Okay let's become comfortable and take a deeper breath or two as we become comfortable.
Placing our bodies so our limbs are at ease,
Feet are planted,
Hands just resting in a lap.
Let's take a breath and allow our spine to straighten a little and as we exhale allowing ourselves to soften into our chair a little.
Becoming still,
Not too relaxed and not too paying attention and stiff a little bit of both,
A balance.
And we're going to physically relax our body.
So let's allow our forehead to soften,
Our jaw to become relaxed.
See if we can allow the muscles in our scalp to release.
Our neck and our shoulders in neutral and at ease.
Our arms soft and relaxed.
If we're seated we'll have a little bit of muscle tension holding us up.
Can we allow our head to be on the top of our spine so that effort really is minimal.
Our buttocks and thighs relaxed.
Our lower legs and our feet relaxed and still.
Feeling the body be relaxed,
Allowing that to happen.
And let's create a feeling of mental relaxation.
So I'm going to invite you to bring to mind a place where you feel completely at home,
Completely comfortable.
That peace and to go there now in your mind.
And to be there in as much detail as you can.
Allowing the feelings that you get when you're here to wash over your body,
To calm your nervous system.
Seeing what you see,
Hearing what you hear.
Are there senses,
Are there physical sensations?
So we're feeling more relaxed now mentally and physically at ease.
And to take us in a deeper,
Healthier,
More relaxed state.
I'm going to count from 1 to 10 and with each number we can allow ourselves to become just a little more at ease,
Quiet and still.
You don't have to do anything you just have to allow it to happen.
1,
2,
3.
Becoming quieter,
Healthier as our biology becomes in a rest,
Digest and repair state.
4,
5,
6.
That peace at rest.
7,
8,
9,
10.
Rest with your breath for a moment.
So I'm going to invite you to try the breathing exercise where we control our breath and to see how that feels in your body.
So the exercise is to understand how it feels to control and we will aim to breathe in long and smooth to the count of maybe 4 or 5,
Whatever feels comfortable for you.
Hold the breath for a count of 4 or 5.
Release the breath.
Try a count of something like 4 or 5 and then pause before you inhale and we'll try and keep the same count throughout but if you find you really chosen the wrong number then please try a different one and that's unique to each of us.
So I will guide you but your breath might be slightly different to mine and that's fine and we'll do that breath for five rounds and then we'll feel how that feels in us.
So when you're ready to inhale next we'll take a long smooth inhale.
Hold the breath for a count appropriate to you.
Exhaling smoothly for the same count.
Pausing with an empty breath.
Inhaling.
Pausing.
Exhaling.
And pausing.
Inhaling when you're ready.
Pausing.
Exhaling.
Pausing.
And I'm going to allow you to do the last two breaths in silence.
And allowing that breathing exercise to come to an end now.
How does that feel?
Physically.
Mentally.
Mentally.
Emotionally.
Just noticing if that's changing.
Now we're going to release control.
So we're going to watch our breath and observe it and as best we can allow it to be.
So noticing if we start to interfere and see if we can take our hands off the controls again.
Our consciousness almost floating on the breath.
Each breath unique just as it wishes to be.
And giving that as much attention as we can.
And feeling how it feels to release control of the breath.
How do we feel physically?
Mentally.
Emotionally.
So bringing our attention now to our body as we prepare to return to our regular waking consciousness.
And let's allow a few energizing breaths to enter the body.
We can imagine it mobilizing our arms and legs.
There's no hurry to do this.
I'm going to count from one to five and we'll gradually become more alert and awake to the external world.
One,
Two,
Feeling our feet on the floor and having some awareness of what's around us.
Three,
Four,
Feeling awake,
Healthy and rested.
And five,
We're starting to move our feet and our hands,
Our arms and our legs and opening our eyes when we're ready.
Thank you for practicing with me.
