This is Cedar of Cedar Sacred Well with a short body scan somatic meditation.
Start by sitting or laying somewhere comfortable and just notice the surface beneath you.
Notice the points of connection.
Notice the gravity and the support holding you up.
Just continue to focus on these sensations as I briefly explain the meditation we're about to do.
The intention of this body scan meditation is to bring our awareness to different parts of the body with a sense of welcoming curiosity.
As we move through different parts of the body you will find sensations that are neutral,
Pleasant,
And unpleasant.
If at any point the sensations are too unpleasant or too intense to maintain that sense of welcoming curiosity you can always return to an awareness of the surface beneath you,
The sense of gravity,
And the sense of support.
This welcoming curiosity to the sensations of our body whether they are pleasant,
Unpleasant,
Or neutral is incredibly healing to the brain and to the nervous system.
So let's begin.
Start by focusing on the very top of your head,
The very highest point of your skull.
Just bringing your awareness there and then allowing your awareness to melt over the top of your skull down towards your ears.
Noticing the sensations in your ears,
The back of your head,
And your forehead.
And then allowing that awareness to fill the space of the eyes,
Allowing the eyes to gently float as the awareness drifts down to the nose and to the cheeks.
And then bringing awareness to the inside of the mouth,
Perhaps allowing the tongue to drop to the bottom palate.
Noticing the sensations of the jaw.
If the jaw is tight or clenched,
You might invite it to relax with a sense of welcoming curiosity.
Bringing the awareness now to the neck,
The throat,
All sides of the neck,
And then into the shoulders.
Feeling the tops of both shoulders,
Into the shoulder joints,
Feeling the shoulder blades as they rest along the back,
Letting them slide down if they naturally want to do that.
Letting the awareness travel down the arms,
Into the biceps,
Into the elbows,
Into the forearms,
And the wrists,
And then into both of the hands.
Noticing the sensation in the hands,
The aliveness here,
Allowing the hands to be soft.
Returning the awareness now to the upper chest,
Perhaps noticing the sensations of breath here,
Rising and falling.
Feeling the upper back and the entire rib cage.
Feeling any sensation in or around the heart.
And then letting the awareness fill the solar plexus,
Just below where the ribs meet.
Feeling into the mid-back and the lower back.
And then letting the awareness move into the belly.
Again,
Perhaps noticing the sensations of breath.
And then letting the awareness pool down into the bowl of the pelvis.
Feeling all of the tiny muscles on the pelvic floor,
Which might want to release.
Feeling any sensation in the hips,
In the sacrum.
And then allowing the awareness to travel into the upper legs,
The glutes,
The quads.
Feeling into the knees,
The right knee and the left knee.
And then the lower legs,
The calves,
The shins.
Just noticing what's here.
Feeling sensation in the ankles,
In the tops of the feet,
The heels and the soles of the feet.
And the toes.
And I invite you now to spread your awareness throughout your entire body,
As if your awareness were a brightly colored dye dropped into a vessel of water.
Slowly spreading out from the center.
Diluting and coloring the water at the same time.
Until the entire vessel has become softly colored by this light of awareness.
Feeling the whole body,
The inside of the body,
And all of the areas of skin across the whole outside of the body.
Letting the body be a field of awareness with many sensations.
Some pleasant,
Some unpleasant,
And some neutral.
Observing all of these sensations with a welcoming curiosity.
Taking one or two more deep breaths with this full awareness.
Then returning to the sensations of gravity and support on the surface beneath you.
And slowly when you're ready,
Opening your eyes.
