Welcome to this relaxation recording for August.
Thank you for joining me.
The aim of these recordings is to take an amount of time,
It'll be about 15-20 minutes,
Just to rest our body and our minds.
I find these exercises really helpful for me in what seem to be quite overwhelming times for many I know.
The aim of them is to put us in touch with that sense of wonder that we all are.
To do that by relaxing and resting the body and the mind.
It uses some basic mindfulness techniques and we'll sing a song at the end.
So I invite you to find a quiet place to sit down or lie down.
I'll give you 30 seconds or so to do that while I play the guitar a bit.
So wherever you are,
And whoever you are,
I'm playing this just for you.
I imagine you've found somewhere that's relatively safe and you feel okay.
So for the next 15 minutes,
20 minutes,
Just going to relax that body and mind and get into the wonder of the present moment together.
So we'll do that by breathing in and out together first three times.
Breathing in and then breathing out.
Making the out breath a little bit longer,
Calms the body.
And breathing in and breathing out.
Breathing in and breathing out.
And then just allow that your breathing just to become natural.
Whatever comes,
Whatever rhythm,
Whatever rhythm.
And feel it,
The centre of the body there,
Coming into the mouth,
Down into the mouth.
So your body,
Can you feel the weight and the shape of it,
Just the general sense of the size and the weight.
Can you love it for what it is?
Alive and breathing and where we may feel like we could be healthier or we might be a bit poorly.
Yeah,
There's also a lot of health in the body.
So can we breathe in and appreciate that.
And we're going to move through the body,
Mindfulness exercise,
Just called a body scan.
So you may have heard me do these before,
Been recording them for quite a few years now.
Going to move up through the toes,
Through the feet and the legs and up to the torso,
Belly and the chest.
Through the shoulders and the elbows and the hands.
And then up through the head.
So the idea is to concentrate as much as you can on the guidance in a relaxed but attentive way.
So let's start with the toes.
You might want to flex them a little bit,
Just to get a sense of where they are.
Can you pick out each one individually with your imagination.
Imagination and mindfulness,
So you know where it is,
You can imagine that and can you feel that as well.
And then move up into the top of the foot,
Into the sole of the foot.
Just feeling where the skin comes in touch with the air.
Up to the ankle and the heel.
Do you know your anatomy,
You'll know that the bones in the lower part of the leg,
Ativia and the umpherbula,
They start there.
Rising up to the knee and we've got the carf muscle there as well.
It's warming my fingers up.
So we're at the carf and then we move up those bones to the knee and we're moving through the body like this so that we can be aware of any tensions.
And if we find any tensions we can just adjust our body to try and release those tensions.
Or just breathe and be aware.
Science shows us that when we're aware of pain,
It is somehow less painful.
Bringing the mind and the body together.
The body feels attended to in those moments.
And more information about the causes and conditions of that discomfort can be known.
Enabling us to do something about it.
So breathing in and out aware of any tension up to the knees and into the thighs.
Quadriceps at the front,
Hamstrings at the back.
The feme bone from the knee up to the synovial joint in the pelvic arch.
Maybe that bone in the pelvis.
In the genital area.
You can hold tension there so just breathe in and allow the pelvis to sink into the floor.
The back.
You breathe in and out slowly.
We've got the stomach,
Large intestine,
Stomach and small intestine,
Pancreas.
Breathing in and out deeply in that area.
The wonder of the digestive system.
You've got the kidneys,
The spine,
The rib cage and the lungs.
Breathing in and out feeling the expanding,
Rising and falling of that area.
The calm of the breath,
The calm of the body.
The chest,
Where the heart beating.
Over to the left,
The liver,
Over to the right.
The breath coming in down into the lungs.
The exchange of carbon dioxide in the lungs.
The ferroxygen coming in and the carbon dioxide comes out.
Constant exchange.
So we move to the arms.
So over the left shoulder,
Down we've got the humerus bone and the bicep down to the elbow.
And then we've got the radius and ulnus bones.
Up to the wrist and the palm and the fingers and the thumb.
Allowing them to rest in between.
In between that grip shape and a flat hand somewhere in between is like a resting curvature of the fingers.
And then finding the fingertips of the right hand with our mindfulness and moving down those into the palm,
Thumb and the wrist.
And then we've got the,
Up again the radius and ulnus bones up to the elbow.
And then up into the humerus bone.
Up to the shoulder.
And then finding our way across the neck to the air coming in and out as we take in the jaw and the tongue and the teeth.
Top of the head.
Oh sorry,
Not yet.
We've got the roof of the mouth,
Top of the mouth.
The teeth there,
We've got the jawline up to the ears.
Right inside the ears to the smallest bone,
The stapes bone.
Somewhere there in the ear,
In the nose,
In the eyes,
Under the eyelids,
The eyes.
So closed.
Forehead,
Top of the head and back of the head.
So I'm singing you a song now for anyone wishing peace to all people.
You can just listen to this and let it wash over you and it will bring us out of the relaxation after the song.
Keep it going.
Peace to the newborn babe.
Peace to the sinners and saints.
Peace to this blessed morn.
Peace to the weary and war torn and oh lay your head down to rest.
Oh lay your head down to rest.
Peace to this new day.
Peace to the sinners and saints.
Peace to this old way.
Peace to those who have lost their way and oh lay your head down to rest.
Oh lay your head down to rest.
It's the deepest yearning of my heart to lay down these arms and offer a rose for peace.
Take down these walls built by my pride.
Know that peace begins with me.
Peace to the newborn babe.
Peace to this blessed day.
Peace to the weary and war torn and the one not yet born and old.
Lay your head down to rest.
Lay your head down to rest.
Take some nice deep breaths.
Being aware again of the body so moving your toes your hands just to again feel the shape of your body.
Living breathing part today.
I'll play the guitar for another 30 seconds as it fades out so take some nice deep breaths and maybe offer yourself some comforting light touch just wake the body up a little bit and I wish you the best for the rest of your day.
