Welcome to this practice,
Full body restoration.
So for this practice I invite you to lie down flat on your back,
Where your spine can be straight.
Just taking a nice couple of full breaths,
Letting the chest relax as you exhale.
And perceiving now all the contact points with the surface beneath you.
So the back of your head,
Your shoulder blades,
Down your spine,
The back of your hips,
Legs and arms.
Just being in touch with the primacy of the sensation of the surface.
And feel that you can kind of breathe into all those points.
Noticing any thoughts,
Letting them pass just as a river might pass in front of us.
And we kind of just observe the water.
And bring our attention back into these contact points,
Into these,
The sensation of the surface beneath.
And we're going to bring our attention now into the top of the head.
And we're slowly and progressively,
With my guidance,
Going to scan through the whole body.
Each time breathing into that part of the body,
Each time trying to bring a quality of softness,
Of gentleness,
And of care to that part of the body.
So we begin breathing into the top of the head,
The top of the skull.
Breathing down the sides of the skull and round onto the ears,
Relaxing the ears.
And into the sides of the jaw,
Making sure we don't hold any tension here.
And all of the mouth,
All of the tongue,
All of the lips.
Everything we use to communicate and express our ideas during the day,
Just relaxing that.
Letting the eyes be soft and the cheeks.
Everything we use to make facial expressions and express our internal world,
Just letting that all soften right now.
Keeping the breath constant,
Keeping it fairly light.
And now coming into the throat.
Noticing how tender this area can really be.
And just bringing to it a warmth,
A care with each breath.
On your next exhale,
Your perception,
Your awareness drops into your chest.
Allowing it to soften,
Allowing it to open.
This area often associated with our openness to receive,
Our open heartedness to life.
So just kind of notice if there is any resistance or tension within this process for you.
And just use it as an opportunity to surrender,
To become aware of.
Breathing into your shoulders,
Relaxing your shoulders.
We often carry a heavy burden on our shoulders.
And so this an opportunity to really just let all pressure go for the remaining time of this meditation practice.
We can let everything go.
Breathing into your ribs and noticing how they slightly rise and fall with the breath.
But how they can do this in the most soft manner possible.
Feeling the belly rising and falling.
Tender,
Soft.
And this area is often associated with our gut,
Our gut feeling,
Our intuition.
The subtle sensations that can help guide us and orientate us.
Really just begin restoring,
Rejuvenating this area with your breath and with your awareness.
Breathing now into your lower abdomen and your sexual organs.
Allowing them to soften,
To release.
This area often associated with a drive for life,
With an ambition,
With a sexuality.
So just allowing yourself to honour all of that in this moment.
Honour that full ambition and will.
But allow it to exist without holding onto it.
Allow it to exist in a state where you can just accept it,
Be with it,
Embrace it.
Shifting your awareness now into the base of your,
The root of your spine,
The base of your spine,
Your tailbone.
And this area of the body often associated with instincts,
With baseline survival,
With shelter,
Comfort.
And feel that you have that all right now.
And you can just relax into this area.
Taking a slightly deeper inhalation now.
And on your exhale,
Just release your awareness,
Drop it down into your legs.
Relaxing every muscle in your legs.
The limbs that carry you round all day.
Giving them a chance to just fully relax.
Scanning into the knees,
Down the shins and calves and into the feet.
Again,
An area that can be tender and sensitive,
The base of the feet.
So I just invite you to breathe into and connect to this.
Now we're going to scan back to the top of the head.
And naturally using our own rhythm.
Slowly scanning down the whole body.
Maybe it takes four or five breaths to just work your way down.
But just find your rhythm.
And just let yourself scan down.
So top of the head,
Eyes,
Jaw,
Throat,
Chest,
Stomach and down to the lower body.
And when you reach the bottom,
Start again at the top and just do this for a couple of rounds at your own pace.
Kind of washing everything,
Getting everything just washed through.
Keep going.
Taking a slightly deeper inhalation through the nose and exhale through the mouth.
And now I invite you to scan your body and notice anywhere where there might be tension,
Where there might be pain.
Or anywhere that is calling for your attention right now.
So don't think about this too much.
Don't rationalise it.
Don't ask why.
Just feel where your attention naturally wants to go.
And bring it to that part of the body.
Using your breath to invigorate this spot,
This area.
And once you've found the area that you're breathing into,
Also connect to any emotional tension,
Any thought pattern or contraction in your mind that arises when you place your awareness here.
And the same,
Using the breath in the same way.
Kind of invigorate this,
Feel you can relieve it,
Release it.
Restore.
Taking a deep breath.
Exhale.
And just feeling now that you can let everything go.
You've already kick-started a restoration process and you can just allow your body to do the rest of the work now.
Fully surrender everything soft.
Taking a moment to move your fingers and toes just a little bit,
Coming back into your body.
Slowly.
Maybe you rock your head a little bit side to side.
Let your neck stretch out.
Feeling the temperature of the room that you're in.
And as you slowly come into your body now,
Just taking a moment of thankfulness for investing in your process today.
For taking a moment out to just feel,
Restore and let your whole system recalibrate.
Thank you.
