Headspace 365

Hi, and welcome to day one of Take 10. Over the next 10 days, I'm going to be showing you how to get a little bit more headspace in your life. But the starting point is just to get familiar with this really simple and easy to learn exercise, and then just commit to doing it each day. Remember, this is your 10 minutes. So all you have to do is sit back, relax, and allow your body and mind to unwind. To begin with, once you're sitting comfortably, I'd like you just to gently close your eyes. Begin by taking a few deep breaths, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. As you breathe in through the nose, I'd like you to focus on your chest expanding, lungs filling with air. And as you breathe out, noticing how the body softens each time, how it lets go of any tension as the body exhales. Just do that two or three times, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. You can then just allow the breath to return to its natural rhythm, in and out through the nose. Now, in closing the eyes, you'll probably become a lot more aware of your other physical senses. To begin with, I'd just like you to focus your attention on the sensation of touch. And in particular, the feeling of the body pressing down on the chair beneath you. Just notice whether the weight falls evenly down through the middle of the body, or whether it's perhaps leaning a little more to the left or to the right. In the same way, I'd like you to notice the sensation of the soles of the feet on the floor, noticing where the point of contact is strongest, whether it's on the heel, the toe, the inside or the outside of the foot. And in the same way, just noticing the weight of the hands and the arms just resting in the lap or on your legs. I'd also like you to notice any sounds. Very often, sounds are seen as an obstacle, something that gets in the way of a quiet mind. But in this exercise, we're going to make use of those sounds. So take 10 or 20 seconds just to notice all the different little sounds around you, no matter how pleasant or how unpleasant you find them. And then just gently bringing the attention back to the body. Notice how your body feels as you sit there. Normally, we're so busy doing things, thinking about things, not really aware of how the body feels. Just to help you do this, what I'd like you to do, starting at the top of the head, take about 20 seconds or so just to mentally scan down through the body, noticing which parts of the body feel relaxed, comfortable, and at ease, and which parts of the body feel perhaps a little tense or tight in some way....