Pausing for a moment,
Checking out what would be most kind to your body right now.
This body of yours perhaps sitting on a chair with the feet flat on the floor or on a meditation stool or cushion or lying flat on the floor,
Making that kind choice of posture and noticing sound now as this sensory doorway into the present moment.
You have a warm interest,
A curiosity about what's here.
Can you hear in this moment?
No need to go out searching for sounds,
Just receiving them,
Opening awareness to the physical body now,
Perhaps even moving parts of you a little,
Noticing the awareness shifting from part to part and if there is any unease or unpleasant sensations,
Trusting you know your way into shifting a bit,
Having a compassionate response.
And if there's parts of your body that have a bit of ease at the moment,
Can you have a little smile of appreciation for that?
Sense of leaning into what is here right now,
Both the unpleasant and the pleasant and when you're ready,
Noticing the felt sense of the imprint of your body thanks to gravity,
Perhaps the soles of the feet,
Heavy on the floor,
The weight of your buttocks or your back,
Perhaps the back of your head,
Allowing this sense of the effect of gravity on the body to be a kind of anchor,
A way of bringing in a sense of groundedness,
Perhaps even a little steadiness here in this body of yours,
Taking some time now to expand your awareness to the whole body,
Really feeling into the sense of the space that your body takes up in the room,
The height,
The depth,
The breadth,
The substance of this human being sitting or lying here in this moment of time.
And perhaps now giving yourself some physical gesture of really kind,
Gentle touch,
Maybe one or both of your caring hands on your heart,
Or maybe somewhere different,
Maybe you want to try a few places,
And then letting the hands come to rest,
Noticing noticing,
Being aware of this point of touch,
This moment of tenderness from you to you.
And you may notice that this body has been breathing on its own,
No instruction through this whole meditation.
So without needing to change or control the breath in any way,
Can you gently incline your kind awareness to the breath,
Perhaps noticing the breath in one part of your body,
Or perhaps feeling the rhythm of the whole body gently rocking subtly,
Resting resting into feeling how the body is breathing you.
So now that we've touched in on a sense of groundedness,
Feeling into the substance of your body,
Connecting with the quality of supportive touch,
And connecting with the rhythm of your body breathing,
Shifting your awareness now for a short short time to your face,
Perhaps noticing tightness or softness.
Maybe with a little bit of playfulness you might use your fingers to gently massage out any tension,
Or rest a hand somewhere on your forehead or your cheeks,
Or maybe even experiment with a little smile in the corners of your lips,
A really friendly kind smile.
Moving the awareness now down to the area of the heart,
Again you may like to place a hand on your heart,
Just gently noticing any sensations,
Maybe the actual heart beating,
Maybe sensations within the heart space,
Perhaps that smile on the lips could even move down into the heart,
Noticing any effect of that.
Moving your awareness now down to your belly,
Again you might like to place a hand or two on the belly,
Perhaps even offering a sense of gently holding the belly,
Imagining a kind of softening and melting.
Nothing to do here,
Belly doesn't need to be tight,
Giving it some gentle permission to soften a bit,
Perhaps noticing the breathing in the belly.
And as the meditation comes to an end,
Just asking yourself in a warm and gentle friendly tone,
Just dropping the question into your system,
No need to go to your head to answer.
How am I?
What is here?
And with whatever answer does or doesn't bubble up,
Can you validate that in the same gentle way?
Perhaps reassure yourself that you'll do your best to continue to bring this beautiful care and support to yourself as you go about the rest of your day.
