In this meditation,
We will be doing a body scan,
So getting yourself prepared as you would like,
Either lying down on the floor,
Or a bed,
Or sitting somewhere that you'll have some space to follow the meditation.
And just noticing what's going on around you in the space that you're in.
Perhaps there's noises from other parts of the building or outside.
Perhaps you notice that something needs adjusting in some way,
A cushion or a blanket.
Just allowing yourself to come into the space that you're in with all your attention,
Picking up more and more details of what's happening,
How you're feeling,
Letting the things that you were doing before or the things that you have to do after just fade,
Having the intention to be as fully present as you're able to right now,
And taking your attention down to your feet and allowing your feet to come into focus,
As it were.
Noticing their shape and size,
Noticing what they're in contact with,
If they feel warm or cool,
And then feeling your feet from the inside,
Noticing what sensations are here,
And then bringing your attention to your ankles,
Feeling the bones here,
And noticing if there's differences in the front or the back or the sides of your ankles,
Any area of the body that we don't really pay much attention to,
Unless there is a problem.
How do your ankles feel right now?
Bringing your attention now to the lower half of your legs,
Calf muscles,
Bones,
Feeling the difference in texture,
The different parts of your legs here,
And your knees,
Coming up to your knees now.
All the little bones here,
Perhaps even being aware of space between the bones.
Once again,
Exploring the front and back and sides of this part of the body.
Are there differences?
Softness or tightness?
How does the skin feel?
And the top half of your legs,
The thigh muscles,
The large bones here can be quite difficult to sense.
Noticing what your thighs and bones here are in contact with.
Is there tingling or movement somewhere here that you can sense?
And with the next out breath,
Just letting the legs fade from your mind's eye,
Coming to your sit bones,
Your buttocks,
Your pubic bone,
And just taking the time to explore how this part of the body feels right now.
And perhaps it's difficult to kind of get a sense of some parts of the body,
And we just simply notice that too.
Something that's not quite tangible to us right now.
Expanding our awareness to feel our hip bones,
This lower triangular base of the torso,
The organs within.
Is it possible to take our attention to the inside here and just notice how things feel?
Coming up to your belly button,
Stomach area,
The lower back.
Perhaps we notice a tightness here,
A holding on,
The arch of the lower back.
Perhaps there's movement here,
Bringing your attention a bit further up to the waist,
The solar plexus area just underneath the ribcage,
The middle of your back.
Perhaps sensing the spine here and the ribcage itself at the front and the back,
The chest.
Perhaps we become aware of the lungs,
The heart,
As they do their jobs.
Working away with no effort from us.
The body just doing its thing as we just simply pay attention to it happening.
And with the next breath out,
Letting the torso fade from your mind's eye,
Bringing your attention now to your shoulders,
An area of the body that can store a lot of stress for us.
It can feel quite tight.
And having an open mind as to how your shoulders might feel right now.
Feeling into the front and the back,
The tops of your shoulders.
Noticing if there's some movement or space somewhere.
If everything feels quite solid.
And then allowing your attention to focus on the arms.
Taking your time to explore the different parts of your arms on both sides of the body.
The muscles and bones here.
The elbows and wrists.
We may notice some pulsing,
Some softness,
Some tension.
And then taking your attention down to your hands.
Both the left and the right hand.
Noticing how the hands feel.
Perhaps there's warmth or coolness on the skin.
Perhaps there's an aliveness.
Some sensations that feel energetic in some way.
Perhaps the hands just feel quite relaxed and heavy.
Just noticing,
No need to analyse or judge in any way what we find.
This is how your hands feel right now.
And with the next out breath,
Letting this part of the body fade from your mind's eye.
And bringing your attention now to your neck and your throat.
Feeling the throat from the inside.
Perhaps there's moisture or dryness.
Perhaps we notice some tension here or some energy.
And taking your time to explore the back and the sides and the front of your neck.
And coming up to the jaw.
Another area of the body that can store tension for us.
And perhaps just parting your lips slightly.
Noticing if that changes anything.
And feeling the inside of your mouth.
Being aware of your tongue,
Your teeth,
Gums.
And the space within the mouth.
And your lips.
Can you feel the air in the room?
On your lips right now.
Your cheeks and cheekbones.
And your nose.
Perhaps feeling the air as it enters through the nostrils as you breathe in.
The bone down the front of your nose.
And then coming to your eyes.
Your eyelids.
If your eyes are closed,
Is there lightness to the eyelids?
Or tightness or tension?
Perhaps noticing the eyebrows the same.
Is there tension there?
Are they just resting?
And the space between your eyes.
What sensations are here?
And your forehead.
And your ears.
And perhaps the left and right side of your head.
Can you sense into how your ears feel right now?
And then expanding your awareness to the whole of your head.
Noticing if it feels heavy or light.
Perhaps there's some stillness.
And with the next out breath,
Having a sense of the whole of your body sitting or lying here.
Your head,
Shoulders,
Arms,
Your torso,
Legs and feet.
Simply noticing how the whole of your body feels.
Letting go of any desire or urge to do anything more than that.
This is how your body feels right now.
Just being with that.
Perhaps having a sense of the movement the breath makes.
The stillness you may find in other parts of the body.
And when you're ready in your own time,
Starting to bring some movement to your fingers and toes.
Listening to the body and how it feels it wants to move right now.
Perhaps stretching.
And if your eyes are closed,
Just allowing them to open in their own time.
Noticing how this feels as they adjust to the space that you're in once again.
And bringing your practice to a close.
