Restful Bodyscan Meditation

This practice is great for beginners and seasoned meditators alike. A simple and gentle body scan meditation to help calm your nervous system, quiet your mind and leave your body feeling soothed, rested, and relaxed.

Transcript

Hi,

I'm Sean and thanks for joining me for this restorative body scan meditation.

Begin your meditation by taking the breath deep into your lungs.

Allow yourself to gently observe your breath and slowly become aware of your body.

So maybe you bring a gentle curiosity on what it's like to be here in this body right here and now.

So what does the body feel like?

The weight of the body,

The space of the body,

Feeling as gravity holds you in place and the earth holds you up.

Just noticing the temperature of air on the skin,

Texture of clothes on the skin.

Noticing the parts of the body that are touching the surface holding you up,

Chair,

Cushion,

The floor.

Notice any body parts touching other body parts and just allowing yourself to drop into this present moment by witnessing and experiencing your body just as it is right here.

And as you notice the sensations of your body slowly bring awareness to the sensations of breath,

Connecting with your flow of breath as the air moves in and out of the body.

Inhales your belly rises,

Exhale your belly falls.

Breathing in to a softening belly,

Breathing out to a softening belly.

And slowly bringing your awareness to the top of your head.

Noticing if there's any tension or tightness in the crown of your head and just imagining that you can simply let it go.

Breathing into the crown of your head and with an exhale letting go.

And slowly bring your awareness down to your forehead and the space between your brows,

Noticing if there's any tension or tightness here.

On the exhale softening and letting go.

Allowing yourself to feel into your eyes and the space around your eyes and your nose.

And just sensing if there's any tension or holding here.

Just imagining on the next exhale you can soften and let go.

Sensing into the cheeks and the jaw,

The teeth and the tongue.

Noticing if there's any tightness or tension here.

And on the exhale softening,

Releasing,

Letting go.

Bringing that awareness into the neck,

The sides of the neck,

The front of the neck,

The back of the neck.

On the exhale just allow any tightness and tension to go.

And imagine a sensation like warm water pouring down the back of your neck,

Softening the muscles of the neck and spreading across the shoulders.

Shoulders rolling down and back.

With an exhale softening and letting go the muscles of the shoulders.

Down the arms.

The upper arms softening the forearms.

Allow this awareness to fill your fingers and the palms of your hand.

And imagine with the next exhale softening and letting go of any tension in your hands.

Letting the energetic buds pooling in the palms of your hands.

Bringing that awareness back up into the shoulders and into the chest.

Just imagining you can soften and release all tension and tightness in the chest.

The heart softens,

The lungs soften.

Feel space grow between the ribs.

Feel the chest expand.

And slowly softening the upper abdomen,

The belly,

The lower abdomen.

Allowing that sensation of softening to sink from your belly through the body and into your back.

And slowly softening and letting go vertebrae by vertebrae.

Moving up from the lower back to the mid back and to the upper back.

Breathing into the shoulder blades and the full spread of your back.

And on the exhale,

Imagining all the muscles of the back to just soften,

Release and let go.

And just noticing right now what it feels like to have your whole upper body relaxed,

Loose,

Open.

And slowly bring your attention down to your hips,

Your groin,

The insides of your upper thighs and into your pelvic floor.

And see if you can let go of any tension in these areas.

Softening the pelvic floor,

Softening the hips,

Softening into the groin.

And then letting the softening move down into your thighs,

The front of the thighs,

The back of the thighs.

Softening and letting go these muscles.

And then letting that sensation of letting go move into your knees,

Down into your lower legs,

Softening the calves,

The softening of the shins.

Letting go of tension in the ankles.

Letting this awareness move down into the feet.

Softening the top of the feet.

Softening through the bottoms of your feet,

The arches,

The balls of the feet,

The heels of your feet.

And then allowing that softening to move into your toes.

Softening each toe from your big toes to your pinky toes and the space in between the toes.

And then just noticing here that your body feels completely relaxed.

You may become more aware of the sensations of thoughts or other sensations throughout your body.

So as best as you can,

See if you can just observe these experiences.

Experiences of the body or experiences of thought.

And if thoughts arise,

Simply noticing them and then bringing yourself back to the sensations of the body.

Bringing yourself back to the sensation of relaxation.

And if at any time you get caught up or carried away,

You can always return back to the breath.

Just noticing the movement of the breath,

The flow of the breath.

Maybe the breath is deeper and longer.

Maybe it is softer or shallower.

Whatever it may be,

Just noticing the flow of your breath.

And then allowing yourself to again scan over across the body and notice anything that is coming up.

You may notice parts of the body that are softer or lighter.

Parts of the body that are cooler or warmer.

And you may even come across parts of the body where there is some lingering tension.

And if so,

Can you just welcome your breath into those spaces and exhale a sense of releasing,

Softening,

And letting go.

And seeing if you can sink in to the joy of this physical relaxation.

And trusting yourself to go deeper and deeper into this space of safe relaxation with every breath.

Allowing the muscles to soften and find space from the bones.

Allowing the weight of the bones to sink into the surface below you.

Allowing your body to fall still.

And if the mind wanders,

Just allowing yourself to bring yourself back to the sensations of body or the sensations of breath.

Noticing whatever comes up.

And allowing yourself to notice without judging it right or wrong.

And not judging this meditation for being good or bad.

Just knowing that whatever your experience is right now,

It's exactly as it's meant to be and it's perfectly okay.

So just allowing yourself to settle and stay in this space of physical relaxation.

This space of restfulness.

This space of decompression.

Just allowing yourself to completely let go as you listen to the music and settle in to the experience of your body.

Nowhere to go with nothing to do.

And just continuing to let your body settle and soften as you sink deeper into this gentle experience of relaxation.

Once again,

Just allowing yourself to scan over your body,

Noticing any sensations.

Noticing your experience.

Allow yourself to notice that your body is quiet and soft and still.

Notice the experience of a relaxed body.

Knowing that you feel safe,

Centered,

And present to your experience.

Knowing that this experience of relaxation you can take forward with you,

Whether that be throughout the rest of your day or into a restful night of sleep.

So as we come to the end of this meditation,

You can allow yourself to bring awareness to toes and fingers.

Bringing small subtle movements to toes and fingers,

Maybe ankles and wrists.

And allow this awareness to bring your body to a sense of alertness and awakeness.

Slowly bringing your attention awareness back into your body.

And in your own time,

Opening your eyes and bringing yourself back into the rest of your day.

Reviews

Thank you Sean, now I'm looking so forward to a hot shower because of your example 😀

Perfect tone, music and verbiage that allowed my body and mind to unwind and feel rejuvenated. Thank you