20-Minute Deep Relaxation For Carers

This deep relaxation comes in the form of a guided visualisation, it includes a body scan, breath awareness, gratitude, and a walk in nature. It was made to support carers with the understanding of the immense pressure they can be under at times. It was purposely made to be simple and grounded and to speak to a diverse range of people. A carer might be a medical proffesional in a hospital, care staff in a nursing home, a person at home caring for a sick relative or a parent.

Transcript

Welcome to this deep relaxation made especially for carers.

First of all,

Well done for all your wonderful work and it's time now to just give yourself some deep,

Deep care.

So if you could find the most comfortable place to lay down,

Either in a bed,

Sofa and if not a comfortable chair of your choice.

Loosening any tight clothing,

Removing any glasses and finding a nice blanket just to cover yourself.

I'm going to ask you to stay awake during this practice.

You'll get the maximum benefits by remaining awake and all you have to do is follow along listening to my voice.

So my voice is going to be the anchor.

If you feel tired still at the end,

It means that you're quite exhausted and that's very,

Very normal.

So if so,

I recommend you keep practicing it so you're able to listen and stay awake.

And even if you remain awake,

I'd still recommend you practice as much as you can in the week just to really support you and give you the rest and energy needed to do the work that you're doing.

Great,

So we're going to make a start now just by closing your eyes closing your eyes being aware of your breath.

Just feeling the breath in your body.

Allowing your body to sink in to the sofa or the bed or the chair that you're in.

As you exhale,

Let the body release into where you are.

Noticing your legs,

Noticing your arms and your head and your body.

Now we're going to travel around the body.

I'm going to say various body parts and I'd like you to bring your awareness to each part as we pass through.

And again,

I encourage you to stay awake.

Bringing your awareness to the hand,

The right hand,

Sensing your right hand,

Your fingers and nails,

The palm of the right hand,

The right wrist,

Forearm and elbow,

The top of the right arm and the armpit.

The right side of the body,

The right shoulder blade,

The right hip and buttock,

The right side of the pelvis,

The right thigh,

The right knee and kneecap,

The right knee and kneecap,

The right calf and shin,

The right ankle,

The right foot,

The heel and the toes.

We keep following along with this guided relaxation.

Relaxing the whole of the right side of the body,

Bringing your awareness to the right side of your body,

Relaxing.

And then coming to the left hand,

The palm of the left hand,

The nails,

The fingers,

The fingertips,

The wrist on the left hand,

Left arm,

Elbow,

Shoulder and armpit,

Shoulder and armpit,

The whole of the left arm,

The left side of the body,

The left shoulder,

Left armpit,

The left pelvis and hip,

The left thigh,

The left knee and kneecap,

The left calf and shin,

The left ankle,

The left foot,

The sole of the foot,

The heel of the foot,

The toes,

The whole of the left side of the body,

The whole of the left side of the body,

And the whole of the right side of the body.

And bring in your awareness now to the back of the body the buttocks,

The sacrum which is the lowest part of the spine and travelling up through your spine,

Travelling up and down your spine the shoulder blades,

The back of the shoulder blades,

The back of the rib cage the collar bones,

The throat and neck bringing your awareness to the shoulders and the neck here can be such an area of tension bringing love into the shoulders,

Releasing the shoulders and stay awake during the practice you can do this releasing the jaw paying real attention to your jaw and your teeth,

Releasing allowing your tongue to rest in the mouth and your head resting your head your eyebrows and your eyes,

Bringing your awareness to your eyes now that is deeply linked to your nervous system if you can soften your eyes and dropping the eyes back into the eye sockets and one more time,

Dropping them back and the jaw is soft and the tongue is resting softly in the mouth and there's a little smile at your mouth,

Feeling that little smile and now feeling your body with love and bringing the word love to mind,

Saying it to yourself,

Love,

Love,

Love and feeling that all around your whole body from the toes,

Through the legs,

Up through the torso,

Through the arms and through the head and resting in your beautiful heart,

The place where you feel love and let that radiate out,

Radiate out,

Radiate out all around your whole body so the more love that we give to ourselves,

The more love we are going to be able to give to the people that we're caring for so taking a few breaths here and bring to mind the things that you feel grateful for in your life could be a puppy,

Could be a tree in your garden,

Some fresh air,

Your joy of flowers,

People that you love in your life could be your love of drawing just having a moment to feel the things that we're grateful for,

Bring them to mind as you're resting here and being aware of the breath in your body and we're going to go on a visualisation journey now,

A walk in the countryside visualising your feet,

Walking down a lovely country lane and seeing the leaves under your feet as you walk and hearing them crunching it's an autumnal morning and the air is crispy clear and you're just breathing in easy breaths,

Easy breaths,

It's a moment of nothing to worry about a moment of ease and upliftment and you look up at the trees and you see the sunlight streaming through the trees and then the little path that you're on turns left onto a riverbank with very rich,

Lush,

Green grass at the side of the riverbank and so green it looks like velvet you're so amazed by the green grass and then you notice these beautiful wildflowers that you've never seen before and it's a moment where you're really aware of your feet as you walk and your breath and you're feeling very self-contained in your sense of joy and you can feel that in the people around you as well and you look out on the river and you see two swans and just notice them floating by on the river with their heads held high and there's space between each swan and closely following behind you see they have got four little cygnets four swan babies and in the distance you can see the nest as you keep breathing and breathing and the sun is out,

Feeling the warmth of the sun on your body feeling the warm sun on your skin,

If you can feel that warmth all over your body of the sun and there's a lightness in your body as you walk,

Almost like an effortlessness you become aware of,

Wow,

I don't have any pain in my body,

It feels very free,

Very very free then you look up into the sky and you see a whole flock of Canada geese flying in the sky and you're still so aware of the crisp morning air breathing in and out you take your time to look at the ripples in the water and you notice a shoal of fish,

Shiny fish and you come closer to the water's edge and you look over and you're still breathing and you see your own face reflected in the water and you can see that you feel happy,

You can see that you feel rested and you know that everything is just perfect,

Everything is just natural and you don't have anything to worry about,

Really just breathing in at the moment and you just rest in your body even deeper and deeper and then you choose to take a rest in the banking and you lay down in this thick velvet grass feeling the warmth of the sun all over your body and you're breathing in and out and again you bring this feeling of love to yourself again and you send it all around your body and you realise you have this magic gift to be able to emanate love from your body all around your own body and you start to become aware that the more you do this your whole body lights up like an amazing lamp and you become so aware that the more love you can give yourself the more love you'll be able to give to everybody else and you'll know that you're such a caring person taking in this banking in the air ahhh lovely stuff and then you get up slowly and you walk home walking back along the river and back to your own home you start to become aware of all the sounds around you as you're walking becoming aware of the sounds now as you're at home practising this deep relaxation or maybe you're at work practising this deep relaxation and starting to become aware of the sounds outside of the room becoming aware of any sounds outside of the room now we've been on a guided journey remain awake,

Remain aware,

Following my voice and then bring in your awareness to the sounds inside the room finding any sounds,

Trying not to label them as anything and moving from one sound to the next sound and then bringing your awareness to your own body listening to the sounds inside your own body finding all the sounds you can find inside your own body and then once again feeling your body resting on the bed or the comfy chair or the sofa that you're on feeling the legs and the arms,

The head and the torso noticing which parts of your body feel heavy and which parts of your body feel light becoming aware of the temperature in the room becoming aware of the breath in your belly and bringing your hands onto your belly gently waking up your fingers just slowly and bringing them onto your belly,

If they're already there just become aware of them being aware of your hands resting on your own belly noticing the breath as it moves underneath your hands and once again just saying the word love to yourself over and over again,

Just feel it and feel the vibration of the word love spreading out around your whole body and just starting to deepen your breath starting to deepen your breath and energising your body with your breath just deepening it,

Maybe a little sigh maybe a tiny little sigh moving your head from side to side just gently,

Softly opening up your eyes and arriving back in the room as we come to the end of our 20 minute relaxation may you have a fabulous rest of the day rest of the evening,

You're doing really really well thank you so much and keep practising this deep relaxation for yourself

Reviews

Merci beaucoup pour cette merveilleuse méditation 🙏🙏🙏

Incredibly restorative for a parent of a busy toddler. Beautiful Nidra and visual mindfulness journey. 🙏🏻