22-Minute Body Relaxation Meditation

This is a 22-minute guided relaxing body scan by Natalie Ford. Use of breath to connect to each part of the body to support a deeper body or self-connection, energy refresh, relaxation, and increased self-love. It includes gentle running water background and has a few minutes at the start inviting the listener to settle into their space.

Transcript

As you settle into your position,

I want you to feel the weight of your body and how your body connects with what it is that you are sitting or lying on.

Allow yourself to feel heavy and to drop deeper into the support that is holding you.

And just mentally acknowledge to yourself,

I am supported,

I am held as demonstrated by the thing you are sitting or lying on.

The invitation is to close your eyes if you haven't already and to place one hand on your lower belly just below your belly button.

And as you breathe in and out,

Breathe into this hand on your lower belly and just observe it rising and falling as you breathe in and out.

Going to invite you to bring your awareness from your mind,

Put it into the elevator in the back of your head,

Which travels down your spine,

Down the back of your throat,

Down behind your heart,

Down behind your solar plexus and diaphragm,

And down into your tummy region where your belly button is and where your hand is resting.

Allow your mind to step out of the elevator in your tummy region and bring your awareness and your presence to underneath your hand so that you are inside your abdominal area.

And start to notice the muscles that move as you breathe.

Notice how as you take a breath in certain muscles expand and rise and then see if you can stay with following your muscles as you breathe out right to the end of your exhale.

Can you stay with those muscles as they concave,

As they release the breath from your body?

And you'll notice that at the end of your exhale there's a little bit of a pause before you breathe in.

And then you take this in breath and your muscles change again and you may notice at the end of your in breath that there's another pause before you feel ready to exhale.

As you breathe out I want you to,

I want to invite you to allow your jaw to soften,

Allow your mouth to be open a little bit.

Allow your breath to tumble out of your mouth as if it's a waterfall at the top of the crest of the waterfall dropping down freely flowing over the crest of the waterfall.

The breath as it tumbles out of your mouth effortlessly.

And I'm also going to invite you to make a sigh,

A sound of a sigh as you breathe out.

So whenever you breathe in you can breathe into that lower part of your belly observing the muscles as they rise and fall.

And as you breathe out make a sigh with a sound.

Let go of all the stresses of your day,

Any stress that your body is holding.

And allow yourself to sigh as you exhale.

Taking your next inhale all the way down your legs down to the feet.

Inhale into your feet and expand them as you breathe in.

And as you breathe out allow that water to tumble over the top of the waterfall,

Your breath falling out your mouth with a nice sound of a sigh.

Coming back to the feet and the ankles as you breathe in expand them and make a beautiful sigh as you breathe out.

Breathing into the feet and the ankles one last time and releasing any stress or tension as you breathe out.

Breathing now into your lower legs and your knees expand them as you breathe in.

And a beautiful big sigh as you breathe out.

Breathing the lower legs and the knees as you breathe in.

And a beautiful big sigh as you breathe out.

Coming to the upper legs and the hip joints breathing into the upper legs and the hips.

And sigh with a little noise as you breathe out.

Breathing into the upper legs and the hips and just release any stress or tension as you breathe out.

Now coming to the lower back and the buttocks breathing into the lower back and the buttocks.

And a nice sigh as you breathe out any stress or tension from this region.

Take a breath into the hips sorry the lower back and the buttocks and breathe out with a sigh.

Coming now to the front of this region your bladder region and your womb or your horror breathing into the lower front of your abdomen and a beautiful sigh releasing any tension as you breathe out.

Another in breath to this womb or horror region.

And a beautiful sigh as you breathe out.

Breathing now into your genitals take a nice deep breath into the genitals this part that so often gets overlooked and forgotten.

Nice big sigh on your exhale.

Take another breath right into your genitals really expand this area as you breathe in.

And release any tension as you breathe out.

Coming now to the whole of the pelvic bowl region you can imagine a big round goldfish bowl.

Breathe into the whole of your pelvic bowl sigh out any tension and release on your exhale.

One more breath into this pelvic bowl really fill it up and sigh out any tension as you exhale.

Coming now to your solar plexus and your diaphragm region.

Breathing into the solar plexus and the diaphragm expanding this area that often holds so much tension.

Really allow yourself to have a nice big exhale and sigh out any stress from this area.

Breathing again into this region.

Nice big exhale to release any stress or tension as you breathe out.

Coming now to the back of your ribs breathing into the back of your ribs expanding all the little intercostal muscles between the ribs.

Nice deep breath into the back of the lungs and exhale with a sigh.

One more into the back of the lungs really expanding filling it up completely and releasing any tension or stress as you breathe out.

Coming now to the front lungs the front of the ribs expanding all the little intercostal muscles between the ribs and a big sigh as you breathe out.

Breathing fully into the front of your ribs expanding this area as you breathe in and a nice big sigh exhaling any stress or tension as you breathe out.

Coming now to the big shoulder muscles at the top of your ribs between your neck and your arms.

Breathing into these big shoulder muscles that hold so much stress and tension in our body.

One more into these big shoulder muscles and sighing out any stress or tension as you breathe out.

Coming now to the shoulder joints and the upper arms breathing into the shoulder joints and the upper arms as you breathe in expanding and releasing any tension as you breathe out.

Again breathing into the shoulder joints and the upper arms and just saying to yourself release let go surrender as you breathe out.

Coming now to the elbows and the lower arms breathing into the elbows and the lower arms releasing any stress or tension as you exhale.

Coming to the wrists and the hands breathing into the wrists and the hands expanding into the fingers and sighing out any stress or tension as you exhale.

One more into the wrists hands and fingers expanding on your inhale and letting go of any stress or tension on your exhale.

Coming now to your neck to the back of your neck and also the front of your neck the throat region.

Breathing into the back of the neck and the throat sighing out any stress or tension that's held in this region.

Breathing into the back of the neck and the throat sighing out any stress or tension.

Coming now to the jaw breathing into the upper and the lower jaw maybe wiggling your jaw stretching your jaw as you breathe in and just letting go of any tension as you breathe out.

Breathing into the jaw breathe into all the little muscles along the jaw the lower jaw and the upper jaw let the mouth fall open let the jaw be loose as you exhale and release any stress or tension from this area.

Breathing into the tongue and just allowing the tongue to drop a little further back into the throat as it relaxes.

Remembering to sigh with a sound as you breathe out.

Coming now to the nose cheeks and eyes as you breathe in expand the nose cheeks and eyes as you breathe in.

Breathing again to the nose cheeks and eyes and remembering to sigh with sound as you breathe out any stress or tension from this region.

Coming now to the eyebrows the forehead and the temples breathing in expanding this area and letting go of any stress or tension any furrowed brows any tight eyebrows.

Breathing again into the eyebrows forehead and temples as you expand this area on your inhale and release with sound any stress or tension from this region as you breathe out.

Coming now to your scalp all the way from your forehead to your ears to your neck breathing into your scalp and your ears expanding this area and sighing with your exhale to release any tension or stress.

Breathing into your scalp and your ears expanding this region as you breathe in and releasing any tension as you breathe out.

Scan your body now for any last remaining bits of stress or tension or tightness that are held and take your breath and your awareness into the part where your body is calling you for attention.

Breathe into this area and release with a sigh.

Coming again into this area where your body is calling you might be the same area it might have moved and expand on your inhale and sigh on your exhale.

Coming back now to your lower belly where we started bringing your awareness into your lower belly you can place a hand just below your belly button if it helps you to focus on this area.

Just seeing the muscles as you breathe in and out you can keep sighing on your exhale we don't make enough noise in this society we're all told to be quiet and sound is so important for helping energy move.

Give yourself permission to sigh on your exhales both in this meditation and forever forwards.

Keeping your last couple of breaths in your tummy your lower belly and by all means if you want to stay longer in this meditation stay beyond my voice finishing and just stay with your breath in your tummy watching the muscles observing as they rise and as they fall keeping your awareness under your hand or inside your tummy muscles watching the muscles as they expand to take in your breath and staying with them as they drop away as you release your exhale.

If you are completing your meditation now then I invite you to just gently wiggle your fingers and your toes maybe wiggle your hands and your feet rotate your wrists and your ankles start to bring a little bit of movement back into your body take some deeper breaths fill up the whole of your lungs remembering to sigh with sound on exhale it's really good for you and start to stretch your body give a nice big oh stretch as you reach out your arms and stretch out your legs maybe stretch a little bit your sides be nice and gentle with your body and you may want to slowly bring your eyes to open you might need to just look down a little bit first before you're ready to embrace the fullness of your surroundings and stay with yourself for a few minutes more as you just gently come back from this deep state of relaxation feeling your feet on the ground feeling the parts of your body that are connected to whatever you're sitting or lying on noticing how you are still supported you're still held maybe wrap your arms around your yourself give your upper arms a nice squeeze and give yourself a nice big self hug squeeze yourself tight give yourself that love that's always inside of us you might want to squeeze other parts of your body you might want to give your upper legs a little bit of a squeeze maybe your lower legs maybe you want to squeeze parts of your lower arms your upper arms your tummy maybe you want to give your shoulders a little squeeze back of your neck maybe you want to give your face a little gentle stroke as a really beautiful loving mother energy would stroke a child you might even want to stroke your hair run a hand across your head and down your hair just give this to yourself it's so beautiful when we're able to give ourselves the love that we want it can be in the form of hugs or touch maybe just allow your hand to glide over your arms over your tummy down your legs over your buttocks up your back you can go much slower than I'm going if you want to and you may want to end with your hand resting on your heart take your final breaths just into your heart region remind yourself that you are loved there is plenty of divine love that you can tap into just like you just did just now at any time and I'm sending you love from my home my garden where you can hear my waterfall running in the background and as I send this energetic hug and love to you I wish you a beautiful start or continuation of your day.