Body Sweep

Whole body awareness is an important step in becoming embodied & truly present in your life. This talk & meditation guides you down through your body, from the crown of your head to the tips of your toes, and then into awareness of your body as a whole .

Transcript

To be able to feel grounded,

To be able to feel calm no matter what is happening in our lives,

It's really helpful to be able to be really present in our bodies.

Our bodies can be a place of real resource for us and also the place where we feel the vibrancy of our lives.

A good way to start to get in touch with our bodies is with a body sweep.

Here we will go from the top of our heads and work slowly down through our body bit by bit until we reach the feet and the ground of our being.

We will then bring awareness up through the body again into feelings and sensations within the whole body.

It's important to remember to relax and as you work through each part of your body really feel into your body,

Into the muscles,

The joints,

The bones,

The vitality within there.

Really allow your body to deeply relax and let go bit by bit.

Allow whatever feelings or sensations you feel to just be as they are without judgment,

Without creating stories around them,

Without trying to push them away.

Give it space,

Let it be as it is,

Quiet present awareness.

I'll guide you through each step.

So before we start,

Find yourself a comfortable place to rest.

It can be sitting on a meditation cushion or a chair or you might be lying down.

As long as you're relaxed and have a quiet enough place to be.

Once you're comfortable,

Let's start by bringing awareness to your breath.

Awareness of your breath coming in and out of your lungs,

Of the expansion and contraction of your ribs.

Really feel the quality of the breath within your body and whatever you notice,

Just let it be as it is and really allow yourself to deeply relax.

Don't try to force it to stay there or don't worry if it drifts.

Just allow everything to be as it is and relax.

Now bring your awareness to the very top of your head,

The crown of your head.

See if you can notice any sensations or feelings there.

Maybe you feel tingling,

Maybe you don't feel anything at all.

It doesn't really matter.

What we're wanting to do is just notice what is there and allow it to be as it is.

From the crown of your head,

Bring your awareness down to your forehead.

See if you can relax the muscles in your forehead and really open to sensation and feeling there.

Can you feel any sensations in your eyes?

The muscles behind your eyes?

And then roll your awareness down through your cheeks to your chin.

At any point if you're distracted in thought,

Just notice that you're distracted,

Let it go and then gently bring your awareness back to feelings and sensations within your body.

Can you feel sensations within your nose?

Your lips?

Within your ears and behind your ears?

Can you feel your face as a whole,

Relaxing the muscles as you do that?

If you need to connect to a part of your body,

It can be good to squeeze muscles and then release them.

If you want to try that now,

Really squeeze your whole face together.

Really squeeze it all together for about five or so seconds and then let it go,

Let it relax and notice what you feel.

Take your awareness through to the back of your head and feel any sensations or feelings there.

Then bring your awareness down to the back of your neck and then through your neck to the front of your neck and allow it all to relax.

If you feel yourself trying too hard,

Remember to have compassion for yourself.

Just let the struggle go and come back to the breath and back to what you're feeling in your body.

From your neck,

Take your awareness down into your shoulders,

Deep into the shoulders,

The muscles,

The joints,

The muscles,

The bones and really feel them relax as you do that.

If you notice any tension in your shoulders,

Just soften around it and let it relax.

To help you connect to within your shoulders,

You can lift your shoulders right up to your ears,

Squeeze as hard as you can,

Then drop them back down and really relax and notice what you feel.

From your left shoulder,

Take your awareness slowly down through your left arm,

Feeling through the inside of your arm and maybe the temperature of the air against your skin,

The feeling of your clothes.

All the way down your arm until you reach your hand and then the tips of your fingers.

Remember to relax and whatever you feel,

Just let it be as it is.

No need to create stories around it.

Take your awareness back up to your right shoulder and work your way slowly down through your right arm,

Feeling sensations on the outside of the arm,

But also really feeling through from the inside of your arm.

Moving slowly down the arm to your hand and the tips of your fingers.

Now from your shoulders again,

Move your awareness down through the back of your body.

Feel your shoulder blades relax down,

Moving down the length of your spine,

The feelings of your back muscles,

Your lower back,

Your pelvis,

The feeling of your bottom against the ground and allow all muscles and joints and ligaments to relax as you do that.

Then from the shoulders again,

Take your awareness slowly down through the front of your body,

Sensations and feelings in your chest,

In your lungs,

Your stomach,

All the way down to the root of your body.

Maybe the sensations of the seat pushing up from below you and really let your whole torso relax down into the ground supporting you.

If you get distracted,

Don't worry,

Just bring your awareness back to your breath and then back into your body and feel your body relax and melt down into the ground again.

Put your awareness now into your left leg.

Let your awareness work slowly down through your leg your bottom,

Your quads,

Your hamstrings,

Your knee,

Down to your shins,

Your calves,

Your feet,

Right to the tips of your toes.

If you need to connect to a part of your leg,

Again you can squeeze your muscle and then as you let it go,

Let it relax and notice any sensations and feelings within it.

Move your awareness gently to your right leg and work your way down through your bottom,

Your quads and hamstrings,

Your knee,

Your calves and shins,

Your foot,

Right to the tips of your toes.

Whatever you feel,

Just let it be as it is and relax.

Now we're going to take our awareness up through the body again and into the body as a whole.

Bring your awareness up through the body kind of like a sponge slowly soaking in water.

So see if you can become aware of your feet and both legs and slowly work your way up through to your bottom.

See if you can have a sensation of your legs as a whole holding you nicely into the ground and supporting your whole body.

Bring your awareness up into the trunk of your body,

Becoming aware of any sensations and feelings within your trunk,

Relaxing as you do that.

If you feel yourself trying too hard,

Just notice that,

Come back to the breath and back to feelings and sensations within your body.

If it helps,

You can take some of your awareness to the ground of your being and really allow yourself to settle into that ground.

Allow your awareness now to expand to the rest of your body,

Now to your arms,

To your neck,

Right up to the crown of your head and then as you relax,

See if you can open to sensation and feeling within your whole body.

If you feel any pain in your body,

Try not to push it away,

Hold it with a sense of compassion,

Soften around it and notice if you can let it relax.

Come back to your breath,

Back into feelings and sensations within your body as a whole,

Relaxing deeply into the ground.

I'll give you a bit of space now to really relax into it and get a sense of what you feel,

Quiet,

Open,

Spacious awareness of your body as a whole.

You might notice that when your mind drifts off in thought,

There will also be some sort of holding or contraction within your body.

If you notice this,

As you gently bring your awareness back to your breath,

Feel those parts holding or contracted soften and melt back down into the ground.

As we finish off,

I'd like to note that truly getting in touch with your body can sometimes take a little while.

Everyone is different but one thing I know is that if you practice,

One day you might notice,

Oh I can feel my feet from the inside and then gradually you'll notice that you can feel your whole body from the inside out.

This is an incredible gateway to another kind of consciousness that can become really alive in your life and help you to more easily live with any suffering and start to really get to know yourself and love yourself.

Of course,

You can then be of benefit in the world,

Sharing the love with others.

Remember to go at your own pace,

Feel compassion for yourself,

Enjoy it and trust the process.

Once we are able to rest within our bodies as a whole,

It then allows us to be able to open to the experience of our subtle bodies,

Our energy bodies.

Our energy body is where the vibrancy of life happens,

Where feelings and emotions get liberated,

Where love and compassion is felt.

If you'd like to learn more about this,

You're welcome to join my course,

Journey of Self Discovery and Self Healing,

Where I guide you and support you step by step on this process.

Reviews

I was never a big fan of body scans, this one is different. It is helping me get a better understanding of whole body and inside-out awareness. Also helping me ‘be with’ my chronic pain instead of pushing away.