Please come to a comfortable,
Supported position,
Either sitting or lying down.
Take a moment to make any adjustments needed so you can rest and give your full attention to this practice.
The intention of this guided experience is to nourish your autonomic nervous system and stress response.
Your body contains an intelligence that is always seeking out your highest good and healing.
Your body has an innate ability to heal itself from within.
The process of nervous system or self-regulation is the process of primordial wisdom rising to the surface.
Thoughts and emotions,
Which are always present,
Can play the role of trickster.
They are more complicated and chaotic than the simple and direct sensations given off by your body.
For now,
Let the thoughts and emotions that are here with you float around the room untethered.
They are there,
But they are not your focus.
Rather,
It is your physical body and the ever-present sensations that are most important for this work.
Your body is constantly trying to communicate with you through sensations.
Without words,
Without judgments,
Or without the attempt to change anything,
You will now travel into your body and simply listen to what is there.
Begin to notice your physical body and the position you are in.
Feel the sensation of gravity.
Notice all the places where your body makes contact with itself.
Maybe your hands are resting on your torso or the thighs.
Maybe your legs are crossed with each other.
Notice all the meeting points between your body and the support beneath it.
Let your awareness move around your body,
Feeling each point of contact with the surface below.
Feel your body breathing.
Notice the ever-present breath moving in and out.
The spontaneous breath always flowing,
Not needing your input.
And the breath that comes when we direct it with effort.
Now bring your awareness to the top of your head to begin a full body scan.
Become an internal explorer,
Observing your body.
Observing and taking inventory.
Let thoughts and emotions go.
No words,
No judgment,
No stories.
Just awareness of physical sensation.
Notice the head and face and any sensations present there.
Explore sensation in the throat,
The neck and shoulders.
Feeling into the chest,
The abdomen,
The hips,
And all four limbs.
Now go to the place in your body with the loudest and most obvious sensation.
Bring your awareness to this place.
We will call it the target sensation.
Begin to notice things about this sensation.
Is it more on the right side of the body or the left side of the body?
Is the sensation on the surface of the body or deep inside?
Does it have a temperature or color?
Does the sensation move in any way?
Now begin to trace the boundary of this sensation area.
How high does it go?
How low down does it go?
And how far off to the sides does it go?
Without trying to change it,
Simply noticing the quality of this sensation.
Now bring your awareness to your hands.
Shift your focus and bring your attention to both hands.
And then the left hand.
Focus your awareness on your left hand and begin to make tiny little movements with the palm and fingers.
Noticing every detail.
Feel the wrinkles in your palm.
The space between the fingers.
Then begin to slowly rub the thumb across the other fingers.
Feeling the texture of each finger pad.
Still any movement with your left hand.
And now begin to trace the outline of your hand with your awareness.
Imagine you have a crayon.
And that crayon is running from the base of the thumb up to the tip of the thumb.
Down the inside and up the first finger.
Slowly tracing each finger moving down and up and down again.
To the outside edge of the palm.
And around to the base of the hand.
Shift back to the location of the original target sensation.
And notice what it is like there now.
Is it the same?
Has anything about it changed?
Maybe it has dissipated and another part of your body is lighting up.
Repeating what we did before,
Notice this target sensation and where it is located in the body.
To the left,
To the right,
Or in the middle.
What is its current intensity,
Color,
Or temperature?
Is this sensation moving in any way?
Is it still?
Again,
Trace the boundary of the sensation with your awareness.
Notice the upper and lower and outer edges of the sensation.
You are not trying to change anything or make anything happen.
Simply listen to the sensation and notice all the various qualities about it.
Let go of thoughts and emotions.
Let go of seeking out a meaning.
It is time once again to shift your awareness.
Move your attention down into your feet.
Feel your feet.
Focusing your attention even more,
Tune into the left foot.
Feel the left foot and begin to make tiny little movements with the toes.
And the foot.
Spread the toes.
Feel the space in between them.
Then gently begin to rub the toes against one another,
Feeling their texture.
Noticing every detail.
Pressing the outer edge of the foot into the surface beneath it.
Pressing into the heel,
The inside arch.
Explore your left foot.
Now still any movement.
And begin to trace the outline of the foot with your awareness.
Imagine a crayon.
And that crayon running from the inside of the heel up to the big toe,
To the tip of the big toe,
Down and up the second toe.
Tracing each toe down and up and down again to the outside edge of the foot,
Down around to the heel.
One last shift of awareness.
Become aware of the whole body.
Scan the body from top to bottom.
And notice what calls for your attention now.
It may be similar or different than before.
Simply notice the physical sensations present in this moment.
Body low,
Slow loop practice is now complete.
Beep.
