Body Scan - Relaxing The Body

This episode will guide your awareness across your whole body and will offer gentle encouragement to relax your body along the way. All you need to do is to follow the instructions, but without trying too hard, without being too harsh on yourselves if your mind gets distracted. Simply go with the flow...

Transcript

Hello and welcome.

My name is Natalia and I will guide you through body scan meditation.

When you feel ready,

Find a comfortable lying position either on your sofa or your mat and come to complete stillness.

Close your eyes and allow the weight of your body to gently melt onto the surface.

And now begin with guiding your awareness to your breath,

Noticing the subtle gentle movements of your inhale and exhale,

Noticing the abdominal wall expanding on your in-breath and slightly contracting on your out-breath,

Falling gently back towards the spine.

Maybe you're noticing the quality of the air as it enters the body and as it leaves the body.

Taking a long breath in and deep breath out.

And now bring your awareness to your feet and hold your feet in full awareness with all that lives here,

Whatever you'll find here,

Any sensations on the surface,

On the skin,

But also within.

And if there are no sensations at all,

That's okay too.

And now guide your deeper breath all the way down to your feet and breathe out from this bay.

And take another long breath in,

All the way to your feet.

And as you breathe out,

See if you can soften these tiny little muscles on your feet and relax your feet.

And breathe in.

And as you exhale,

Moving your awareness further up through your ankles,

To your shins and your calves and your knees and holding this part of the body in your full awareness with any sensations that you'll find here.

Try not to create anything,

Just accept things exactly as they are.

And take another long breath here.

And with your exhale,

Relax your shins,

The calves and your knees completely.

And your next breath in,

Drawing the air all the way down to your lower legs.

And with exhale,

Your awareness moves further up your legs through the front of the thighs,

The back of the thighs.

And with curiosity,

Observe what you find here,

What sensations,

If any,

Can stay here for a moment.

And guide your deep breath in to your thighs,

The front and the back.

And as you exhale,

Relax your thighs,

Soften the muscles.

And take a deep breath in all the way through your legs.

And try to hold the whole length of your legs in your complete awareness with any sensations on the skin,

But also within,

Without changing anything,

Allowing whatever you find to be exactly as it is.

And take a deep breath in through the whole length of your legs.

And with your out breath,

Completely relaxing your legs,

Allowing the muscles to soften.

You are slowly letting go of any tensions that you might be holding onto in your legs.

And taking a long breath into your legs and breathe out from the legs.

Breathing deeply,

Breathing calmly.

And taking a deep breath in through your legs.

And as you exhale,

Leaving the legs,

Moving your attention to your pelvis,

And to your abdomen,

And to your ribs,

And to the center of your chest,

To your heart space.

And holding the front of your torso in your full awareness with any sensations that are present here,

No matter how insignificant they might seem,

Try to stay here.

And if you,

Noticing that your mind is getting distracted,

And from time to time goes on to wander,

Gently escorted back to your practice by following your breath,

Those gentle movements of your breath.

And then returning back to the region of the body that you are holding in your full awareness,

And coming to your heart space,

That space that surrounds your heart,

With any sensations or feelings that you might find here.

And breathe to this space,

And breathe out from this space.

Breathing deeply,

And with exhale allowing this heart space and your lungs,

Your abdomen and the pelvis to relax,

To soften.

With every inhale,

You're feeding in more energy,

More space,

And with exhale you are slowly letting go of tensions that might be stuck here.

And breathing to the front of your torso,

And with exhale leave this space,

And move your awareness to the back of your body,

To your bum cheeks,

Your glute muscles,

And slowly gliding up to your lower back,

Middle back,

Upper back,

With the shoulder blades and the shoulders,

And holding whole back of your body in your full awareness.

Taking a long breath in,

And deep breath out as you soften.

Imagine the back of your torso is your breathing organs,

You can breathe in through your back,

And breathe out from this space,

Feeling more and more relaxed as the muscles are softening with every out breath.

Inhale,

And with exhale leave your back behind,

And move back to the front,

To your neck,

To the throat,

As you're gently guiding your awareness further up to the jaw,

The chin,

The cheek,

The cheekbones,

The mouth,

The teeth,

The tongue,

The lips,

The nose,

With the nostrils,

The surface of the nose,

The eye sockets,

The eye,

With the eyelids and your eyelashes,

And to the forehead,

The space in between the eyebrows,

All the little muscles across the forehead to your temples,

Sides of your head with the ears,

The back of your scalp,

And the crown of your head.

And try to hold your head in full awareness,

With all the facial muscles,

And breathing in,

The face of your head,

And breathing out from here,

Breathing in deeply,

And with exhale,

Soften,

Relax all the facial muscles as you are slowly letting go,

And coming to your shoulders again,

And from your shoulders your awareness slowly slides down your arms,

Through your upper arms,

The elbows,

The forearms,

The wrists,

The palms,

Top of your hands,

All your fingers to the fingertips,

And holding your arms,

The whole length of your arms in your complete awareness,

Noticing sensations that live here,

Without trying to create anything,

And without trying to suppress anything,

And taking a long breath in through your arm,

And breathe out from this space,

And taking another deep breath in through the whole length of your arms,

And as you exhale,

Relax your arms completely,

Let go,

Release the tension with your exhale,

Allowing the arms to feel heavier,

Melting further down towards the surface.

Now bring your awareness to the whole body,

Try to hold your whole body in full awareness with all of its sensations present here,

And guiding your breath,

Your inhale through the whole body,

And breathe out from the body,

As if you could breathe through every single cell of the body,

Taking a long breath in from the space that surrounds the body,

And breathe out from every single cell of the body back to this space,

Inhaling the nourishment,

And exhaling anything that doesn't suppose to be stuck here,

Slowly letting go,

Letting go of you,

Tightly holding onto you,

Breathing deeply,

Filling up the whole body with the air,

With the breath,

And with your exhale,

Relax the whole body completely,

All the muscles are soft and relaxed now,

And gradually guide your awareness back to your breath,

Back to the subtle movements of the inhale and exhale,

As you're breathing deeply,

Breathing calmly,

And slowly blink your eyes open,

And return safely back to your day.

Within your all that is still,

Now here's where then you would be able to breathe away your body with all the presence that you can now reach even those relaxed,

Steady self stable