Mindful Body Awareness For Stress Relief + Healing

In this beginner-friendly body awareness exercise, Courtney guides you through deep breathing and gentle hands-on body touch to bring your awareness back to yourself. This practice can bring a sense of calm to the nervous system, helping to quell anxiety and stress. Learning to give attention to our bodies is a powerful way to heal.

This meditation is designed to be accessible to all comfort levels for hands-on body touch.

Transcript

Hello,

This is Courtney,

Self-care creature,

And I bring you this meditation at a time where I personally am feeling called for more quiet grounding and connection with my body.

Your tuning in here is an invitation for the same.

I invite you,

If you're comfortable,

To grab a warm cup of tea,

Although not required.

Find yourself a comfortable seated position or lying down and we will begin.

If you have a warm beverage,

Invitation to hold it in your hands.

If no beverage is present,

Feel free to rest your hands on your body or in your lap and just beginning to feel into the breath for a moment,

Allowing yourself to arrive in this meditation space.

What does the depth of your breath feel like right now?

What does the texture of your breath feel like right now?

And taking a moment to just check in with the rhythms of your body.

We've checked in with breath.

Invitation next is with the heart.

Just taking a moment to breathe into the heart space.

How is your heart right now?

If at any time,

Emotions arise for you,

I invite you to hold yourself in them and through them.

Can all parts of yourself be welcome?

You can pause the meditation to express what you need or just simply continue listening in the midst of whatever arises.

Taking another couple breaths here with the heart.

And next,

We're going to move to the mind.

Just noticing the mind for a moment.

Does it come to rest easy in this space?

Noticing the breath,

Checking in with the heart,

Does it come to rest easy in this space?

Noticing the breath,

Checking in with the heart?

Does it seem a little wound up?

Does it have questions,

Stories,

A narrative?

Perhaps whenever you notice the mind,

You can just take another breath and bring your awareness right back into your body.

This is a continued practice.

It's not wrong of the mind to be arising.

It is what it is meant to do.

And through meditative practices,

We come into a different relationship with our mind.

Noticing it,

What can it offer us?

What can we learn from it?

And inviting it into a new way of being through more quietude.

A couple more breaths here,

Just noticing.

And as you are ready,

Go ahead and set your beverage down.

If you're not already,

I invite you to bring a hand to your heart and a hand to your belly.

If this is absolutely not comfortable for you,

Go ahead and just leave your hands resting at the side of your body or in your lap.

I wonder if you're able to come to a neutral space of your face,

Releasing the jaw,

Releasing the tongue,

Allowing the eyes to settle in their sockets,

Maybe even giving a little wiggle of the cheekbones and the eyebrows.

Drawing in another nice deep breath here and releasing it.

And releasing it.

Let's take two more breaths like that.

Nice deep full inhale and a complete exhale.

On this last breath,

Is it possible as you inhale to feel the body expanding as the air comes into the internal organs?

And through an exhale,

That gentle deflation,

Belly may come towards the low spine.

We're going to continue breathing in this way for a few rounds of breath.

And with every inhale,

I want you to just notice where you feel your breath in your body.

Nice deep inhale.

Expanding in the belly,

Perhaps the ribs,

The heart space.

Can you feel it in the back of the shoulder blades?

And as you exhale,

Gently pressing through the crown of the head,

Allowing the shoulders to relax down the spine,

Hips settle as belly comes in towards the low spine.

A few more breaths like this,

I'll give us some silence.

For the next three breaths,

I invite you to have an audible exhale.

Inhale,

And exhale.

For the next three breaths,

I invite you to have an audible exhale.

It can be a deep sigh with yourself or an audible sigh like you will hear me doing.

Invitation for this breath to be in through the nose and out through the mouth.

And continuing with the breath here,

Just like this for the next few rounds.

I wonder,

Can you hear the waves of the ocean in the sound of your own breath?

That slow tide ebbing and flowing in.

One more full breath wherever you are at.

And then allowing the rhythm of your breath to return to its natural cadence,

No need to try to change it,

Just coming back to breathing.

You may notice that your regular breath rhythm is a little elongated.

This is normal,

This is natural,

Flow with whatever is present.

We're going to move into some hands-on body touch.

If this is something you're not yet comfortable with,

I hope just listening and imagining might help you.

Listening and imagining might bring you a little more information and perhaps over time,

Comfort and peace and courage to move into physical touch with the body.

This is how we heal,

By learning about our own bodies and learning how to be with them.

It can be a slow process,

But it is possible no matter where you begin.

First,

Let's bring both hands over the heart,

Really nestling into that heart space amidst all of the skin that we have,

The muscles,

The fat,

The gooey juiciness that makes up who you are.

Then we're going to come back to these elongated breaths,

These deep breaths here.

As you gently press into your heart,

Taking a nice deep breath.

Perhaps repeating an affirmation,

I am here.

Perhaps repeating an affirmation,

I am here.

Here I am.

Invitation to cross arms over chest and bring arms to shoulders,

Opposite hand to shoulder here.

You can bring knees up to support the elbows as needed if in a seated position,

Bowing the head as you're comfortable and just gently squeezing the deltoids or adding a little pressure here to the shoulders.

These are my shoulders.

Here I am.

I am here.

For the next few breaths,

I invite you to begin squeezing or applying pressure or massage to the biceps and slowly making your way down through the elbows,

The eye of the elbow.

These are the eyes of my elbow.

Here I am.

I am here.

Bringing your attention into your forearms,

Gently squeezing the forearms,

Making your way up to the wrist,

Taking a moment to just hold opposite wrists in hand.

Gentle squeeze or massage or just holding here,

Taking a nice deep breath into the backside body.

Gentle squeeze of the wrists.

These are my wrists.

I am here.

Here I am.

Slowly coming into the hands,

Perhaps cupping the hands together,

Giving a little squeeze of the palms,

Taking a moment to massage into the right hand.

Through the thumb joint.

Through the knuckles.

Up through each finger.

As you're comfortable,

Perhaps giving a little squeeze to each fingertip.

And then we'll switch and give our attention to the left hand.

A couple of breaths here,

Feeling into the palm,

Into the thumb joint.

Perhaps even feeling the back of the hand.

And bringing attention to each of your fingers.

And as you're ready and comfortable,

Perhaps squeezing each fingertip.

To close out our practice today,

I want to invite you to bring your hands to your face,

Either holding your head in your hands or gently pressing your hands into your face if you're in a lying down position.

You can hold the side of your face if that's more comfortable for you at this time.

But if it's accessible and comfortable for you,

I invite you to really hold your head in your hands by allowing your cheekbones and the palms of your hands to meet.

Perhaps covering the eyes,

Taking a few deep breaths here.

And just feeling into the support and the acknowledgement that you are growing and creating with yourself right here,

Right now.

Last invitation for a few affirmations.

Repeat as they resonate with you.

Feel free to change them as needed or desired.

I am important.

I am important.

I am important.

I matter to me.

You matter to me.

And I am proud of myself for showing up and learning how to be with myself in small and new ways.

I know that every little bit counts when it comes to being with myself in the midst of a very busy world that does a very good job of keeping me from myself.

I know that being with myself and knowing myself is a power move in this world.

And I am committed to this journey.

Go ahead and come back to a comfortable,

Seated,

Lying position wherever you may have been.

Letting the hands rest alongside the body or in the lap.

And for the last minute or so here,

Let's just take some gentle breaths,

If you can,

Breathing through the nose.

And just noticing any sensations in the body.

If you notice the mind beginning to intrude,

Perhaps ask it to wait a moment,

Take another breath,

And come right back to the noticing.

Releasing the jaw and the tongue.

Feeling into the wave of rhythm and sensation your breath produces in your body.

And when you're ready,

Taking a final deep breath,

Giving the toes a gentle stretch.

And when you're ready,

Taking a final deep breath,

Giving the toes and fingers a little wiggle.

And bringing yourself back.

Thank you for tuning in and thank you for showing up for yourself today.

Our world needs this.