S5 E3.1 (bonus): Five-minute relaxation session

Five-minute relaxation session

Series 5, episode 3.1 (bonus)

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Transcript

00:00:00 Dr Katy Munro
So we’re now going to do a five-minute relaxation session led by Ann, who has very kindly agreed to do this for us for the podcast, but do please make sure that you’re safe when you’re doing this and don’t listen to this if you’re driving or operating heavy machinery. So we’ll just do this for five minutes just to give people a taster of the sort of thing that they can expect.
00:00:23 Dr Ann Williamson
Thank you, Katy. OK, so I’d like to invite you to settle yourselves down. Keep your glasses on or take them off. Make sure your feet are firmly placed on the floor and your back is supported, and that your head is in a nice comfortable neutral position.
And then a good way to start is to look up at the top of your head. If you’ve got contact lenses then perhaps don’t do this, but if you look up at the top of your head and allow your eyes to close and then bring your eyes to a comfortable position. And just notice how comfortable your eyes can feel. Just resting gently on your eyes.
And then allow that comfort to spread into all the muscles of your head and neck and face. Allowing that comfort to flow into your shoulders, down your arms to your fingertips. And I don’t know whether you’ll experience this comfort as a nice, relaxed feeling, or maybe it’s a colour or a warmth. Just allow it to flow down the back, into your chest, into your tummy. Down your legs, all the way to your toes. Just letting any unnecessary tension drain out of your feet into the floor.
Then just begin to focus on your breathing. Not changing it in any way, just being with your breathing. Just notice the flow of air, in and out, and be aware of the rise and fall of your chest. Follow that breath in through your nose, through your mouth, and back out again. Breathing in calmness, breathing out any tension. I wonder what the colour of calmness would be for you. Just allowing yourself to breath in calmness, letting go on the out breath, to be just as comfortably relaxed as you want to be. Because you can be relaxed, you don’t have to be relaxed, you don’t have to do anything at all. This is a time for you just to be for a little while, instead of doing.
One of the nicest things to do is to find a place in the back of your mind, a special calm place. It could be real or could be imaginary, it could be inside or outside. Just allow your mind to find the perfect place for you. A place where you feel safe and comfortable and peaceful. This is your place, no-one can take it from you. Nothing goes on in this place that you do not control. And you can just spend a few moments to look around, notice the colours and shapes of the things around you. Notice any sounds. Notice any sense or smells. Maybe you reach out and touch things. But above all allow the peace and calmness of this place to flow into the very centre of your being, knowing that you can come back to this place whenever it’s right for you to do so.
Like any skill as you practise it gets easier and quicker to do. You learn to do this for yourself when it’s appropriate. And you can allow yourself in this special place of yours to connect with all the good feelings that you need, and if there’s anything that you want to get rid of, you can find a way to do that too. Maybe there’s a rubbish chute, or a bonfire. Because this is your place, where you can throw things away that you don’t need or don’t want anymore, where you can gather to yourself the thoughts and feelings that you do want, where you can be the person that you are becoming, that you want to become. And you can just allow yourself to enjoy those feelings of calmness, of peace, bringing back that sense of calm with you. So you just very gently, in your own time, bring yourself back into the here and now, becoming more aware of your surroundings, maybe moving your hands and feet a little, breathing in alertness, feeling refreshed, and opening your eyes on a breath that’s right for you.