Take a moment to settle in.
Whether you're on a chair or a cushion or maybe you're lying down doesn't really matter as long as you're somewhere where you can be comfortable for the next 20 or so minutes.
So just getting comfortable in your seat and seeing right away if there's any part of your body that you can just relax a little more straight away.
Softening the muscles.
And in fact let's start with softening the feet.
Soles of the feet.
How does it feel to just allow your awareness to notice the soles of your feet and see how they are?
The energy of the feet as well as the physical relaxation.
Can you imagine the soles of your feet are softening into the floor and gently opening so that even as they soften they open up as though they're petals of a flower.
And as you gently breathe can you imagine that the coolness of your breath is just like the coolness in the soles of the feet softly opening.
And that softness and gentleness extends from the soles of the feet through the feet to the tops of the feet into the toes and into your ankles.
You breathe from the soles of your feet which continue to open and relax into the floor up through the feet the ankles and into the calves and the shins.
Slow soft cool breath and slow soft cool relaxation coming up the calves towards the knees.
Still softening through the soles of the feet to the knees and gently over the kneecaps.
Can you notice the relaxation and the coolness?
Starting the soles of the feet and gently all the way up into the knees and starting to come up the thighs now.
Can you notice and experience the coolness of the breath and the coolness of the feet breathing up through the legs coming up into the hips the sit bones and the pelvis.
Gentle breathing and breathing softly.
Breathing up now into the belly and lower back.
Can you imagine that the lower back and the belly soften and open up?
Perhaps the lower back gets a little wider as it relaxes so that this breath and this attention and this energy becomes like a gentle massage for the body.
Opening and relaxing breathing up into the stomach and the mid-back.
Still from the soles of the feet gently breathing all the way up through the legs into the ribs from the solar plexus front and back and as you're breathing softly you might also notice the cool of the breath and the cool of the energy in the lungs.
Breathing gently all the way from the feet up the legs to the lungs and of course the heart.
Up into the shoulders now the shoulder blades and the upper back and again can you imagine breathing all the way up like this is a gentle soft massage for the skin and also the inner body.
Cool and relaxing sensations in the shoulders.
Now can you imagine that gentle breath and also breathing into the palms of your hands.
Breathing into the palms and breathing in experiencing all of the space the calm cool space between the palm and the back of the hand and all of the thumbs.
And as you breathe gently into the hands and thumbs and out to the index finger maybe you notice any extra tensions held in the hands and this cool softening maybe it permeates floats into those tensions and releases them as you move your attention into the middle fingers.
Soft openness in the ring fingers and the little fingers.
And then gently experiencing the whole hand breathing into the whole hand and softening on your out breath with gentle relaxation with the energy of the whole hand.
Breathing all the way up through the wrists the elbows to the shoulder.
Breathing up now from the hands to the shoulder from the feet to the shoulder coming up the throat and neck.
Breathing up into the base of the skull soothing any tensions that shouldn't be there.
Can you soften now around the area of your eyes the eyes themselves and the little muscles around the eyes all those mini muscles and the cheeks softening also around the area of the mouth.
Can you become aware of the face as an area of softness and breathing in through the face allowing the face to soften allowing the muscles to soften and open just as you did a few minutes ago with your feet allowing the face to open and relax through the mouth the jaw and around to the back of the head on top of the head.
Now becoming aware of your whole body breathing gently up through the feet and face and now you can become aware of the area of your heart and as you become aware of your heart perhaps see how your heart feels right now.
Allow the heart to realize that it has a little more space a little more softness a little more openness around it and as you become aware of that space around the area of your heart perhaps you can breathe a little more deeply into that area of the heart breathing deep and wide and allowing your heart to see,
Feel,
Experience that it has some space to open and soften and can you communicate to your heart that you have made this space for it and taken the time to make this space out of care and out of love and out of a desire that it can release and let go of tensions and cares.
What is it like for your heart to have that moment where it is cared for and is able to relax,
Let its guard down,
Allow itself to be warm softer?
How does it feel?
What emotions does it want to feel and what does it want to let go of?
And as you continue breathing and making room for your heart the heart takes up more and more space in your chest,
Feeling it expand,
Feeling the energy relaxing,
Growing,
Stretching you perhaps the energy and space of the heart expands across the whole left side of your chest and the whole right hand side of your chest or as much as is right for you and allow the heart to take up as much space,
As much energy as it wants and in these last couple of minutes see if the heart has a message that it would like to give you,
Either in words or as a feeling or some experience it would like to pass on.
There doesn't have to be a message but it's good to let yourself listen to the heart and develop this relationship and now becoming aware once again just of your normal breath through the nose into the throat,
The chest,
The belly gently relaxing everything in the body allowing the heart to relax and experiencing this new softened relationship with the body and see how you feel now and in a moment we'll hear three sounds of the bell and when you hear the sounds of the bell see if you can stay with this softness as you open your eyes and if you'd like to gently make some notes in your meditation notebook.
