RELAXATION

Waterfall

Sit comfortably in a chair with the spine lengthened. Allow your eyes to soften or close and bring your attention to your breath. Start by establishing a slow and steady rhythm for your breath and as you breath, allow the breath to expand and deepen.


Imagine sitting under a waterfall of warm, soothing, and relaxing energy. Imagine this energy as a stream of soft white light entering at the crown of your head and washing down over your face. Notice how the muscles in your face begin to feel warmer and relax.


Feel this energy continue to flow down into the muscles of your neck and over your shoulders. Feel the shoulders growing warmer and heavier as you breathe.


As this soothing healing energy continues to travel, feel it tunneling through your arms, down into the hands and each individual finger.


Notice the muscles relaxing in your back as you feel warmth saturating your muscles and traveling down the spine.


Feel warmth in the hips, into the muscles of your thighs...flowing over the knees...over the shins...into the calf muscles...down into the ankles and the heels. Feel any remaining tension releasing and washing away from the body through the feet and out through the toes.


Progressive Relaxation-Tense and Release

This technique is very effective in restoring the relaxation response due to the principle of muscle physiology. By purposefully tensing a muscle and then releasing the tension, the muscle will return to it's pre-tensed state.


Establish a comfortable position either sitting or laying down. Begin to focus on the rhythm of your breath and allow the breath to naturally lengthen and deepen.


On your next inhalation begin to tense the muscles in your face, neck and shoulders. As you exhale, release the tension. Repeat with the same group of muscles. Next move down to the arms, hands, and torso. Again, take a deep breath in as you tense those muscles. Exhale and release. Move down to the legs and feet, repeating the process. On the final round, tense all the muscles from your head down to your toes.


You can progress through this exercise with smaller groups of muscles and repeat as many times as you would like.


Luminous Sphere

Sit comfortably, allowing the body to rest and relax in a comfortable balanced position. Begin to tune into the breath, smoothing out any rough edges. As you become an observer of the breath, do so without interference or judgment. Notice the breath's rhythm and subtle nuances.


Begin to draw your attention to the core of your body. Envision a luminous sphere of pure white energy generating radiant light and warmth. With each breath feel this energy expanding and traveling outward to each and every part of your body. Feel this warmth saturating every muscle and tunneling to any dark corners. Begin to feel your entire body filled with warmth and radiant light.


The Stream

Allow the body to relax in a comfortable reclined position. Allow your eyes to soften or close and bring your attention fully to your breath. Start by establishing a slow and steady rhythm for your breath and as you breath, allow the breath to expand and deepen.


Imagine that you are laying in a steam of warm, soothing, cleansing energy. Begin to envision this energy as a stream of soft white light entering at the crown of your head and washing down over your face. Notice how the muscles in your face begin to feel warmer and relax.


Feel this energy continue to flow down into the muscles of your neck and over your shoulders. Feel the shoulders growing warmer and heavier as you breathe.


As this soothing healing energy continues to travel, feel it tunneling through your arms, down into the hands and each individual finger.


Notice the muscles relaxing in your back as you feel warmth saturating your muscles and traveling down the spine.


Feel warmth in the hips, into the muscles of your thighs...flowing over the knees...over the shins...into the calf muscles...down into the ankles and the heels. Feel any remaining tension releasing and washing away from the body through the feet and out through the toes.

Floating Bubble Relaxation

If you have many thoughts floating around in your head, cluttering your thought process, this meditation might be helpful to clearing your mind.

Sit comfortably bringing your awareness to the breath. Begin to bring your attention to the thoughts floating around in your head as if you were watching the words swirl around. Allow one thought to float up to the surface, right at the top of your head. Allow this thought to exit through the crown of your head encapsulated in a bubble.

See this bubble floating away from your head. As it floats away, feel yourself releasing it and letting it go. Continue with this exercise until you feel you have released much of the cluttered fogging the clear space in your mind. 

Something as simple as the breath can create a powerful transformation. The breath wants to naturally be full and expansive. We, by lacking awareness, prevent the breath from doing so. By practicing mindfulness, we can learn to pay attention to the subtle nuances of the breath and allow the natural process of breathing fully.



Breathing Technique: 3-part breath


Sit comfortably with the spine fully lengthened. Remove any tight, restrictive clothing. Begin to draw your attention inward, noticing the rise and fall of your abdomen. As you observe the breath, do so without interference or judgment. Become an observer of your breath. Now move your awareness upwards to the expansion of your ribcage and then to the rise and fall of your chest. You can even draw your awareness to the breath moving in and out of your nostrils.

By simply observing, the breath starts to naturally deepen and lengthen. This practice simply needs our attention and focus to reap the benefits.