Welcome to this short relaxation practice.
I invite you to find a comfortable place on your chair,
Feet planted if you can,
Legs somewhere they can be comfortable,
Bottom towards the back of the chair.
When we're ready,
Inhaling and getting a little bit taller and then exhaling and softening into our seat a little bit.
So we're a bit alert and a bit relaxed.
We've got a bit of both.
Arms just resting somewhere comfortably.
Let's relax our body a little bit.
So imagine a wave of relaxation starts at the crown of your head and flows slowly over your body.
So let's allow our forehead and our scalp to become a little bit softer.
The muscles around our eyes,
Our cheeks and our jaw a little bit softer.
See if you can put your head at the top of your spine so you're using very little energy to keep it upright.
Neck spacious,
Comfortable.
Let's allow our shoulders to soften.
Let gravity draw them downwards a little.
Arms somewhere comfortable and although we're sitting,
We soften the muscles of our back and our front,
Our chest and our belly.
So just the minimum holding us up.
Our pelvis,
Buttocks softening a little.
Our thighs at the top and the back.
Knees becoming a little softer.
Shins and calves,
Ankles,
Feet all the way down to our toes.
A little softer and more relaxed.
Whole body's feeling a little more relaxed,
But let's have a scan around our body to see if there's any part of us still holding on to tension or tightness.
This might be somewhere where we habitually hold tension.
So if we find any,
Allowing that tension to melt and soften as if our awareness were a warm lamp.
I invite you to bring your awareness to your breath and see if we can let the breath flow naturally and comfortably.
If your mind wanders,
Just bring it back and see if we can do that without any self-criticism.
Back to the breath.
When we're aware of the breath,
Often we want to control it.
Can we just let the breath do exactly what it wants to do.
Each breath slightly different from the one before.
Comfortable and relaxed.
And now I'm going to invite you to allow that breath to become just a little bit deeper.
Maybe five percent deeper.
So when you're inhaling,
Inviting the breath just a little deeper into the lungs.
Be gentle,
Not forcing anything.
We're inviting the breath.
So if our breath becomes uncomfortable or we create tension in our body and we're trying too hard,
If we're doing that right,
It becomes even more relaxing.
And that breath tends to slow down and we might find pauses develop in between each breath in which absolutely nothing happens.
If your mind wanders,
Just bring it back to the focus and in doing so we build our powers of focus like a muscle.
This is our belly breath or our diaphragmatic breath.
It's very simple,
Very good for you because our breath is directly wired to our nervous system.
By taking a few minutes,
Relaxing our body and deepening our breath gently,
We're switching on our rest and digest biology,
Our repair biology.
We digest our food better.
Our cell repair mechanisms switch on and turn up.
Our immune system gets more energy.
Even the blood flow in our brain changes.
Under stress,
All those things are turned down.
That's okay for a half an hour or so but after weeks or months or even years of that,
Our bodies can deteriorate.
We can empower ourselves to take a few moments to stop and to breathe and know it's doing our bodies good.
Taking a couple more restful breaths,
Noticing how you feel and then we're going to begin our transition back to the external world,
Our regular state of consciousness.
But there's no hurry.
So let's take a breath and with that next breath,
Imagine bringing the urge to move into our arms and legs.
And our arms and legs are beginning to move.
Let's wiggle our fingers and our toes,
Our wrists and our ankles,
Moving our arms and legs and taking any stretch that feels right for your body,
Gradually waking ourselves up.
If you're feeling sleepy,
We can give ourselves a rub,
Invigorate ourselves.
When you're ready,
Coming back into the room.
Thank you for practicing with me.
