 Hello and welcome to my body scan. Meditation, mindfulness meditation and in particular the body scan allows us to have a deep awareness of the physical sensations in your body and how they relate to your emotions. Recognising where you hold your stress and tension it may help you to gain insight into your feelings, into your thoughts and the information that you receive and the moments of beautiful stillness may improve wellness for your physical and mental health. Mindfulness body scans help lessen anxiety. They decrease stress levels, they dissipate the stress hormone of cortisone. They improve sleep quality, can help to reduce chronic pain, improve self-awareness, help you to relax and improve your focus. And if you can incorporate the body scan meditation into your life through a routine choosing the right time for you. Knowing that there's no perfection in meditation but just aiming for a few minutes a day can make a big difference. This body scan is going to take around 10 minutes and is there to help you and to guide you through this wonderful journey. Take your time now and just take a nice deep breath in and close your eyes and relax and begin by getting yourself comfortable. Maybe sitting in a chair or just allowing your back to be straight. We're going to take several long slow deep breaths breathing in fully and exhaling slowly. Breathing in through our nose and out through your nose or your mouth whichever you feel most comfortable feeling your stomach expand on the inhale and relax as you let go on the exhale. And just begin to let those noises around you just let them go and begin to shift your attention from outside to inside. But if you are distracted by sounds in the room or outside simply notice this and bring your focus back to your breathing. Now I'd like you to slowly bring your attention down to your feet picking observing the sensations in your feet. You might want to wiggle your toes a little. Maybe you're feeling your toes against your socks or your shoes or the ground beneath you. Just notice without judgment. You might even imagine sending your breath down to your feet as if the breath is traveling the nose to the lungs and through to the abdomen all the way down to your feet. And then back up again out through your nose and lungs feeling this oxygenation taking place. But you know what? Perhaps you don't feel anything at all. That's fine too. Just allow yourself to feel the sensations or not feel anything at all. And maybe when you're ready you can allow your feet just to dissolve into your mind's eye and you can move your attention up to your ankles to your calves feeling the sensations as you bring your awareness to your knees and your thighs and just observe the sensations that you're experiencing throughout your legs breathing in and breathing out breathing into your legs and breathing out of your legs. When your mind begins to wander just gently notice that it's wandered gently notice that it's wandered without judgment and bring your mind back to noticing the sensations in your legs. And if you notice any discomfort or pain or stiffness don't judge this. Just simply notice it just observe how all the sensations rise and they fall they shift and they change moment to moment. Notice how no sensation is permanent just observe and allow the sensations to be in the moment just as they are breathing into and out from the legs. Then on your next breath allow your legs just to dissolve into your mind and move the sensations into your lower back your pelvis just softening and releasing any tension or stress you have in this area just as you breathe in and you breathe out and you can slowly move your attention up to your mid back and your upper back just become curious about the sensations here you may be coming aware of sensations in your muscles maybe you feel a temperature or points of contact with the furniture or the bed whatever it is just notice it non-judgmentally and with that each out breath you may let go of your attention that you're carrying and then when you do that you can very gently shift your focus to your stomach and all of the internal organs perhaps again you may feel tension or stress or a stiffness or an ache just breathe through it breathing in and breathing out and allowing it just to dissipate but with no judgment and perhaps you notice the feeling of your clothes the process of digestion or the belly rising or falling with each breath and if you notice opinions arising about these areas just gently let these go and just return to a noticing sensation as you continue to breathe bring your awareness to the chest the heart region just notice your heartbeat just be with it for a moment observing how the chest rises during the inhale and how the chest falls during the exhale just let go of any judgments that may arise breathing in and breathing out moment to moment breath to breath and on the next out breath shift the focus to your hands and your fingertips see if you can channel your breathing into and out of this area as if you're breathing into and out from your hands if your mind wanders gently bring it back to the sensation in your hands and then on the next out breath shift the focus and bring your awareness into your arms observe the sensations or the lack of sensations that may be occurring here you may notice some difference between the left arm to the right arm maybe an ache or a stress or tension whatever it is but there's no need to judge it we just breathe in we breathe out we let it go and as you exhale and you breathe in and you breathe out you may experience the arm softening and the release of tension and then we're going to continue to breathe and shift the focus to the neck the shoulder and the throat region this is an area where we often store tension and just be with the sensations here could be a tightness, a rigidity or a holding in your shoulders and as you breathe you might start when you focus into this area to notice the shoulders moving along with the breath and just for a moment just let go of any thoughts or stories you're telling yourself about this area as you breathe you may feel tension rolling off your shoulders and on the next out breath I want you to shift your focus and direct your attention to the top of your head, your scalp your face observe all the sensations occurring now noticing the movement of air as you breathe into or out of the nostrils or your mouth and again as you exhale you might notice the softening of any tension you may be holding feeling the calm, the relaxation and now let your attention expand out to include the entire body as a whole bringing into awareness the top of your head down to the bottom of your toes feeling the gentle rhythm of the breath as it moves through the body feeling and releasing any tension non-judgmentally accepting things just as they are allowing them to soften to relax to dissipate with no judgment breathing in and breathing out find that gentle rhythm of the body and the breath as it moves through your physical being just breathing in and breathing out and as we're coming towards the end of this practice I want you to take a deep, full breath in taking on board all of the energy that surrounds you that's in you, that you've felt, that you've seen and then just exhale fully allowing it all just to dissipate breathing in this stillness and this calmness and this healing and letting go of any stale or negative energy that surrounds you and when you're ready you can open your eyes and return your attention to the present moment with your fingers and as you become fully alert and awake consider setting the intention that this practice of building awareness will benefit you and everyone you come into contact with today I hope this has helped be loving, give love God bless