Integration Body Scan

Each experience we go through carries with it an energy and this energy flows through our body. If we're allowing and open, we process the energy as it freely flows through us. But what often happens is that our minds step in to manage the experience - the flow of the energy - and this causes the energy to get stuck in our body. This stuck energy inhibits the natural flow, interrupting the harmony of the body, and dis-ease is born. This meditation processes that energy and restores harmony.

Transcript

Hey there,

This is CJ Vashuta and I'm going to guide you through a body scan integration meditation.

And you'll need about 30 minutes for this meditation.

And so as we get started,

Go ahead and make sure that your phone is on silent or better yet on airplane mode.

And find a comfortable place to sit that is not your bed as your body does associate sleep with your bed.

And you will want to be in a relaxed setting.

Your body will be as relaxed as possible with being an alert and aware mind.

So as we settle,

Just feel yourself sinking in and getting comfortable,

Feeling yourself alive at this moment to this location wherever you're at and becoming present to my voice and to your feelings and to this meditation.

So the intention of this meditation is to allow the energy that is in our body to flow,

To move,

Right?

At any given moment,

There is an incredible amount of energy coursing through our bodies on many different levels and many different depths.

And today we're going to be working on the subtle energy body which is essentially one layer deeper than the gross body.

The gross body is the very physical you,

Right?

It's when you stub your toe and you feel that pain on a very physical level and become very aware that you have a toe.

The subtle energy body is just one level deeper than that.

So if you take your awareness and you put it on your left hand,

This is different than looking at your left hand,

Just move your attention,

Your awareness to your left hand and notice what you notice.

Some people will say it feels like a tingling or a throbbing of energy.

I have a teacher that likes to call it the increased felt of sensation.

So this increased felt of sensation,

What you're feeling is the subtle energy body and this is present for your entire body and it's always there and you just have to become aware of it,

To place your attention there,

To place your awareness on that aspect and you will feel it.

You can easily feel multiple parts of this subtle energy body at any time.

Go ahead and feel both of your hands,

Just put your awareness on your left and your right hand really quick and see what you notice.

There's that increased felt of sensation in both hands now,

Yeah?

So that's the subtle energy body and that's where a lot of this energy moves through us.

That's where we store a lot of trauma and emotional build up and the point of this meditation is to loosen some of those blockages and take down some of those structures that have been keeping those blockages in place so that we can allow that energy to flow once again.

In Chinese medicine there's a saying,

What that means is where there is no flow there will be pain and that's exactly what we're talking about,

Right?

And through this entire process the only thing for you to be doing is to be witnessing.

So it's more of a being meditation as opposed to a doing meditation.

If you notice yourself trying to make something happen just go ahead and let that go and come back to the being and just allowing your body to do exactly what it knows to do.

The body was designed for this,

The body really knows how to allow energy to flow and it's the mind that actually stops it,

Right?

We have preference to feelings and to emotions and feelings,

Sensations cause emotions and emotions are energy in motion and when we experience an emotion or feeling or sensation that we don't particularly like we pathologize it,

We judge it as being negative and bad and then we resist feeling that and it's the resistance to that sensation or that feeling that emotion that causes it to get stuck.

And so as we do this practice more and more we can allow our bodies to process the energy by allowing those sensations,

Those feelings,

Those emotions to freely go through our body and not trying to manage it with the mind.

So we'll take a couple of deep breaths to get started in through the nose and out through the mouth and just breathe as deeply as you can comfortably without forcing the breath.

You never want to force the breath but you do want to push it.

Just breathe as deeply as you can comfortably.

Invite that breath all the way down into your perineum,

Down past your heart,

Past your lungs,

Past your stomach,

Down into your butt,

Down into your perineum and out the mouth.

Just arrive.

And I'm going to give you some instruction and all there is for you to do is to be,

Is to follow along and notice what you notice.

So we'll start by placing the awareness at the top of your head and bringing softness to the top of the head,

Bringing that down to the forehead and the eyebrows,

The inner corners of the eyes,

The cheeks and the ears,

The temples,

The lips.

Release the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth and soften the root of your tongue.

Relax the jaw,

The back of the head,

The back of the neck,

The front of the neck,

The throat.

And the left shoulder and the right shoulder,

The upper arms,

The elbows,

The lower arms,

The wrists,

Hands and the fingers.

Keep breathing.

Bringing softness to the upper back,

The mid-back and the lower back,

Keeping that spine straight and strong,

Softening the muscles around it,

Relaxing the chest,

Your upper abdomen,

Your lower abdomen,

The sides of your torso under your armpits and down the sides into your hips,

Relaxing your butt,

Your perineum,

Your genitals,

Bringing softness to the inner thighs and the outer thighs,

Across the space of the knees,

The shins,

The calves,

The ankles,

Tops of your feet,

The bottoms of your feet and your toes.

Just feel your body relaxing.

Notice where there's tension,

Where there's tightness,

There may be pain,

And just bring softness there.

Allow it to be.

One thing you might notice is that the deeper you go,

The closer into your center that you go,

The more thoughts come up.

And oftentimes,

The closer we get to our core,

The thoughts that do come up tend to be the ones we really don't want to think about.

They tend to be the really nasty,

Ugly things that we keep to ourself.

They tend to be the ones that really bother us.

And these are,

They serve as distractions,

Right?

They serve as protectors of sorts.

And the thing to do with them is to accept them in,

Is to allow them to be and to love them.

I like to say thank you,

I love you,

And I honor you to these thoughts,

To these parts,

And to come back into the journey towards the center.

And that's the first part of the integration,

Is to allow all pieces of ourselves to be.

We want to live full and whole lives,

Yet we try and get rid of these aspects of ourselves.

It's difficult to live a whole life if you cut your finger off.

And that's what these thoughts are.

They're parts of us,

And they need to be honored and recognized and loved,

Just like every other piece of us.

Keep that breath going,

Bringing softness to the body.

We're going to be working in the center channel today,

The chocolate system from the point of the bottom of the spine,

The base of the spine,

Up to the crown that took the head,

Just slightly above.

So what there is to do now is to go ahead and scan the inner part of your stomach.

And I will remind you that this is not a two-dimensional object,

This is a multi-dimensional object.

It has an inside and outside,

A left,

A right,

Up,

Down,

And all around.

There's many different layers to it.

And as we scan,

What we're looking for is that increased felt of sensation.

Something to find anywhere in our body in this zone that is very apparent.

And what there is to do with that is just notice it,

Just witness and watch.

You could put a color to it,

A texture,

A sound,

A shape,

Even a taste.

Just notice anything that you find in your stomach region.

And if you're having a hard time finding anything there,

We can move up into the chest,

Checking out the heart area.

And again,

Looking at the many different layers that's there from the skin,

Down to the bone,

The muscle,

The fascia,

The bone marrow,

And looking at the inside and the outside,

Left,

Right,

Up,

Down.

Looking for that increased felt of sensation once again.

You might notice other parts of your body becoming tight.

Just relax those parts,

Bring softness once again,

Allow them to be.

Thank you.

I love you.

And I honor you.

And if you're having a tough time finding something in your heart region,

We can move up to the head and doing the same thing,

Just checking it out,

Left side,

The right side,

Front,

The back,

Top,

Bottom,

Inside,

Outside.

Just doing a nice little scan,

All the different layers from the very surface level to the very deepest level,

Looking for that increased felt sensation.

And when we find it,

We're just watching it,

We're just witnessing it,

Allowing it to be.

We're not trying to change anything about it,

Just watching it,

Seeing if it moves,

Seeing what it does,

And just allowing space.

Thank you.

I love you.

I honor you.

Something else you could say is I forgive you as well.

Thank you.

I honor you.

I forgive you.

Thank you.

I love you.

I forgive you.

Whatever works for you.

The important thing here is allowance,

Is to just let be what is.

And you might be having thoughts,

You might be having emotions,

Feelings,

And just know that whatever it is you're experiencing is perfectly fine.

If you're experiencing thoughts saying that you're not doing it right,

That you're not good enough,

That you need to be doing this or that,

That's okay.

Just let those thoughts be,

Thoughts who really like to hear themselves think.

And those are just distractions that we have put in place to keep us from feeling any kind of discomfort.

If we remain busy all our life,

Then we don't necessarily have to feel uncomfortable.

However,

What happens then is then we are stuck with this energy and it can't move.

And again,

When energy can't move,

It causes pain.

So it's kind of a silly thing to not feel it.

You might be experiencing emotions like frustration or anger or sadness or joy.

And whatever it is that's there,

Just allow it to be.

Just bring it in.

Thank you.

I love you.

I forgive you.

Keep that breath going.

Bring softness back into your shoulders,

Your hips,

Your spine,

Your legs,

Your neck,

Your eyebrows,

Your face,

Your jaw.

Strong spine,

Soft front,

Wild heart.

Just allowing the body to do exactly what it knows how to do.

Getting the mind out of the way.

The more we get the mind out of the way,

The better we will become at feeling.

And the better we become at feeling,

The more energy we will be able to process.

And the more energy we process,

The better we will feel.

The more at ease we will feel.

We will return to a state of being in homeostasis,

Which is a place of peace,

Of connection,

Of belonging,

Of feeling worthy.

So as we continue to just notice whatever is going on in your body,

Just go ahead and scan the room with your attention,

With your awareness,

So you can open your eyes and do so if you wish to.

What you're checking for now is whether or not you feel safe.

Just checking in with yourself,

With your system,

With your body,

With your emotions,

With your energy to see if you feel safe.

You can even ask yourself,

Am I safe?

And if you don't feel safe,

That's okay.

That's information,

That's something to be aware of,

That's something to notice.

And if you do feel safe,

That's great.

That's also just something to notice.

This is a practice that you can do throughout the day is checking in with yourself by asking the simple question,

Am I safe?

And the more you do this,

It will teach the brain that,

Hey,

You actually are safe.

That threat that you might be feeling is just a perceived threat and it's not an actual threat.

And the more we can feel that sense of safety in our body that will help us allow the energy to flow more,

And once again,

That will allow us ultimately to get to that place of homeostasis,

Into the space of the autonomic nervous system known as the parasympathetic nervous system,

Where the rest digests so that the body is repairing itself.

The body is really good at knowing exactly what to do.

It's just the mind that likes to get in the way.

Remember that breath,

Remember that softness,

Just allow.

So from here,

We're going to really open ourselves up to the universal energies around us with the idea of feeling this space,

Of feeling ourselves up with really beautiful,

Delicious,

And beneficial energy.

So every living organism,

Everything in the universe for that matter,

Has a boundary,

A membrane,

A container of some sort.

And you can picture this as a bubble.

And imagine that this bubble starts in your center,

In your core,

And it's just getting bigger and bigger,

It's going outward until it encompasses all of you,

And it stops right about at your outstretched arms.

And this bubble is your space.

This is your energy.

This is your field of being.

And you can set this to be a filtration system of sorts,

Only allowing in energy as a greater self and greater.

Something that I like to do is,

In my morning practice,

Is to set this electric love light around me.

It is this bubble,

This membrane,

And it becomes a force field,

A shield,

And it only allows energy as high as my highest self and higher,

And it transmutes all other energy.

And in this space,

We can keep and maintain our sovereignty,

Our personal power.

And we'll just hang out here for a second.

And we can tune in to whatever it is that you're sitting on,

Feeling the support that it is offering us,

Knowing that it is Mother Earth that is supporting us,

That is holding us up.

And from the connection that we have with the planet,

With Mother Earth,

With Mama Gaia,

With Mother Nature,

Whatever you want to call it,

Right where this connection is met,

There is a pulsation of green energy,

Of green light,

And it's coming up,

It's feeling this bubble,

It's feeling the chakras.

It's starting at the root,

And it's going up to the sacral chakra,

Up into the solar plexus.

Now,

It's the heart level,

And it's feeling this bubble as well.

And this green energy is a very rich energy,

It's a very resourceful energy.

This energy is giving you all that you could ever need to live here on this planet Earth right now,

To be here in this physical realm.

And it's going up,

It's feeling your heart,

And it's going into your throat,

It's feeling the bubble all around you,

And it's activating the third eye,

Up into the crown,

And the crown chakra is opening,

And all of this green light is just spilling up and over the crown chakra,

Filling the bubble,

And it's meeting the top of the bubble,

About 18 inches above you.

And to the portal chakra,

There's another chakra,

An A chakra up there,

And it's the portal chakra.

And then you notice that there's some sunlight,

Beautiful gold,

White,

Yellow light coming down through this portal chakra,

And it's mixing with the green light in the bubble,

It's coming down through the portal into your crown chakra,

It's infusing you and this bubble in your space with this light from the heavens.

And this is a wise light,

It's giving you all of the information,

All of the knowledge,

All of the wisdom that you could ever need to live your true and highest purpose.

And it's coming down,

It's activating your third eye,

Giving you the ability to see the truth behind all things.

It's coming down and it's activating the third chakra,

Giving you the power to communicate effectively and express yourself fully.

It's coming down,

Filling the bubble,

Mixing with the green light,

And it's in your heart now,

And it's filling the heart space up with this wise,

Beautiful energy so that you feel worthy,

So that you feel love,

Love of self,

Love of nature,

Love of the divine energy,

The divine forces,

And all of creation.

This light's continuing to go down to your solar plexus chakra,

Your sacral chakra,

Anchoring down in the root chakra.

So now you have these two energies,

One from below,

One from the earth,

Infusing this space and this bubble in you,

And one from above the heavens,

Infusing you in this space and this bubble,

And they're mixing together.

And these two lights,

One from heaven,

One from earth,

They're coming through you and they're meeting inside of you,

And you are the expression of heaven on earth.

You are the expression of heaven on this earth.

And these two lights,

These two energies is the confirmation of that bridge.

You are the conduit for these energies.

Just breathe into that.

Allow this space to expand.

So it encompasses the room that you're in.

Maybe it goes a little further and encompasses the house or the building that you're in.

It just expands and expands and expands.

You're getting more and more and more love,

More and more and more love,

More and more and more wisdom and resources.

It just keeps going.

Feel yourself expanding into everything.

And we'll hang out here just for a moment,

Allowing that space to be so full of joy,

So full of love,

Of bliss,

Of ecstasy.

And from here,

We send a voice to our greatest potential and we call it towards us.

We also reach out to any pieces of ourselves that we've left behind in traffic,

In jobs,

In old relationships,

Any situation.

We can go back to that moment and we can reclaim our self.

We claim that piece of us,

That little energy that we left back there last week,

Last week,

Last month,

Last year,

Any previous lives,

Anything that has ever happened,

We can reclaim and bring back into our heart.

And we call once again to the highest potential of our self.

Don't need to know the details,

Just the frequency and the vibration,

The feeling of our highest potential in five years.

We allow that to come in,

Fill this space as well.

Bring it back into our heart.

We send a voice back to our heart,

Come back to this bubble that is our space,

Feeling our full,

Complete whole,

Blissed out,

Ecstatic,

Happy,

Joyful,

Grateful.

There's a certainty that we have,

That we are on our path,

That we are doing exactly what we need to be doing,

And in this moment we send a thank you to the guides and the guardians,

The allies and the angels,

The teachers,

And express gratitude for the ancestors and the ones in our life,

Partner,

Spouse,

Kids,

Parents,

Friends,

Support groups.

We feel that gratitude for ourself,

Knowing that we are worthy,

Knowing that you are loved,

Knowing that you are seen,

Believing in your own strength.

You might roll your head around a little bit,

Wiggle your fingers and toes,

Start stirring your body back into wakefulness,

Taking some breaths as you do some stretching,

Filling yourself in this new body.

As we go throughout today,

I invite you to take really good care of yourself,

Of your body,

Drinking plenty of water,

Resting when it's required,

When it's appropriate,

Loving yourself,

Being kind to yourself,

Being kind to others,

Being brave,

Being courageous,

And believing in your own strength.

Once again,

This is CJ Vashuta,

And I honor you for doing the work that you're doing,

For showing up in the way that you're showing up,

And thank you.

I love you,

And I'll talk to you again soon.

Be well.