Permission To Slow Down

Prepare for this meditation by finding a comfortable seat, or lying down. This 13-minute Practice will include a guided body scan/relaxation and breath cues.

Transcript

Namaste.

The premise of today's meditation is that you have permission to slow down.

For the length of this meditation,

And perhaps beyond,

You have permission to take just a little bit longer to notice whatever you need and to sit with whatever is here.

Start by paying your practice with noticing your body,

The way it is resting,

Whether seated or laying down.

Start by noticing something very simple about your body.

Your attention could be drawn to one place,

Or it could be drawn to the simple feeling of your body and its weight,

How it is resting with gravity bearing down upon it.

Having a sense of where your attention has been drawn first in your body,

Let it slowly meander down,

Down,

Down,

Till it reaches the bottoms of your feet and your toes.

Begin to feel ease in the bottoms of your feet and toes.

Let that feeling of ease travel slowly across the top of your feet,

Around your ankles,

Through your calves and shins,

Your lower leg feeling relaxed,

The space behind your knees,

The fronts of your knees,

Your thighs moving all the way around to the backs of your thighs.

And now your hips,

The front of your pelvis,

The sides of your hips again,

The back of your pelvis,

Feeling ease through your lower legs and pelvis,

Slowly again rising,

Feeling sensations in your abdomen,

Your low belly,

Your low back,

Letting these spaces begin to feel more ease,

A sense of softening up or opening up,

Broadening out,

Pockets of holding or clenching,

Beginning to unravel or dissipate with each breath.

Letting this feeling spread into your upper chest,

Through your ribs,

Your mid-back,

Continuing into your shoulders,

Your chest,

The sides of your neck,

Letting it flow down your upper arms,

Encapsulating your elbows,

Fronts and backs,

Down your lower arms,

Encircling your wrists,

The palms of your hands spreading out into each of your fingers,

A sense of ease.

Letting your attention paint its way back up,

The fingers,

The palms,

Forearms,

Elbows,

Sides of your neck,

Feeling an opening and a softening in your throat,

Letting the muscles of your jaw have a feeling of softness,

Your tongue wide and broad inside your mouth,

Letting your eyes feel a heaviness inside of their sockets.

Letting the skin on your forehead resting easily,

Tension dissolving across the skull,

Breath by breath.

You feel now your breath moving and you invite your breath to deepen just once,

Exaggerating the amount of breath you take in and letting the breath out easy.

Once more,

Exaggerate your breath in as well as your breath out this time.

Feel normal breathing return.

You've deepened your inhale and you've deepened your exhale.

Exploring next,

A suspension between your inhale and your exhale,

Feeling your breath roll in as deeply as you like,

Pausing for just a brief moment at the top,

Releasing your breath easy and fully on your exhale.

Moving to normal,

Non-exaggerated breathing.

You have permission to take this next breath as slowly as you wish,

Guiding the breath into your lungs,

Pausing as your lungs are full,

Releasing your breath fully from your body and pausing as your lungs are empty,

Returning to normal breath.

Once more.

On your next breath,

Feel the breath move in fully as slowly as you wish.

Feel the pause at the top of your breath and as slowly as you wish,

Let the breath move out.

Continue to pause at the bottom if it's comfortable and relax to let the next breath move in naturally.

Moving one more round,

Inhaling as fully as you like and as slowly as you like,

Suspending for just a moment.

This time exhaling through your mouth,

Letting the breath rush out perhaps a little more quickly and then relaxing into the next natural normal breath.

Remember you move from here.

Remember the gaps.

Remember the pauses between your breath,

The space that is present even when things speed up,

The space that is there.

Rotate.

Reviews

Excellent calming meditation. She has a beautiful voice ☺️

This is a wonderful meditation. It really helped me slow down and relax

Lovely! Thanks for sharing this practice with us. Namaste

This was fantastically relaxing. Inspired breath work and a lovely clear tone of voice. Thank you so much 💞💐☮️

Very useful for a compulsive " hurry up" person like myself 🤗

Thank you Hannah for keeping me company during my sleepless nights 💖

Heather has a beautiful gift. Her guided meditations resonate deep within me. The awareness of self and the acceptance she gently proposes is a wonderful way to start any day.

Just wonderful ♥️ So grateful for your quality of presence, pace, voice, skill, and kindness 💚🦢🌀 I suspect this meditation will become a good friend 🥰

Deeply relaxing and this is the first time I’ve ever had anyone lead breathing exercises in which I haven’t felt it was too rushed or too slow. This was just right and very calming.

That was so nice, I feel really relaxed and refreshed now, thank you Hannah 🙏

What a beautiful meditation! Loved playing around with the breath like that.

Thanks for reminding me that the pause is always there

Stunning audio, very well recorded! Creates a compelling stillness. Thank you

thanks so much for this deep meditation. it is profoundly peaceful and calming. i am able to physically and mentally slow down when listening, and remember the gaps at times of stress as well. beautiful peaceful voice 🙏🏻❤️

This is such a great, relaxing meditation! I come back to it whenever I need to slow down

This felt magical - a true impact on my spirit. Thank you.

Unhurried, clearly guided - hence effective - scan. Thanks again, Hannah, for your precise and genuine practice.

Beautiful energy and words. Thank you 🙏

Beautifully slow, calming practice. Feeling spaciousness in my body and mind, thank you 🙏🏼🌸

really calmed me down when I didn't think it was possible

Thank you🙏🏻✨❤️