Today, we're going to focus on calming the tension in our bodies, which is a very common by-product of experiencing anxiety. So let's get started with the meditation. If you haven't already, you can find a comfortable posture, sitting or lying down. And you can invite your eyes to close, if that feels okay for you. We'll begin by settling our attention with the bells.

Taking a deep breath together. In through the nose. And slowly out through the mouth. Inviting the jaw to soften and relax. Letting the shoulders be at ease.

And letting the belly be calm and soft. Eventually allow the breath to come back to its natural rhythm. And remind yourself that in this moment, there's no place else you need to be, nothing else you need to do, nothing you need to solve or accomplish. And see if you can feel some of the ease that comes with that acknowledgement, that you don't actually have to do anything right now or become any better version of yourself. For me, I noticed an immediate settling in, in my body.

So just check in with your body for a moment. And you can do a mental body scan where you feel your body from your feet. And then over the course of about 10 seconds, just scan up to the top of the head. We'll do it together. So feeling the sensations in the feet.

The calves, shins. Knees. Thighs. Pelvis. Torso, belly, chest, back.

The arms. And then the head, neck, shoulders. We're kind of just touching each of those areas with our awareness and sensing, is there anywhere in particular that we're holding some excess tension? And so find one area of the body that feels particularly tense. You might imagine it almost like ice, hard and rigid. And on our next inhale, we're going to feel as though we're breathing in warm air into that tension.

Breathing in nice warm air. So breathing in. And as you do, feeling that ice melt just a little bit. As you take an exhale, feeling the ice soften, turning a little bit more liquid. Breathing in again, into that ice at tension.

Filling it with warmth, melting that ice just a bit and exhale. Relaxing a little more deeply. One more breath into that area. Breathing in. Hold it for a moment.

Three, two, one. And then exhale. Letting it soften and just melt away. Just breathing a couple moments, feeling the body be at ease. To close our meditation, I'll ring the bells.

Bring your full awareness to the sound of the bell. So well done. That breathing exercise into the body that we did is something that you can do with many different body parts. So as you move throughout the day and you notice yourself accumulating this tension, just feel as though you're breathing warm air into that region of the body, softening and melting any tension that might've accumulated. Try this out and take care.