This is a meditation on stress and pressure and it is to help you relieve pressure for clarity of mind.
So coming into whatever position you'll be taking for this practice,
Whether that's seated in a chair,
Lying down on a soft surface or even walking.
If you are sitting on a chair,
Shuffling to the front third of the seat so that the back is self-supported.
If that's comfortable for you,
You can also rest against the backrest if that's more comfortable.
Planting your feet on the floor in front of you with your toes facing forward and finding somewhere comfortable for your hands to rest.
And whatever position you're in,
We are aiming for a posture that embodies a sense of dignity and wakefulness,
Alertness,
But also balancing that with a sense of softness and openness,
Particularly down the front of the body.
Tracing attention from the base of the spine up the back of the body,
Feeling the spine lengthen as you go,
All the way up to the crown of the head,
The crown pointed towards the ceiling.
And checking in with the shoulders,
Making sure that they are relaxed,
Letting gravity take over so that the arms hang by the sides like heavy curtains.
And we'll begin by grounding our attention at the points of contact between the body and whatever's supporting us.
We're gently shifting attention down through the body until it comes to rest under the soles of the feet,
The back of the legs,
The bum,
Perhaps the back if you're leaning against the backrest.
And taking a few moments to just tune into those very basic sensations at the points of contact.
What can you sense here?
Pressure and weight moving down.
Perhaps a tingling or pulsing.
A sense of softness or hardness.
Warmth or cool.
Tuning into the sense of support from the surface beneath you.
A sense of stillness from the earth beneath you.
And the invitation now is to let your awareness grow larger,
To invite the rest of the body in.
Awareness filling the legs,
The lower body.
Awareness filling the torso,
Front,
Back and sides.
Interior of the belly and the chest area.
Inviting the shoulders,
Arms and hands in.
And last but not least,
The neck,
The face and the head.
Resting in this whole body awareness for a few moments.
You will encounter many different sensations during this practice.
Some pleasant,
Some unpleasant and some neutral.
It's important to remember that we're not trying to fix anything,
Make anything feel better.
Just noticing what's here.
Sense of the body breathing.
Expansion and energizing on the in-breath.
Contraction and letting go with each out-breath.
Whenever the mind wanders during this practice,
Just noting where it's gone.
And then returning attention to any of the anchors that we've been exploring.
Feet on the floor,
Bum on the chair.
Perhaps a sense of the body as a whole.
All the sensations of breath entering and leaving the body.
Our bodies and our breath are wonderful allies in the cultivation of mindfulness.
Because they're always here waiting.
It's not possible to breathe a past breath or a future breath.
Only this one.
Just going to check in with some of the tension hot spots in the body.
If you encounter any tightness,
Tension,
Discomfort at any of these hot spots,
Not to worry,
It's perfectly normal.
With each out-breath,
You can see if it's possible to soften those parts of the body a little bit.
Allow some of that tension to drop down into the surface that's supporting you.
And not being too concerned if some of it remains.
Let's start with the eyebrow ridge and the area around the eyes.
Then coming to the temples.
As tension here,
It's often related to disrupted sleep.
Moving to the jaws now.
Sensing what's here.
Softening to whatever degree possible.
And then coming to the temples.
Then letting go of the jaws,
Moving attention to the back of the neck and the area between the neck and the shoulders.
It's a part of the body where we hold a lot of unprocessed emotions.
It's also a part of the body that can get tense when we spend too much time on our devices or in front of our computers.
Just breathing into that part of the body,
And breathing out from that part of the body.
Letting go of that area between the neck and the shoulders,
And moving attention down to the chest.
Do you sense here the surface of the chest and deeper in?
And on the next out breath,
Letting go of the chest and moving down to the lower back,
The lumbar area.
Another part of the body that we can hold a lot of tension and tightness.
Just letting it be at rest right now.
You can stay with the lumbar or you can return to any of the hot spots that we've already visited.
Or you can scan the body for other areas of tightness,
Gripping,
Holding on.
Breathing into those parts of the body and breathing out from those areas of the body.
Softening as you go to whatever degree possible.
Mind wanders and we simply bring it back.
And as we bring this practice to a close,
Returning to a sense of the body as a whole.
Remaining here until you hear the sound of the bells.
