For our body scan meditation today,
I invite you to find a spot lying down on the floor.
And of course,
If that's not available for you,
Then you're always welcome to find a different position.
And if you're lying down on the floor,
You might lie down on a yoga mat or maybe a blanket or even a bed,
But just be mindful of your tendency to fall asleep.
And if you think that you might fall asleep during this body scan,
Then I encourage you to place your lower legs up on a chair so that your legs are bent at the knees,
Your calves are resting against the chair,
And this can just help you stay alert and awake during the meditation.
And your arms can be along your sides with your palms facing up.
And just take these first few moments to settle.
Maybe you invite a few deep breaths into the body,
Just giving yourself a moment to arrive here in this space to your meditation,
And letting anything that's happened today settle.
Tune into all the areas of your body that are in contact with the floor,
Just scanning through your upper body and your lower body,
Tuning into all the places where you feel pressure between the floor and your body and feeling supported.
And take a moment to take stock of the state of your mind,
The state of your body in this moment.
Maybe the mind is busy,
Agitated,
Maybe it's calm.
Maybe your body feels relaxed or maybe it feels tight and a little restless.
And just noticing,
Not needing to change anything,
But unlike how we often react in our lives,
Just allowing it to be.
Begin to bring your awareness to the natural flow of your breath,
Noticing the gentle rise of your belly as you inhale,
And the gentle contraction of your belly as you exhale.
Just noticing this natural,
Gentle flow of the breath.
And if the mind wanders,
Which is very normal in meditation,
Just take a moment to kindly bring your attention back to the breath.
And now bring your awareness to the crown of your head,
Letting your awareness spread from the crown of the head through the scalp,
Tuning into any sensations of tingling,
Pulsating,
Warmth or coolness.
Maybe you don't feel much of anything.
Maybe it feels numb and that is totally fine as well.
Just noticing.
And let your awareness spread into the forehead and the eyebrows and the space between your eyebrows,
And noticing your eyes,
Both your eyelids and your eye sockets,
And the space,
The skin around your eyes.
And sensing the crease where your eyelids close,
And then let this awareness spread into your cheeks and your temples,
Your nose,
The tip of your nose,
And into your lips and your mouth,
Your jaw,
Letting there be a softness in your jaw,
And inviting the tongue to relax all the way down to its root,
And tuning into sensations in the mouth,
In the gums,
In the tongue,
Maybe even sensing into the teeth and the lips and the area where the lips part.
And now spreading your awareness into the throat and the neck,
Sensing both the skin of your neck and the inside of your throat where air passes in and out.
And just notice the back of your neck and the space between the back of your neck and the floor,
And then invite your awareness to spread into your shoulders and your collarbones,
And taking a moment to notice any sensations here,
Noticing if there's any tightness or tension in the shoulders,
And if so,
See if you can allow there to be space around the tension.
In the same way that a vast blue sky creates space around a single cloud,
You might imagine space in your body as holding tension in the same way,
And letting your shoulders soften down into the floor and melting with the force of gravity.
And now moving your awareness down the upper arms and into the elbows and the creases of the arms and the lower arms,
The wrists,
The hands,
And letting the hands rest in an easeful and effortless way.
Notice any sensations here of tingling or vibrating,
Warmth or coolness,
And sensing each individual finger,
Seeing if you can sense into the really delicate touch of air as it brushes along the palms.
And now bring your attention back into the chest,
Into the breasts and the ribcage,
The lungs,
And again,
Just noticing what you can sense here,
If there's any tightness or tension,
See if you can bring that same sense of a vast blue sky holding space around a cloud.
Just allowing this tension to be here,
But to feel held in spacious awareness,
And sensing into the beating of your own heart,
The expansion and contraction of your lungs as they inflate and deflate with oxygen,
And then sensing into your diaphragm,
The area just below the ribcage,
And down into your abdomen,
Letting the awareness fill this area of the torso.
So again,
Noticing the gentle movement of the belly as air fills and leaves the body,
Noticing the lower back and the arc of the lower back,
Sensing into the space between the lower back and the earth.
Now letting your awareness rise along the spine,
Moving through the mid-back and the upper back,
And then again,
Still moving along the spine,
Slowly moving down back through the mid-back and the low back,
Just sensing any sensations here in the back,
And tuning into the pressure between your back and the earth,
Feeling supported.
And now let your awareness spread into the hips and the pelvic region,
Sensing the area of digestion,
Maybe feeling some movement in the digestive area in this moment.
Noticing again the pressure of the earth against your bottom,
Sensing into the genitals,
And then let your awareness spread into the tops of the thighs and the backs of the thighs,
The hamstrings,
And into the knees,
The kneecaps,
The sides of the knees,
And the backs of the knees where the legs crease.
And then bringing your awareness down into the lower legs,
Tuning into the calf muscles and the hamstrings,
Noticing the points where your lower legs meet the floor,
And then letting your awareness spread into the ankles,
The heels,
Into the tops of the feet,
The arches,
The bottoms of the feet,
And then into the toes.
And now sensing the feet as a whole,
Noticing any tingling or vibrating,
Coolness or warmth,
And then noticing if you don't feel anything at all,
And letting that be okay.
And now let your awareness spread into the whole of the body,
Letting your awareness rise up into the lower legs and the upper legs,
The torso,
The pelvis,
Arms,
Chest,
Neck,
And head.
And sensing the entire vibrational field of your body,
Feeling it lying here on the earth,
Supported,
Relaxed.
Maybe noticing the sensations of your clothes against your body,
Tuning into the weight of your clothes against your body,
And the fabric,
And being aware of the amazing intelligence of your entire bodily system,
How your heart pumps blood through your entire system,
And how the breath moves in and out of the body on its own.
And now letting your awareness rest with the breath,
Being with the belly as the breath comes in,
And as the breath leaves the body.
And as you continue to rest your awareness with the breath,
I would like to offer a poem by Mary Oliver called I Have Decided.
I have decided to find myself a home in the mountains,
Somewhere high up where one learns to live peacefully in the cold and the silence.
It's said that in such a place certain revelations may be discovered,
That what the spirit reaches for may be eventually felt,
If not exactly understood.
Slowly,
No doubt.
I'm not talking about a vacation.
Of course,
At the same time,
I mean to stay exactly where I am.
And letting your inhales and exhales become a little longer.
Bringing your awareness into the space around you.
Noticing sounds in the room,
Or sounds outside the room.
And then bringing a little bit of movement into the body,
Moving your fingers,
Your toes,
Rolling your wrists and ankles.
And then take a big stretch with your arms over your head.
And on an exhale,
Just let everything fall back down to the floor.
And then on your own time and at your own pace,
Just slowly bring yourself back into a seated position and back into the rest of the day.
And seeing if you can continue to move through the day with this sense of embodiment and groundedness.
