Deep Relaxation And Rest

Get comfy and cozy as you offer yourself the gift of this deep relaxation and rest body scan, sprinkled with lots of gratitude and appreciation. Perfect for before bed or anytime that you need to step away to step back in.

Transcript

Welcome to this body scan meditation.

I'm so glad that you're here and I hope you find it to be restful and relaxing and rejuvenating.

And while you can sit for this practice,

My invitation and my guidance will be as if you were laying down.

Laying down on the floor,

On your bed,

On whatever is stable and feels supportive.

I also invite you to cover yourself with a blanket since we will probably cool as we move through our time together.

Use pillows or props,

Whatever will help you to really let go in your body.

So take a moment now to do that.

And allowing your body to completely rest on the floor,

Let your legs gently rest,

Your arms by your sides,

Palms facing up,

Fingers gently open.

The back of your head,

Touch the floor,

Resting comfortably and just noticing yourself laying here.

And with a few deep long breaths into the belly and the fullness of the lungs,

Expand and open the body.

And as you breathe out,

Breathe out with a big sigh.

Just really letting go,

Softening,

Letting yourself drift into the floor,

Into the mat,

Letting the full weight of your body release.

You are supported.

You don't need to do anything else right now.

And as you return to a natural breath,

Just simply notice and take a moment to scan the fullness of your body,

Noticing what's alive for you right now,

How things are,

How things feel.

And we do this with eyes of love and kindness and compassion,

Simply noticing,

Turning the corners of the mouth into a gentle smile.

We already offer appreciation to our body and to ourselves for being here,

For practicing,

For playing,

For being curious,

For taking this time for deep,

Deep self-care.

And now turning your attention towards your feet,

The bottoms of your feet,

And see if you can notice the energy that resides in the bottom of your feet.

Is there tingling,

Heat,

Coolness,

Tightness?

The bottoms of our feet work hard for us all day.

They support us as we walk and we run.

Perhaps they're tight in shoes,

Noticing the feet.

And see if we can bring some ease and relaxation to the bottom of our feet,

Just letting them relax,

Letting them be right here,

Not doing anything.

And also bringing in a feeling sense of appreciation for our feet,

Of gratitude for everything that this part of our body contributes to our life.

How difficult it would be if we didn't have the bottoms of our feet.

And we breathe with appreciation and gratitude down to the bottom of our feet,

Letting them rest.

And now bringing attention to your ankles,

To the tops of your feet,

To your toes,

To the heel,

And see if you can relax this part of your body.

Let them drift down,

Drop down into the floor,

Really letting go,

Not holding,

Not being active,

Truly resting.

And as we rest our body,

We offer this part a lot of appreciation and gratitude.

Even just bringing our sense of awareness to this part of our body feels so nourishing.

Bringing attention to our feet with eyes of love and care.

And now bringing your attention to your shins.

Perhaps you notice the blanket or fabric of clothing touching the shins,

Noticing the calves as they're meeting the floor.

So noticing this part of our body,

Our calves and our shins,

Being aware of the strength,

The muscles,

The tendons,

The bone,

How important this part of our body is as we move through the day.

And again,

Allowing these parts of our body to rest,

To just drop further down into the floor.

No action needed right now,

Simply resting,

Bringing that heart-mind of appreciation and gratitude to this part of our body,

Smiling to our shins and our calves.

And now checking in with our knees,

The tops of our knees,

The sides,

The back of our knees,

The knees that help us to bend and flex,

To be adaptable and changeable.

And often people have old injuries in the knees.

So notice what your knees feel like in this moment.

Is there a tenderness,

A tightness,

A discomfort?

And let's bring a soothing aspect to our knees,

Just allowing the energy that resides in the knees to relax,

To rest,

Even if they feel uncomfortable or tight or achy.

See if we can hold that tightness or that achiness with love and tenderness with our presence,

Offering deep appreciation for our knees,

Bringing a smile and a breath all the way down to our knees,

A breath that can help to open and release tension,

That can offer lightness,

Lifting,

Brightness.

And now bringing attention to our thighs,

To the tops of our thighs,

The sides,

The back that may be touching the floor,

Noticing the strength of our thighs,

The muscles,

How our thighs support us through the day,

Moving,

Ebbing,

Flowing,

Bringing lots of appreciation and gratitude to the thighs,

And a sense of rest and renewal as we simply lay here,

Noticing tenderly and lovingly holding our body.

And now bringing our attention to our waist,

To our hips,

Our lower belly,

Our lower back,

The core of our body,

Midsection,

That as we might be sitting more than we move,

Can oftentimes feel tender,

Bringing the attention of love and kindness to the rest of us,

To the rest of this part of our body,

And allowing ourselves to offer deep appreciation,

Expanding,

Resting,

Feeling spaciousness,

And noticing the sensations that might be present,

Heat or coolness,

Constriction or ease,

Whatever allowing yourself to bring the breath to help open,

To help relax,

To offer appreciation and gratitude.

Now noticing the front of our body,

Our belly,

Our chest,

Our heart center,

The ribs,

The sides of the body,

Noticing how the breath opens and gently expands as we breathe in,

Noticing the rest as we breathe out,

And allowing the body,

This part of our body,

To relax,

To rest,

Noticing the spaciousness,

Noticing the openness,

Noticing the energy of the heart,

Our heart that meets our moments,

The heart that brings that smile,

That connection,

That joy,

So feeling our belly and our chest and our ribs and the sides of our body,

Just allowing everything to relax,

And if there's tightness or holding somewhere,

Especially in the heart,

Just with gentle quiet ears,

Just listening to what's there,

Let's become aware,

Let's hold the emotions as they are in our body with tender lovingness,

Being right here,

Loving and caring for ourselves,

And with a smile let's bring our attention to our back,

Noticing the spine,

What places are touching the floor,

The space in between,

Noticing our shoulder blades,

The mid-back,

The upper back,

The back that holds so much,

So let's soften,

Purposely soften,

And drift further down into the floor,

Letting that sense of support be right here,

Letting go of the heaviness that we might carry on our back,

The weight of the world it feels like sometimes,

Just softening,

Letting go,

And noticing what energy is here in the back,

Is there a place of tightness or constriction that with the mind's eye you can bring the breath towards,

You can open it a little bit more,

Expand it,

Let it feel fresh,

Smiling with appreciation to our back,

And then drifting our attention down the arms,

The shoulders,

The biceps and triceps,

The elbows,

The forearms,

Down past the wrists to the hands,

The fingers,

The palms of the hands,

Allowing our arms,

Our hands that hold so much,

It's allowing them to relax,

To put down whatever it is that they're holding,

Letting them drift and sink further down into the floor,

And with a smile we offer appreciation to our hands,

To our fingers,

To our arms,

The arms that hold and hug our loved ones,

The hands that help us to move through the day,

The fingers that type emails of connection,

Allowing our arms and our hands and our fingers to simply relax,

Noticing the energy that's there,

The pulse of our life in the palm of our hands.

We can smile to this,

Thank you.

And now we're bringing attention to the back of our head as it gently rests on the floor,

Noticing the top of our head rounding to our face,

To our eyes,

Softening the eyes,

To the cheeks and the jaw,

Softening the jaw,

To the ears,

Softening the ears,

And noticing the outside of our head but also the inside of our head,

The busyness or the calmness of the mind,

As becoming aware of this part of our body and offering lots of appreciation and gratitude for all of our sensory experiences,

For all of our thinking experiences even.

We can bring a softness to that and just noticing what's here.

Is there a sense of lightness,

Rest?

Where is the spaciousness?

Is there something that would be helpful to let go of,

To soften?

And with a smile we simply invite that in.

We invite in awareness with love and kindness,

Spaciousness,

Relaxation and ease.

And now taking a moment to once again scan your body,

Just moving from the head down the front and the back and the sides of the body,

Down the torso,

Down the legs,

Down to the feet.

And just noticing,

Is there anything else that we could let go of,

That we want to honor,

That we'd like to offer deeper appreciation to?

When we smile,

Can we feel the smile resting throughout our entire body,

Both the outside of our body and the inside of our body,

Bringing that smile into our heart center,

Into our mind center?

So just taking a moment here to rest,

To reflect,

To offer deep appreciation for yourself for this self-care time.

And as we end our practice today,

Just take a few moments to begin reawakening the body,

Wiggling the toes,

The fingers,

Gently rocking from side to side,

Offering a few stretches,

Slowly opening the eyes,

And then taking your time to reawaken.

Not rushing into the next thing,

Truly absorbing the gifts of this practice that you've offered yourself,

Offering the next bit of time to be a little bit more slower,

Proceeding through the day in a gentler way.

Thanks so much for being here.

Stay well.

Be well.

Reviews

Instead of a body scan just mentioning individual parts, this person walked us through sections of our body and their function. I found it most helpful Thank you.