A fear and kindness body scan.
The guidance on this meditation assumes that you're lying down,
But if you prefer to listen to it while sitting,
That works just as well.
Just adapt the guidance to fit with whatever position you're in.
Come in to settle the whole body,
Giving it up to gravity.
Just allow the whole body to be held and supported,
Letting go just for these few minutes.
Letting go of the shoulders,
Letting the arms relax at the side of the body.
If your legs are straight out in front of you,
Let them roll out.
It's not comfortable to have your legs straight,
Then bend your legs,
Put something beneath your knees,
Just making sure that your back is comfortable as it can be.
Bringing your attention to the breath in the whole of the body as you lie here,
The whole body expanding and subsiding.
You're going to be focusing closely on different parts of the body,
Just being aware of the sensations you find,
Or maybe the absence of sensations,
Numbness,
But throughout just allowing yourself to be rocked and massaged by the breath.
Gathering up all of your attention,
All of your awareness,
And can you take it all the way down to your toes,
All of your toes,
Even inside your toes.
What sensations can you feel in your toes?
Let your awareness now flow into the whole of the feet,
The tops,
Soles of the feet,
The heels,
Flowing up into the ankles,
Allowing your ankles and your feet to be bathed in breathing.
Imagining you can send the breath all the way down to your feet and your ankles.
And can you imbue that awareness and that breath with a sense of care and kindness towards yourself?
And looking after yourself.
And let your awareness flow up into the lower legs and the knees and the upper legs,
Whole of your legs,
Just allowing all of your legs to rest fully on the surface that you're lying on,
Letting go,
Resting in gravity,
Imagining the breath flowing all the way down,
All the way down your legs.
Coming up now to the hips and the pelvis,
Your legs fall away and soften,
The whole of the pelvis,
Round to the buttocks and the bottom,
Coming up to the lower back.
Can you allow your lower back to be fully supported,
Fully held by the floor?
You don't need to hold on.
And let your back be massaged and supported by the breath.
Letting your awareness pour up now through the middle of the back,
Sides of the back,
Up to the shoulder blades,
Whole of the length of the spine,
Backs of the ribs,
The lungs deep inside the ribs,
Shoulder blades,
From the surface of the skin and deep inside the body,
The whole of the back,
Gently and subtly expanding on the in-breath and subsiding on the out-breath.
Can you allow that breath to be saturated with a quality of care and kindness,
Filling the whole of the back of your body?
And whatever you're feeling,
Whether it's pleasant,
Unpleasant,
Neutral,
Happy or difficult,
Just meeting whatever it is with kindness and tenderness and a warmth towards yourself.
And guide your awareness now round to the front of the body and the whole of the abdomen,
Whole of the soft front of the body from the bottom of the ribs right the way down to the pelvis,
Swelling on the in-breath,
Subsiding on the out.
Imagining that all of the organs within are being massaged with this breathing.
Coming up to the ribs and the chest,
The upper chest,
Heart and the lungs within.
Breathing in warmth and kindness,
Breathing out warmth and kindness.
Allowing the breath to be natural,
Not trying to breathe in a certain way.
Just allowing it to breathe itself moment by moment and breath by breath.
Allow your awareness now to flow into the shoulders,
Tops of the shoulders.
Flowing into the shoulders.
All the way down the arms now.
Let your arms fall away a little bit more.
Rest back.
Let your arms rest on the surface that they're lying on.
Resting in gravity.
Flowing down the arms into the wrists and the hands.
All of the fingers and the thumbs.
All of your arms.
Flowing back up the arms now through the shoulders,
Across the collarbones and into the base of the throat and the front of the neck.
Allowing them to soften and give the weight of your head up even more.
Allowing that neck to soften as your awareness flows up into the base of the skull and the back of the head.
Filling it with a kindly,
Gentle breath.
The sides of the head,
The top of the head.
Flowing into the whole of the face.
The whole of the face lying here.
Bathing the whole face in awareness.
You let your face and your throat be soft so the breath can pour in and out,
Free of all restriction.
Can you slightly loosen your jaw?
Broadening your attention now to include the head and the face,
The neck,
Shoulders and arms,
Whole of the torso,
The hips and the legs and the feet.
Whole body lying here,
Bathed in breath.
Can you saturate that breath with kindness and tenderness and care towards yourself?
Whole body expanding on the in breath,
Subsiding on the out.
The whole body,
Every cell in the body,
Echoing this rhythm and flow and softness.
And bringing the meditation to a close now.
Letting go of the focus.
Letting go of any effort.
It's lying here.
Before you move,
Just allowing the effects to be absorbed into the whole of the body.
See if you can take this quality of care and tenderness towards all of your experience,
All of your body.
Just taking some of that at least,
Taking that with you.
And taking your time to come out of the meditation.
Letting go of the focus.
