Body Scan

Lie down and drift away. This heavily guided body scan meditation is the perfect antidote to a busy day, busy life, and busy mind. Due to its guided nature, this meditation is accessible to beginners and experienced practitioners alike. Lie down and drift away home to yourself.

Transcript

Beginning is settling in.

It's maybe stretching the legs,

Stretching the arms.

It's perhaps deciding if you need an extra cushion underneath your knees or an extra cushion or blanket under the head.

It's supporting yourself and this intentional stepping into your practice is part of it.

You might think it's the beginning or before but it's not.

It's intrinsic to this moment of self-care that you're taking,

Setting up correctly.

So starting this body scan meditation today by lying down in the earth,

Spreading out,

Taking up some space and then noticing all of the points that are connecting to the ground.

Heels,

Calves,

Buttocks,

Shoulder blades,

Elbows and wrists,

Back of the hands,

Maybe back of the head.

Taking time to scan through the body quickly to begin just to see if there's anywhere that you need to shift or tweak in order to make it feel a little more comfortable.

When you've maybe released those wriggles and fidgets,

When you've perhaps settled yourself somewhere that you can be still now for a while and even if that means that your knees are bent and the soles of your feet are on the ground that is okay.

Whatever works for you today greeting yourself,

Meeting yourself as you find yourself,

Not without an expectation,

Not with a preference.

And that's how we begin our practices by greeting ourselves warmly.

You might have spent the day out of your head,

In your eyeballs,

On the screens or in other people's lives focusing on them,

What they need,

Maybe distracted with traffic and noises and the full wonderful catastrophe of life.

But as we transition from the busy day towards a more introspective practice,

In that transition we stop and we turn that focus on ourselves intentionally.

We ask ourselves how we're doing,

How you're feeling,

How's your body showing up today,

How you're physically,

How are you emotionally,

How are you doing?

And you just sit with the answers for a minute.

So I'm going to give you a moment or two of silence to just sit with those answers.

How am I doing today?

And really listen deeply.

Stepping inwards in this way allows us to truly see ourselves and feel seen by ourselves.

It's just such a powerful tool.

Now that you know maybe how things are and it doesn't matter what those answers are.

What answers is that we know that truth now.

We bask,

We bathe in ourselves for a little while.

We allow the nature of this practice to soothe us,

To soothe the nervous system,

To allow healing and rest to occur.

We're now going to step through the body and we're going to,

In your mind's eye,

In the back of the mind somewhere,

You're going to repeat and think the little phrase that I say about each body part.

So say we'll start with the foot and I'll be saying my foot is relaxed,

I relax my foot.

We're going to step through the body like this and you might think oh you know I'm not going to be able to make myself be more relaxed or more rested but believe me the power of intention is immensely powerful.

So starting down with that right foot,

Feeling the right heel connected to the earth,

Held,

Supported and secure.

I rest my foot.

I'm letting my foot rest.

Working my way up towards your calf,

The shin area,

Moving away from that foot,

Wrapping around the knee and up towards the front of the thigh and the belly of the thigh,

The hamstring.

That whole right leg now enveloped in a sentiment of ease and rest.

I rest my leg.

My leg is resting.

Through that right hip,

That right side body from the hip down now enveloping in and around the right buttocks and the front of the right hip area,

Feeling it soften and sink and then feel across through to the left side of the pelvic bowl,

Left hip where the femur sits in the hip socket,

That whole right and left hip and the whole entire pelvic region between,

Sinking down a little bit heavier.

I rest my hips.

My hips are resting.

Down through that left leg,

Swirling around in the mind's eye,

Being curious,

Investigating down through that left leg,

Through the left knee,

Left shin and calf,

Allowing it to edge a little closer to the ground,

Thinking,

Repeating.

I rest my leg.

My leg is resting.

Making your way down through to that left ankle and foot and through the left toes,

Feeling it heavy especially at that point on the heel as it sinks into the earth a little more,

Thinking I rest my foot.

My foot is resting.

Feeling now from the hips down,

These prime movers that work so hard for us all day,

Carrying us around,

Moving us from A to B,

You're now intentionally choosing to let them be at rest.

So from the hips down,

Feeling rested,

Choosing to rest,

Surrendering further and further down.

With those legs and hips heavy and relaxed,

Working our way through to our belly,

Our power centre,

Manipura,

A place of latent power,

Creativity,

Essential organs and digestive reproductive systems,

Adrenals,

Such power held in this abdomen.

Softening the belly now,

Noticing if there was a grip or there was a hold or some tension there.

I'm thinking now of this whole entire powerful middle centre of the body.

I rest my belly.

My belly is resting.

Making your way up through to the chest area,

The ribcage and the heart space,

Feeling it moving softly with the breath,

The chest and belly merging into one,

Lifting on the inhale and softening on the exhale.

Perhaps slowing down the breath if you feel like you're caught up panting,

Speeding with that breath,

Slowing things down and again in the mind's eye thinking I rest my chest.

My chest is resting.

Perhaps noticing the back body,

The back of the heart space Anahata pressing in the earth,

A place in between the shoulder blades softening down more and perhaps encouraging the shoulders with them down into the ground.

Feeling that right shoulder now drawing down,

Pushing down gently to the earth.

Feel your focus move down through that right arm,

Through the right elbow,

Forearm,

Wrist,

Down through the fingers all the way to the tip.

Feeling from the right shoulder to the right fingertips now intentionally dropping down a little more.

My arm is rested.

My arm is resting.

Bringing that gaze now back up,

Directing it towards the left shoulder,

Shoulder blade,

Feeling it pull softly towards the earth.

Gifting it time here to simply be.

Feeling down through that left elbow,

Left forearm,

Wrist and left palm,

Fingertips.

Surrendering of any grip or tension.

Thinking I rest my arm,

My arm is resting.

Feeling now across the collarbones and down through the chest,

Belly,

Hips and legs,

Toes,

Swirling back up through to the shoulders,

Elbows,

Wrists and hands.

The entirety of the body from the neck down dropping back a little bit more.

I rest my body,

My body's resting.

Feeling the back of the head now,

That pressure point,

Sinking further,

Further back as if it's leaving an imprint in the earth below.

Eyes are closed and heavy as if the eyeballs themselves are sinking further back.

The mouth slightly open,

The jaw rested,

The tongue soft in the mouth not pressing or pushing.

Sheeks heavy,

Melting,

The skin around the eyes softening and smoothing.

Relaxing through the eyebrows and then feeling that radiate up through to the forehead.

Feeling that whole beautiful face of yours softening,

Smoothing and letting go.

I rest my face,

My face is resting.

Feeling that sense of ease trickle through the scalp,

Through the hair follicles one by one as it makes its way all the way back to that pressure point on the earth.

A sense of ease enveloping your whole head,

Face,

Neck,

Shoulders,

Arms,

Chest,

Belly,

Hips,

Legs,

Toes.

Feel as if when you breathe in the sense of awareness rushes down through every inch of your being.

As you exhale feel yourself smooth out and melt a little more down into the ground beneath you.

Imagining your body perhaps like a hot wax,

Softening,

Smoothing and pouring out maybe even escaping the edges of your mat or floor.

Feel this beautiful sense of peace that you have cultivated for yourself.

And in this beautiful state that we will stay harnessing now the power of the breath to anchor us to this present moment.

To prohibit us being caught up and distracted by thoughts that will try and take us away into the future or the past.

So when you breathe in thinking the word let it,

When you breathe out think the word go.

This beautiful little sentiment matched to the breath to the inhalations and exhalations might just be enough for you to be here.

Getting go of any attachment to the past or the future.

You can't breathe in the past or the future you can only breathe in the present.

So leaving you now for two minutes of absolute silence and peace to bathe in yourself.

You have that tool to focus on.

Inhale let it,

Exhale go softly repeating in the mind.

You slow down and simply be for two minutes.

You you you you taking a deep breath in and a big sigh out.

Maybe coming back to yourself to this moment perhaps you drifted away.

Knowing that this practice that you have taken time for is doing extraordinary work no matter how you perceive your capacity for stillness,

Concentration or attention.

I want us to now just take a moment again surrendering the body a little more to the ground noticing if the shoulders have risen the hands can soften or the toes can release.

Just being curious as to how much tension perhaps has crept back in and just overall taking a second to notice how we feel.

How do we feel now compared to the start of this practice?

It's empowering when we notice how we feel and we observe that we are the maker of that shift in our energy.

With intention,

With dedication we show up for ourselves,

We be seen by ourselves,

We soften,

We rest and we reset.

So now we'll be beginning to bring a little movement to the body moving our arms and legs fingers anything that feels nice as slow as you need to tiptoe back into this busy active awake world.

Taking as much time as you need before you open your eyes and when you do look around you see the colours and the shapes and where you are grind yourself back into this eyes open reality.

Drink it in with fresh eyes grateful for this new sense of awareness that you have that allows you to observe and to be grateful for all that you experience going forward.

Thank you for practicing with me.

Have a lovely day.

Reviews

Gorgeous I love your voice and tempo I’m definitely adding this to my library

Beautiful. Thank you so very much. Relaxed me so I fell into a deep sleep