So go ahead and find a comfortable position.
Go ahead and close your eyes.
And prepare yourself to really drop down in to your inner awareness and become aware of your inner landscape.
Go ahead and take a few moments to allow your body to relax 10 or 15 percent.
Just a little bit more than you are right now.
And draw your attention up to the muscles of your eyes.
Become aware of the tension or the tightness in the eyes.
Now let the eyes relax.
All the muscles around the eyes.
Behind the eyes.
The skin that attaches to the eyelids.
Inviting it all to relax.
And to become still and quiet.
Now draw your attention down to the jaw.
Let the jaw become still and quiet and relaxed.
Having a kind of softness to begin to enter the jaw.
Now the shoulders.
Letting the shoulders become soft with relaxation.
And allowing the shoulders to become still and peaceful and quiet.
Scanning the right arm and sending a wave of relaxation down the right arm down to the tips of the fingers.
Inviting the right arm to become still and peaceful and quiet.
Inviting the right arm to really let go in a way of expressing your gentle appreciation and kindness to the right arm.
Now draw your attention to the left arm.
As you move your attention gently down the arm.
Give yourself permission to release any tension or tightness that might be there in the left arm.
All the way down to the palm of the hand and all the way down to the fingertips.
Drawing your attention into the breath.
Allow your breath to become soft and still and quiet.
Allow your breath to settle in and to settle down.
Knowing that slowing your breath down is a way of expressing kindness to the body.
Knowing that as your breath continues to settle down that it will also slow down the mind.
As your breath relaxes your body and mind become still.
Enter your attention on your heart.
Express kindness and gratitude to the heart.
Letting the heart become peaceful and still and quiet as you gently rest your attention mindfully upon the heart.
Allowing your awareness to the inside of the lungs.
Allowing the lungs to relax.
To become calm.
To become still.
Allowing every out-breath to soften and to deepen your awareness of this moment in time.
Drawing your attention to the belly.
Release any tension or tightness that may be in or around the belly or anywhere in or around the internal organs.
Release.
Give yourself permission to relax.
As you bring healing relaxation into the deep belly it's a way of expressing your own kindness and compassion.
Enter the body noticing that the body and mind begin to slow down at the same rate and pace that you're releasing the tension and tightness from the body.
It's as if the mind itself is gently unraveling like a knot that's being untied,
Becoming loose and relaxed and filled with peace.
Scan from the hips down the right leg,
Down to the knee,
Down through the shin,
Down through the calf,
Down to the bottoms of the feet,
Through the arches and out through the tips of the toes.
Releasing.
Relaxing.
Unwinding.
Letting go.
And then down the other leg.
From the hip through the top of the leg,
The bottom of the leg,
The knee joint relaxing,
The shin,
The calf,
The bottom of the foot,
The top of the foot,
The toes.
Now scanning the rest of the body.
And releasing any tension or tightness that may remain perhaps in the back,
Perhaps in some muscle group that has not yet fully relaxed,
And inviting a deep relaxation now into the muscles,
Into the nerves,
Into the cells.
Now imagine a volume knob that controls the sound of self-talk,
The volume of self-talk,
And just imagine turning down the volume on that dial.
As your inner dialogue quiets down,
Becoming softer,
Slower,
More calm,
More quiet.
While inside the mind there is a deep sense of stillness.
Now take a moment to think of a healing affirmation.
A healing affirmation is a short phrase like a mantra that can be repeated in the mind to generate power,
To center the mind.
If you don't have another healing mantra or healing affirmation,
I might recommend the phrase,
Today I choose to love myself.
But if you have an affirmation that is special to your circumstances or unique to you,
Feel free to use that as well,
But otherwise the phrase,
Today I choose to love myself,
Can be a powerful healing phrase.
Go ahead and silently start to repeat your healing phrase,
Your mantra,
Your affirmation.
With every breath in,
Breathing in the words of the affirmation or mantra.
With every breath out,
Repeating your words of affirmation and power.
Silently repeating your phrase.
And if your mind wanders from it,
Just gently bring it back.
And with intention,
Repeat the words of affirmation.
Again,
With every in-breath,
And again with every out-breath.
And with intention,
Repeat the words of affirmation.
With focused intention,
Continue repeating your affirmative phrase,
Your words of power.
And with intention,
Repeat the words of affirmation.
Today,
You're like the farmer who first plants a seed in the soil.
The seed begins to take root.
Every time you come back to this practice and listen to this recording,
You're like the farmer who waters the seed,
Pulls weeds around the seed.
Like a mother gently tends to her child,
Caring for the well-being and the nourishing of this beautiful child.
You can gently nourish this seed,
This small child,
By coming back to this practice regularly.
With intention,
Repeating your phrase.
And the seeds begin to take root in the fertile soil of your mind,
Growing roots down into your heart,
Into the very core of your inner being.
Now it is time to shift your awareness,
Either to sleep or to a waking state.
Take the time you need to gently reorient your attention into the present moment,
Or deep into a restful sleep.
