Hello beautiful soul and welcome to this body scan.
My name is Lauren Marples and I will be your guide through this meditation.
Body scan meditations are an amazing way to ground your energy,
Particularly when you're feeling stressed,
Distracted or disconnected from yourself and otherwise just a really lovely way to relax.
I recommend lying down for this practice,
So allow yourself to get comfortable.
Lying flat on your back,
Maybe taking a support or bolster or cushions underneath your knees if you'd like to have a little bend in them.
Taking a blanket over you,
Feeling warm,
Feeling cosy,
Feeling comfortable.
And then check in with yourself,
Ask yourself the question,
Can I be more comfortable?
If the answer is yes,
Making any final adjustments and coming into stillness.
Let's start to focus on our breath.
How does your breath feel today?
How does it feel right now in this moment?
So noticing maybe how the breath is entering your body through your nostrils.
Where does it go?
Where does it travel?
What's its journey?
Maybe you're starting to notice what muscles are moving with your breath.
Perhaps you can feel it along your nostrils,
Into your cheeks.
Maybe you feel it around your neck muscles and your throat.
Maybe you can feel a soft rise and fall of your heart space and chest.
Perhaps you can feel the expansion of your ribcage and your side body pushing outwards,
Making that space for your lungs.
Maybe you can feel your tummy moving up and down towards the sky and coming back down towards your spine on your exhalation.
Let's take some breaths together now.
So breathing in through your nose,
Filling up the lungs,
Pushing the tummy towards the sky and exhale,
Allowing your tummy to come back down towards the earth.
Breathing in,
Exhale,
Let it go.
Breathing in,
Expansion,
Space and exhale,
Relaxation,
Letting it go.
Continuing with that breath,
Your own natural breath cycle,
Your own natural breath pace.
And now bringing your attention to your facial muscles.
Maybe noticing around the crown of the head,
How does it feel?
Bringing all of your focus,
All of your attention to the head.
And then exhale,
Allowing softness here,
Inviting relaxation here.
Moving to the back of the head,
Where you can feel your head resting against the surface.
It's on,
Exhale,
Let it go.
Coming towards your brow,
Forehead,
Eyes.
Maybe noticing if there's any tension or tightness or scrunching.
Allow softness here,
Invite relaxation and ease in this area.
Coming towards your cheeks and your ears.
Focusing here and exhale,
Let it go.
Noticing your attention this time on your jaw,
Unclenching the jaw,
Creating space between your teeth.
Maybe noticing your tongue,
Your lips,
Your whole mouth.
Can you soften any part of this area of your face?
Can you relax a little bit more?
Coming towards your neck,
The back of the neck,
The sides of the neck,
The front of the neck,
Exhale,
Let it go.
Maybe you're starting to feel your shoulders where they're resting against the surface that you're lying on.
Relax the shoulders,
Moving them away from your ears,
Allow that space between your shoulders and the ears to grow longer for your neck to have that space.
Relaxing now the lengths of your arms,
From your shoulders to your elbows,
To your wrists,
Bringing your full attention there.
Imagining that your eyes are underneath the skin here,
Feeling each part of your arms pressed against the floor beneath you,
Pressed against your mattress or the surface that you're lying on,
Noticing any tension,
Any holding,
Any discomfort.
And then on your next exhalation,
Relax,
Feel yourself melting,
Getting heavier,
Coming closer to the floor,
Coming closer to the earth.
Coming towards your hands,
So from your wrists to the joints in your fingers,
To your fingertips,
Allowing your hands to curl in their natural way,
Whether that's open towards the sky or towards the earth.
Feeling your hands pressed against the surface that you're lying on,
Allow them to just be in their natural state,
Relaxed,
Comfortable,
At ease.
And then we'll move back to our back body.
So starting at the top of our back,
Can you feel the top of your back pressed against the floor?
Can you feel the middle back pressed against the floor?
Can you feel your lower back pressed against your surface?
Feeling softness,
Inviting relaxation,
Inviting heaviness,
Feel yourself moving towards the ground as if you are part of the ground beneath you.
It's inviting you,
It's supporting you,
It's welcoming you.
Coming towards your hips this time,
Relaxing your hips,
Feeling your bum pressed against your surface.
Exhale,
Release.
And then we'll move back up to our heart center before traveling down towards the feet.
So you can focus now on your heart,
The center for love,
The center for compassion,
The center for joy,
Relaxing here,
Softening the space,
Allowing it to be open so that energy can flow freely up and down,
Passing through.
Coming down a little bit more towards the middle of your torso,
Around where your ribcage is,
Maybe noticing how that's feeling,
Maybe noticing your breath,
Pushing it out and bringing it back in.
And we're just sending the message here to relax a little bit more,
To not be holding back from the expansion that we need to create for the breath.
The same goes for our belly,
Our tummy area,
Around the navel,
Our hips,
Our waist,
All of the space.
Can you relax here a little bit more?
Feel yourself let go as you breathe out.
And we'll travel down the legs,
Bringing your focus,
Bringing your attention towards your legs,
Maybe just starting to notice how they're feeling.
Can you feel the surface underneath you pressing into them?
Can you feel the vibration perhaps traveling through the legs?
And maybe if you're not quite feeling the vibration of your energy moving around the body,
Just knowing that it's there.
With your next exhalation,
Softening the tops of the legs,
Moving down towards your knees,
The fronts of the knees,
The backs of the knees,
And exhale,
Release downwards.
Coming towards your shins and your calves,
Breathing into this space,
And exhale,
Let it go.
Allowing yourself this time to focus on your ankles and your feet,
Allowing your feet to be opened out in their natural way.
So whether that's open outwards or open inwards,
Depending on what's comfortable for you,
Relaxing the feet,
Relaxing the toes.
So we're completely relaxed from the crown of the head all the way to the base,
The soles of the feet.
And I invite you now to come back to the crown of the head.
Coming on the crown of the head,
Taking a deep,
Long,
Slow breath in through the nose,
And exhale,
We're pushing that breath down the body to the soles of the feet.
Let's come back to the crown of the head,
Deep,
Long breath in through the nose,
And exhale,
Pushing the breath,
Allowing it to flow down the whole body.
Let's go again,
Focusing your attention at the crown of the head,
Deep,
Long breath in through the nose,
And exhale down the whole length of your body towards the feet,
Letting it go.
Deep breath in through the nose,
Coming to the crown of the head,
And exhale,
Just like a body of water,
Pushing any tension down the body to the soles of the feet.
Let's go three more times together,
Deep,
Long breath in through the nose,
Exhale down the body towards the feet.
Inhale through the nose,
Exhale towards the feet.
Last time together,
Long breath in through the nose,
And exhale,
Beautiful.
So from here,
We'll just start to deepen our breath,
Feeling your whole body against the surface that you're lying on.
I invite you to bring some movement back into your body,
Whether that's your toes,
Or your ankles moving,
Your hands,
Your fingers,
Maybe you'd like to move your head from side to side,
Or bring your knees towards your chest and rock to the left,
To the right,
Massaging through your lower back.
If you're going about the rest of your day,
You can start to blink your eyes open.
I hope you have a wonderful day ahead,
And if you're getting ready to go to sleep,
You're in the perfect,
Grounded,
Released state to have a restful night of sleep,
And I wish you beautiful dreams.
