,
Tailbone and the spine.
Feeling the weight of the legs,
Your feet.
Feeling the pull of gravity through your feet.
Feel your body breathing.
Follow your next breath in to the space of the heart,
Feeling chest,
Lungs and belly.
And follow the breath as it releases out of mouth or nose into the air and space around you.
Again notice as you breathe in,
Following breath as your chest rises,
Belly infused with breath and air.
Exhaling,
Feel your belly releasing.
Could you now welcome your fingers,
Toes to wiggle,
Gently waking up the body and the mind.
Opening eyes when you are ready or blinking a few times,
Releasing the soft gaze.
Give yourself a full body stretch now and letting it go.
Peace,
Peace,
Peace.
