Mindfulness At Work | Body Scan

Progressive relaxation, sometimes called body scan meditation, is a meditation that encourages people to scan their bodies for areas of tension. The goal is to notice tension and to allow it to release. During this meditation, we will take a progressive journey into noticing your body and how it feels like a whole promoting a feeling of relaxation and calm.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this guided meditation. My name is Dr. E and I will be your guide through this meditative practice. If you regularly practice meditation or are new, Take time to enjoy this practice without judgment and let every experience be an experience. No reflection in meditation is the same, So enjoy your time together. This practice session is dedicated to progressive relaxation, Commonly referred to as the body scan. A body scan meditation encourages you to scan your body for its attention. The goal of this meditation is to have you notice areas and allow them to release, Giving way to total relaxation. During this meditation, You will take a progressive journey into noticing your body and how it feels, Promoting peace and calm. Let's begin. Start by finding a comfortable place to sit and get comfortable in your chair. Relax your shoulders, Sit upright, Feet firmly planted to the ground. Begin to allow your eyes to close gently or you can keep them open with a softened glaze looking downward. Begin by taking some long, Slow, Deep breaths. Breathe in fully and exhaling fully. As you take these deep diaphragmatic breaths, Notice your belly expanding with the inhale and contracting with the exhale. Continue to breathe in your nose and out through your mouth, Allowing these deep breaths to flow naturally. Take a couple more of these deep breaths and then let your breaths go back to normal breathing. Take a moment to notice how that switch from those deep breaths feels compared to your normal breaths. Notice now each in-breath that enters your nostril and travels down your lung and every out-breath that leaves your body. Possibly you are now feeling calmer or grounded or perhaps not. Whenever you feel, Take time to invite your full attention to the floor of your breaths, Balancing your normal rhythm and taking notice of this with acceptance and without judgment, Just being. Exboat your processes, Fill your body in order, And enter your Evan picks. Let's begin to turn your attention more deeply inward. Let go of the noises around you. If you're distracted by sounds in the room, Simply notice them and then bring your attention back to your breaths. Noticing that cooling of air that may be entering your nostrils and the warm air that's leaving your nose. Merely breathe as you would normally breathe. Not striving to change anything about your breath. You're not trying to control your breath in any way. Just letting that normal breath of life happen. Continue to observe and accept this experience at this moment in time without judgment. Paying attention only to the gift of your breath and the breath of life. Now during these moments of silence, Your mind may start to wander. You may get thoughts from the past, Things that are happening today or next week. It might be just really filling your mind with clutter. If your mind starts to wander on thoughts and plans or problems, Simply take notice of this. But begin instead to acknowledge these things, Not pushing them out of their mind, But entering into a state of awareness. Letting go of these distracted thoughts. Accept them. Acknowledge them. Release them. Letting them go. No longer let it go again after a short while. Let's bring our attention to our bodies. Starting with the top of our head, Turn your attention to the crown of your head. Bringing and moving your attention down to your face, Your jaw, Your cheeks. Just relaxing and softening those areas of your facial muscles, Unwinding. Taking notice of your eyes that are closed and not closing them so tightly. Or possibly the glaze that you're looking down, Focusing on another area. Begin to enter into this relaxing state without strain or refocus. Relax your lips, Your mouth, And your entire face. Now let's take notice, Moving down your body, Of your neck and your throat. You may want to swallow and let go of any stress that may be moving through your shoulders. Moving down to your arms, Noticing any sensation, All the way down to your hands. If your shoulders are tense or hands are tense, Just allow them to release and let go and soften. You might want to open and close your hands, Wiggle your fingers, Releasing any tension you may be feeling. Noticing any sensations in your arms. As you notice these sensations, Soften these areas, Bringing breath into the areas of tension and letting the stress out with the out breath. Moving down your body, Bring your attention to your stomach area. The stomach area is a physical and emotional area of stress. Take a moment to let your breath heal that area, Letting go of any thoughts that don't serve you. Possibly your stomach is tense or tight, So let it soften. Take a moment to breathe into this area, Letting go and just being. I'm going to bring your attention to your back, Going down your spine from your neck to the lower part of your back, Taking notice of any pain or discomfort. Noticing how possibly the chair might be feeling against your back or lower spine. How is your hips feeling to your sit bones? Possibly you want to take a moment to readjust, Breathing into these areas, Working to gain more effort and comfort. Continuing down your body, Notice your legs. Taking notice of your lower muscle groups, Your quadriceps and your hamstrings. How do they feel? Quadriceps are in the front of the legs and hamstrings are in the back of the legs. How are they feeling up against the chair? Moving down to your shin or your calf, Your tibia and your gastrocnemius. How are they feeling? Is it heavy, Tense, Light and comfortable or possibly not? Take a moment to think on how you are feeling in the lower part of your body. Now turn your attention to your feet on the floor. Notice any sensation you might be feeling, If there's any weight or pressure or vibration or possibly heat. How grounded are you? Imagine your feet firm and deeply planted into the ground. Imagine them as a plant, Deeply rooted to the floor. Now let's take notice of our entire body as a whole, From head to toe, Bringing awareness of what we are feeling in all parts of our body. Imagine the newfound nutrients and strength entering your body from the bottom of your feet to the top of your head. Doing the remainder part of this meditation, Take time to rejuvenate areas that need your attention and do this by breathing in deeply into the areas of discomfort and letting it go with the out breath. Remember to acknowledge any thought that comes, Accept it and let it go so that you may enter this place of silence and peace only with things that serve you mentally and physically. When you're ready, You can open your eyes. Thank yourself for what you've discovered today in your body skin so that you can be more relaxed and peaceful going forward.