Releasing Tension Meditation

This meditation is intended to release tensions in the body, slow down your mind and help you manage stress and anxiety. It is a really good meditation to unwind whenever you have some time for yourself. It lasts 37 minutes and it can be practiced by beginners, but it is useful for everybody who feels stressed and needs to relax. You can practice this meditation sitting in a chair or on the floor, with your back upright.

Transcript

This meditation is intended to relax and relieve tension in your body.

So first of all,

Find a place where you can sit quietly and no one will disturb you for a while.

Then the position is important.

You have to sit with your back straight.

Now you can sit on the floor or you can sit on a chair.

This is not important.

But your back must be straight.

If you feel more comfortable,

You can rest your back on the back of the chair or just on the wall.

Or you can keep your back straight on your own without leaning anywhere.

So when you find a comfortable position,

And be sure it is comfortable because you're going to stay in this position for a while,

Just sit down and relax and close your eyes.

And now direct your attention inwards,

First of all to the parts of your body which are touching the floor or the back of the chair and the chair.

So these are the places of your body where you are resting and where your weight is going down to earth.

Now when you focus on these places in your body,

Which will be your legs,

Your bum,

Your back,

If you are leaning with your back,

You will feel that you can let go of tensions because basically your weight is resting on a surface.

You don't need to make an effort to stand.

You don't need to make an effort at all.

You are resting.

So all you need to do is keep your attention there and let go.

And if some thoughts come in,

Do not worry about it.

Thoughts come and go,

But you stay.

So all you need to do is to observe your thoughts and not get attached to them.

And if you feel like they're taking you away from here and now,

In that precise moment you are aware of it,

You just go back to where you are now.

Don't fight your thoughts.

Don't give them too much attention.

Just let them be.

And slowly you will find they will slow down and disappear.

So keep your focus on the places of your body where you are resting.

Your legs,

Your bum,

Maybe your back.

Feel that you can trust.

Feel that you can rest.

And slowly you will feel more and more like coming here.

So now keep part of your attention to these sides of the body and focus more of your attention on breathing.

Just follow your breathing,

The air coming in,

Going all the way down your belly,

And then coming out.

Focus on the path of the air which gets inside your lungs,

Makes your body expand,

And then when it relaxes,

The air comes out.

Keep part of your attention focused on your bum and your legs where they are resting on the floor.

Part of your attention goes to your breathing.

The more you focus,

The less thoughts come in.

Just feel how your body breathes.

What are the movements?

This is something we do all the time,

But we don't usually pay attention to it.

So just pay attention to your breathing.

And don't try to force it somehow,

Because sometimes the mind comes in and it would like to control your breathing.

But this is just not useful at the moment.

Just observe the way you are breathing and let it be.

If you feel like you're not breathing enough,

Or maybe that you're breathing slowly,

Just remember your body is really,

Really intelligent.

So there is a reason why it's doing this now.

So don't worry about changing the way it's doing stuff.

Just observe.

The breathing will relax and expand while we are meditating.

It's not something you can actually do.

It just kind of happens on itself.

So just let it happen,

Get yourself out of the way and observe.

Judgments are just useless in this kind of work.

So don't worry.

Observe your breathing and now start focusing on the lower part of your body.

So your bum,

Your genitals,

Your pelvis and the pelvic bone.

Feel this area.

Feel all the outside of it and the inside of it.

Your meat,

Your bones,

Your skin.

Feel how this area expands while you're breathing in and then it relaxes as you're breathing out.

Now in this area,

There can be tension.

Of course,

This is normal.

So don't worry if you feel some tension.

Just keep breathing in,

Giving space,

Making space inside yourself with the air and then breathing out again.

What happens as you do this is that your body expands when you're breathing in and the moment you breathe out,

It all relaxes.

And when you're breathing out with the relaxation,

The tension gets discharged.

This means that the tensions go away and they kind of like fall down to the floor.

So just focus on your breathing inside of this area,

Pelvic bone,

The bum and the genitals.

Breathe in,

Feel the expansion and then breathe out.

Keep your mind focused on this task.

The mind is a little bit like a monkey.

You have to keep it busy.

So keep it busy on this stuff.

Even if some thoughts come in,

Just let them be,

Let them come in and go away.

Don't get engaged with your thoughts.

The more you engage with them,

Even if you just want to fight them,

The stronger they will be.

So keep your mind focused on the task,

Observing the expansion and the relaxation.

Breathing out the tensions slowly fall down as you do this.

And as you do this,

You may notice that your pelvic bone is relaxing as well.

This is actually a feeling in your body like something is opening up your bone.

This area is opening up to receive the weight from your back and your head.

And this gives the opportunity to the upper side of the body to relax and give in the weight down.

The thing is all tensions in your body,

They're a way to resist to gravity.

So if you take away all the thoughts you might have about it,

You might think about stressing,

You might think they are wrong,

You might think they are the result of something in the past,

Which is not actually incorrect.

At the same time,

Right now in this moment,

All these tensions are full,

Their job is actually resisting gravity.

And what we want to do here is to be natural and let gravity do its course.

So do not resist it,

Just let the weight of your body go down.

Focus on the pelvic area,

On the bone,

Expanding and relaxing.

And now we are going to add another little bit.

We are going to enclose in our consciousness also the legs all the way down to the feet.

So keep feeling your pelvic area,

Your bone,

But also include your legs in the field of your consciousness.

You will feel your legs too are breathing.

They have this subtle movement of expansion and relaxation.

Feel all of the skin,

Feel the meat and feel the bones.

Feel how they are touching the ground.

And notice how you can trust this touch,

You can trust it,

You can give your weight down.

You don't need to keep yourself up.

You are supported by the floor.

And as you feel your legs,

You may feel that in some parts the air is not coming in very well,

Maybe some parts feel more dense or tight.

In this case,

Focus your attention on bringing the air to these parts,

Let the air fill in and expand and then let it go out so that the legs relax and the tension can fall down to the floor.

And if a thought comes in,

Just remember it's a cloud in the sky.

You don't need to follow it,

Just observe it and come back to here and now.

Focus your mind on feeling the lower part of your body,

All your legs down to your feet and following the movement of breathing.

And slowly you will start feeling like the tension is going.

Your legs will feel lighter.

This seems strange maybe.

The more you give in to the ground,

The more you let gravity do its course,

The lighter you feel because you're not making an effort,

You don't need to.

Breathing in and breathing out,

Observing the movement,

Keeping your mind focused on your task now.

You can even imagine that your legs are like a flute and the air comes through it.

Gravity sometimes helps bring the air down,

Helps to relax.

It's just imagination,

But it can help you.

And you can feel your ankle relaxing,

Your feet relaxing,

Your knees relaxing.

Breathing is softer.

Bringing attention to something is like bringing love to that place.

And now we want to take another step and we include in our awareness also the belly on the front and the lower part of the back.

So all the area around your belly button,

The sides and the lower part of the back,

Focus on this part of your body and just breathe.

Feel your breath inside this part of the body.

Now this is where you most feel the movement because the air comes into your lungs and this makes your belly expand and also your back.

So make sure you focus on both sides.

And if you feel there is any tension,

Just bring the air in,

Expand and let it relax and go.

What happens in my opinion,

In my experience,

It's like the tension you have on your spine or other sides of the body just falls down.

Just travels down to the bottom of your spine and gets released into the floor.

Keep your mind focused.

Don't engage with thoughts.

And feel,

Feel the skin,

Feel the meat and your organs and the lower part of your spine.

Now you may find when you relax,

You feel sometimes like there is movement inside your belly.

These are just your inner organs adjusting because when you relax your muscles,

They have more space.

And in this case,

They just relaxing,

They just start moving because they have more space and they are just readjusting.

So if this happens,

Don't worry.

Don't think about it too much.

Just keep focusing on your belly,

Expanding and relaxing.

And as you feel the tensions go down,

You can feel there is more space inside this part of the body as well.

And now try to include in your awareness also your legs,

Your feet,

Your bum and the belly all together.

Extending and relaxing.

You can feel the harmony of the movement.

This is the primary movement that keeps you alive.

And most of the time you don't pay any attention to it.

It's automatic,

But it's beautiful to observe.

And now we are ready for the next step.

So now we keep including our awareness,

Also the upper side of the body,

Our chest on the front and the back.

Feel how the air comes through this side.

How this expands.

We can feel our ribs expanding when we breathe in.

Our lungs get filled and the ribs expand and then they relax.

And again,

Every time you breathe out and they relax,

You can feel that any tension that might be present starts moving down your spine,

Going all the way down and being released onto the floor.

This is a very natural movement.

You don't have to do it.

What you need to do is to keep your mind focused on breathing and feeling this side of the body,

Your skin,

The meat,

The organs and the bones.

And as you do this,

You can also open your mouth a little bit if it is totally closed and breathe in both through your nose and through your mouth.

Opening your mouth a little bit is going to help you relax your jaw and this helps you relax this part of the body,

The heart area.

Feel the air coming in and making space.

And as you do this,

The tension traveling down your spine all the way to the floor.

And if some thought comes in,

Just let it go.

Feel how this area is expanding,

How much more space there is now.

It's like a pool that is empty and there is only air inside.

It's vast and your breath is much wider now.

And you haven't changed your breath,

It changed itself.

All you need to do is to change the focus of your mind.

The body will follow.

So now we're ready to take another little step and include our shoulders and our arms in the attention,

In our focus as we breathe.

Feel the expansion in all this side of the body.

And then feel it relax.

It's expanding and relaxing.

Now shoulders can be tense.

When we worry and we have a lot of responsibilities in life,

We tend to make them tight.

Sometimes we can even feel like there is a weight on our shoulders.

It's not really a weight,

It's just the tension.

So what we're going to do now,

Again,

Breathing is this part of the body,

Expand it.

And when you're breathing out,

Just relax it.

You don't have to do anything.

When you're relaxing it,

It's not actually a doing.

It's more like you are feeling it,

You're breathing out and naturally it relaxes.

What you need to do is focus your attention on this side of the body.

Breathe naturally and you feel the tension travel down your spine all the way to the floor.

It's a natural movement.

You don't have to do anything about it.

And feel also the change in your arms as you do this.

When the tension goes away from your shoulders,

How do your arms feel?

Feels like they're relaxing and they can rest.

Maybe it may feel sometimes it's like they're a little heavier.

But if you put your attention to it,

It's not really they're heavier,

It's that for once they are resting somewhere.

They're not keeping themselves up.

They're giving into gravity.

Breathing through your mouth and your nose.

Don't forget to keep your mouth a little open.

Not much,

But enough for some air to come in and out.

And now we are going to focus also on our neck and the jaw and the mouth.

Now this is important also because the neck and the jaw can often be tense.

So in this case,

We bring in the air inside here,

Expanding.

And when we relax,

The tension falls down again.

We do not need to actively do anything.

Just keep focusing on this part of the body,

Observe the breathing.

If any of the areas feel a little tense or more dense than other parts,

Just focus your attention there.

Bring the air inside of this part of the body.

Let it expand.

And as it relaxes,

Let the tension go down.

Just observe how your throat,

It's like a bamboo stick.

It's all empty inside.

And from there,

The air goes down to the belly and all the way to your feet.

You can follow the harmonic movement of your body as you're breathing.

And as you do this,

You may feel tension going down your spine and being released onto the floor.

I know it seems strange.

It's like it keeps going down.

It's like it's never ending.

It's because the tension goes down slowly,

A little drop at a time because our body needs time to readjust.

We can't release our tensions in a moment.

Drop by drop,

They go down and we feel more and more relaxed,

More and more free,

Softer,

Lighter.

Our jaw feels softer.

Our face.

Let's point our attention to the face now.

If there is any place where you feel tense,

Like sometimes it can be the eyes,

Don't close your eyes shut too much.

Keep them closed just like when you're sleeping.

Feel your eyebrows,

Your brow area.

Sometimes there is tension there.

So just focus your attention on your face.

Feel in this part of the body,

Let it expand and then relax.

Expand and relax.

And here again,

Tensions travel down your spine all the way to the floor.

And if any thought comes in,

Just observe it like a cloud in the sky.

Now we're ready for the last part of the body.

Now we are going to include in our consciousness.

So all of the head at the back,

At the front,

The back of the neck,

Our ears.

And feel this part of the body.

Feel the outside of it,

The skull and the inside.

And feel the air coming in through the nose and feeling your head expanding it,

Bringing space to this part of the body.

And then breathing out,

It's going to be like a balloon.

So your head,

If this helps you,

You can imagine it is a balloon expanding when you breathe in and relaxing when you breathe out.

And as it relaxes,

Tensions are released down your spine all the way to the floor.

Now making space inside of your head is very useful.

Because of our way of life,

We tend to think a lot.

Everything we do require thoughts.

Whatever job it is,

Usually it requires thinking a lot.

So just now bring space to this part of the body and you will see that thoughts are going to slow down.

And you will feel the pleasure that comes from having a light head.

A head which is not full of thoughts,

But spacious and light.

And as your thoughts slow down,

The tension is released down your spine,

You can focus your attention on the whole body now.

So following your breath through the nose and the mouth into the head,

The throat,

Shoulders and arms,

Your chest,

Your belly,

Your bone,

Your legs,

All the way to your feet.

If you focus your attention on your whole body,

You will feel the harmony of breathing.

It is like a dance.

And being able to feel the harmony of the breathing is pleasurable.

It sounds incredible,

We run after pleasure every day.

We have chocolate,

Coffee,

Sex,

Anything.

But we forget about the subtle pleasure of breathing.

So as we focus on the breathing on the whole body,

Feeling our body as one,

A sense of unity,

We can feel relaxed and we can feel the pleasure of existing in itself without having to do anything.

It's simple pleasure every child is able to feel every time he stops and relax.

Now we've lost this ability in time,

But we can go back and regain it.

And now when you feel ready,

Start moving your arms and your hands a little bit,

Move a little bit your body before you open your eyes slowly.

So take it easy and get up.

Reviews

Extremely relaxing! I am right in the middle of some very stressful times. I have done this meditation twice and it has really helped with the tension. Really very helpful. Thank you.

Very helpful. Thank you

Very effective. And a very soothing voice. Thank you!