Mini Meditation 5 Min Body Scan to Unwind, Relax, and Refresh

Hello and welcome to the meditation portion of the RxChill Pill Get Resilient podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Juna Bobby MD, a physician specializing in mind-body medicine, and I'm here to bring you your daily dose of the relaxation response. Learning to elicit the relaxation response is extremely helpful in decreasing stress and any stress-related conditions. Relaxation techniques are generally known to be quite safe. However, if you have any medical issues, consult with your physician and be aware that relaxation techniques never replace proper medical care. In certain psychiatric conditions, these relaxation techniques may be contraindicated. Please check with your physician. I'd like to leave you with a little quiet time for reflection at the end, so I'm asking you now to please share subscribe, and download. It would also be really helpful to me if you could leave a positive review. If you use Insight Timer, you can find me as a teacher under Juna Bobby MD. As with all meditation and relaxation audios, please find a safe and comfortable quiet place and do not use while driving or operating a moving vehicle.

This is a 5-minute body scan to elicit your relaxation response. By tuning into our bodies, this simple awareness of how we hold tension in our bodies is the critical first step towards stress awareness. So find a comfortable position and sit with your feet supported by the ground and your hands in your lap, perhaps one hand resting in the palm of the other. Notice your breath coming in and out. Without manipulating it in any way. Just allow it to breathe you. Notice the sensation of the air going in through your nose, into your airways, expanding your body. Just give yourself the permission. Allow yourself to just be for these few minutes, a very brief time of doing absolutely nothing. Bring your awareness to your right Great toe. Think of your toe as being made of atoms with spaces between the atoms, so the toe feels open and spacious. Now your second toe, third toe, fourth toe, and fifth toe. The bottom of your foot relaxing on the floor, feeling spacious. And light. Now your left great toe, imagining all the atoms and the spaciousness that make up your toe, your second, third, fourth, and fifth toes, the bottom of your left foot, and your entire foot feeling spacious and light. Now bring your awareness to your right ankle and calf and knee the space behind the knee, the thigh, the back of the thigh, and the right hip. Now your left ankle, calf, knee, the space behind the knee, the thigh, the back of the thigh, and the left hip. Now bring your awareness to your lower back, middle back, upper back, and notice each vertebra one at a time. A vertebra by vertebra by vertebra, seeing all the spaciousness between the bones. Now bring your awareness to your abdomen, your chest, letting any tension release. Now bring your awareness to your right thumb, second, third 4th and 5th finger, palm, wrist, forearm, elbow, upper arm, and shoulder. Feel your whole right arm spacious and light. Now bring your focus to your left thumb, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th fingers, palm of your hand, wrist, forearm elbow, upper arm, and shoulder. Feel your whole left arm spacious and light. Now bring your awareness to your neck and your jaw. Allow your jaw to relax. Become aware of your cheeks, feeling the spaciousness— your cheeks, your eyes. Your eyelids, the space between your eyes, your forehead, softening the muscles on the top of your head, the back of your head. Now imagine all the atoms in your body making you spacious and light. Thoughts may pass by like clouds in the sky. Just let them pass. Like clouds. And wherever you are, it's perfectly fine. There is no right or wrong way to practice. Now I'm going to count back from 3 to 1. 3, start to notice the sounds in the room. 2, begin to move, feeling your body in the chair. 1, you may open your eyes. Ready for whatever the remainder of the day or evening holds for you.