Just lying down whether it be on the yoga mat or on your bed,
Wherever is most comfortable.
Now supporting your neck and head properly.
So even nice putting a cushion under your knees just to take the weight off your lower back.
And softening the shoulders,
Relaxing the hands and softening your jaw.
And allowing the weight of your body to be taken up by the bed,
By the mat.
Giving you this time to relax.
Giving yourself this opportunity just to be still.
And ask yourself this wonderful question,
Can I be a little bit more comfortable?
Let's do that.
Let's just shuffle around a little bit more and get ourselves just that little bit more comfortable.
Now again you're very welcome to close your eyes for this meditation or keep them open.
It's totally up to you.
Whatever is most comfortable for you.
And just bringing some awareness into the body now.
Just noticing those physical sensations.
Now the heels and the floor,
Legs against the bed.
Noticing the weight.
Noticing the shoulders and back as it's well supported by the bed,
The neck and the head.
Just noticing you being here in this moment.
It's a very important part of this practice.
It's just being able to just move our mind from this analytical doing,
Processing to one of being,
Allowing,
Noticing.
Through this practice we use our breath to move our awareness through our body.
So what I'd like you to do is just see if you can move your awareness from those physical sensations onto your breath.
Just allowing your breath to begin to soften your body.
Allowing your mind to soften with each breath.
Just allowing yourself to let go.
This can be done as simply as noticing the sensations of breath.
How do you know that you're breathing?
Let's just notice our breath just for a few more moments.
Whatever is there.
Not trying to change it.
Not trying to control it in any way.
Just noticing the flow into the body,
Maybe noticing the stomach rising and falling.
The shoulders expanding,
The rib cage pushing into the bed or the mat.
Just allowing yourself to sink a little deeper into this state of relaxed alertness.
Allowing yourself to be present and hear.
And trying to let go of any impulses to move through this practice.
Unless you need to.
Unless it becomes uncomfortable.
And trying to move as mindful as possible.
So now whilst we're just noticing the sensations of breath.
The effortlessness of breath and the sensations that are held there within it.
Try and breathe your awareness down all the way down to your feet.
Almost like you can begin to breathe into and out of your feet.
How do you know that your feet are there?
How do you know that you have toes and arches,
Heels?
And just noticing what sensations are alive in this moment.
Not worrying or criticising yourself if you can't feel things straight away.
Just seeing if you can allow the breath to do that for you.
And every time you breathe in seeing what more you can notice.
So every breath in we begin to notice more and more about our body.
Even if it is just gradually.
A little bit by little bit.
Again we're not trying to conceptualise what feet should feel like.
We're not imagining what they look like.
This isn't an outer body experience.
This is an inner body.
And we just notice what is there.
Even noticing what isn't there.
Maybe you can't feel your toes today and that's okay.
It's just as important the non-sensations than the sensations that are there.
They're both just as integral.
What you can notice and what you can't notice.
They're not judging or criticising either.
So as we breathe in we notice.
Now as we breathe out what I want you to do is just telling your feet to relax.
As you breathe out you're allowing that feet to relax.
Just saying the word relax in your thoughts.
Just allowing the toes,
Allowing the arches and heels,
Bones,
Muscles,
Everything just to soften.
And for the rest of the practice is how this is going to work.
We breathe in we notice.
We breathe out and relax.
Just bringing full attention to each breath in each moment.
Letting the sensations to be just as they are.
Not trying to change them or control them in any way.
We just breathe in and notice.
And we breathe out and relax.
So with the next breath now let's breathe our way up into the lower legs,
To the ankles and calves and shins.
Maybe just feel the shins as they're pressed against the bed.
Maybe the clothes that you're wearing.
As every time we breathe in we notice or try and notice a little more this forever changing state that's within our body.
As we breathe out we allow that area that we're noticing to relax.
Maybe it's the calves.
As we breathe in we notice our calves.
As we breathe out we just allow that area to soften.
Sometimes in this out breath we will feel a definitive letting go.
Almost like the calves let go.
The tension,
The tightness let go.
Pain let go.
Sometimes we don't feel anything at all.
Breath is perfectly fine.
The relaxation process can be so finite that it is unnoticeable to the mind.
We just set that intention anyway.
We breathe in,
We notice and we breathe out and relax.
Just even saying that word relax just allows us to relax.
So we breathe up with the next breath into the knees and the kneecaps and down the side of the knees.
Just noticing how our knees feel today.
You're not trying to control or change the experience,
Conceptualize anything.
Just breathing into and out of our knees.
Noticing any pains or aches that we have and allowing those to relax on the out breath if you can.
Even if the out breath doesn't relax that part of the area not worrying about that too much either.
As we work our way up through our body sometimes we will get distracted by thoughts.
Often we fall into this sort of blank space.
Maybe it's sounds.
What we do just like we've done in the past is we just notice that we've been distracted.
You don't need to criticize the distraction or judge the distraction.
Nobody knows except for you.
All we do is just bring some awareness back into the body and allow me to continue to guide you through the meditation.
So just at the moment with our knees but we breathe up now into the thighs,
Hamstrings and inner thighs.
Just noticing what you can notice and even noticing what you can't notice.
Not letting that worry you in any way.
We breathe in,
We notice and feel.
We breathe out and we just relax.
Allowing that body to relax.
This practice of embodiment is so incredibly important.
We've been so cut off from the body,
Spent so much time in the mind.
Spending this amount of time just noticing what sensations are there for you.
What's alive?
How is the body feeling right now?
Just opens up this dialogue again of endless changing sensations within the body.
Allowing you just to remain present and in fact happy.
Right now we're just noticing maybe the thighs feel like they're breathing.
Just like they can expand and contract with the breath.
We breathe out and relax.
And so we move from the thighs now up to the hips with the next breath.
Breathing directly into the hips,
Pelvis.
Letting them just to soften,
Letting go into the bed or the mat or wherever you are.
Allowing yourself to relax.
We often hold a lot of tension,
A lot of stress in this lower area of our body.
If it is feeling particularly tight today,
Giving it that breath,
Giving it that space,
That relaxation,
Breathing into and out of and allowing that tension to dissolve if you can.
And over the meditation just being aware of any thoughts or feelings of non-acceptance.
Maybe you're criticizing parts of your body as you're breathing into them.
Maybe you're thinking about this meditation.
Maybe judging it or criticizing it in some way.
Just noticing that they're just thoughts and allowing those to pass you by as easy as a breath does and returning back to the practice.
And allowing yourself just to relax,
Giving you this time.
Just allowing that awareness just to drift back,
Back into this moment.
Using the next breath,
Breathing up into the lower back,
Tailbone,
Working your way along the spine.
Noticing any tightness or warmth or discomfort.
Using the breath to relax that area.
Breathing in,
We notice.
Don't try and change it.
All we do is allow relaxation.
We breathe in,
We notice.
We breathe out and relax.
We're just working our way up along the lower back.
And again,
Just notice what you can and noticing what you can't.
Both are so vital,
So important.
Maybe breathing up to the mid back now,
Maybe beginning to feel the expansion and contraction of the stomach and rib cage.
Even just resting a few moments into the heart area.
Not particularly listening for the beat of your heart.
You're just resting into that area and noticing what you can notice.
As we breathe up into the upper back and the shoulders and shoulder blades,
Collarbone.
Still following that process,
We breathe in and we notice.
And we breathe out and relax and allow that area to soften.
Allowing the shoulders to soften,
The collarbones,
Shoulder blades.
All the tension,
All the day's stress and worries.
Just dissolving and leaving you as easy as the breath does.
And even if on this occasion it's not,
That's okay.
All we're doing is just setting the intention and allowing the body to start the relaxation process.
And then with the next breath,
Do you want to breathe your awareness down into the fingers and palms,
Wrists.
With each breath just working our way up our arms,
Forearms.
Breathing in,
Relaxing.
Breathing in and relaxing.
Breathing into the elbows,
Upper arms now.
Totally present in each moment,
Content to just be.
Just being right here,
Right now as you're out.
Breathing in to and out of your arms.
Just noticing what is there.
Experiencing that part of your body just as it is in this moment.
The next breath breathing up into the shoulders again and onto the neck.
Allowing the breath,
Just letting out any tension,
Any tightness that's held there.
Any holding on.
And just moving around the back of the head,
Maybe noticing the pressure against the pillow or the cushion,
Whatever's there,
The ears and the top of the head,
Forehead,
Eyes,
Temples,
Nose,
Eye sockets,
Cheeks,
Lips,
Mouth,
Jaw,
Tongue.
Now just letting your breath move through your body in whatever way feels most natural for you.
Maybe from head to toe,
Allowing the whole body just to rest in this state of relaxed alertness.
You may even begin to feel like as if the entire body is breathing.
Allowing yourself to feel whole in this wonderful realm of stillness and calmness.
And seeing that this stillness is in fact healing itself.
Allowing the world to be just as it is.
Allowing the eyes to open when you're ready.
Hearing the noise of the bell as you're opening your eyes,
Noticing the colors and the taste in your mouth and smells.
And before you get up,
Moving mindfully,
Continuing on that meditation from laying down to sitting up.
And what feeling the muscles,
Feeling the body as it moves,
Noticing how you're feeling,
You know,
Beginning to check in and sense how that practice was for you.
What can you notice?
What's different?
What's changed?
And checking into the body and noticing how you're feeling.
What's different?
What's changed?
How do you feel?
And taking this calmness with you into the rest of the day.
