Welcome to this 10-minute meditation to cultivate embodied awareness with Danny the yogi dog.
Take a moment to find a comfortable position.
You don't need to be in a particular posture.
You can be standing,
Sitting,
Or even lying down.
The most important thing here is that you feel relaxed and alert.
Making sure that you have openness in the front of your body.
You can roll your shoulders up and back.
Just allow your shoulders to relax into your surface.
You want to have some uprightness or length in your spine without being rigid or stiff.
And you want to invite a softness into the face,
The jaw,
The shoulders,
And the belly.
This balanced posture of being both relaxed and alert,
Being both soft and open,
Is the beginning of our embodied awareness.
Now beginning to notice how the body is feeling in this moment.
You don't need to change anything about the mind,
Your thoughts,
Your heart,
Your emotions,
Or the body,
Or any sensations.
We just simply want to allow what's happening to be in your awareness.
You can ask a question such as,
How does my body feel right now?
Where am I feeling any tension in the body?
Where is there ease or relaxation?
And just notice what's there.
Becoming the observer.
Now as you continue to settle into this embodied awareness,
You can close your eyes if you'd like or keep them open.
Just as you continue to rest your awareness on the body.
Just noticing what's present and allowing what's happening.
Maybe there are thoughts or emotions coming up.
Just let everything be here.
Now I'm going to invite you to take a deep breath in through the nose and as you exhale you can even make an open mouth sighing sound.
By doing this you're releasing any tension that's in the body as you breathe in and out.
I want you to do this a few times on your own.
Breathing in through the nose,
Opening the front of the body,
And as you breathe out really focus on softening and relaxing.
Allowing the breath to come to its natural rhythm and then taking a moment in silence to notice any bodily sensations.
Now see if you can feel the contact with what's supporting your body right now.
It could be a chair or a meditation cushion or if you're like me your bed.
Just really sense into your feet or your seat and allow yourself to feel grounded.
Continuing to sense the connection with what's underneath you.
Bring your awareness to the pressure or the weight of the body.
What is this sensation like?
Even now thoughts or concerns might be coming up and this is okay.
The mind thinks about the past or the future and comments on the present.
That's what it's supposed to do but the body is always in the present moment and if thinking happens just allow your awareness to rest back into an awareness of the body.
Now bringing your awareness to the breath as it flows in and out of the body.
Let's take one or two deep breaths in and out through the nose to connect you to this process that's always happening.
Notice the belly rising and falling as you breathe in and out and if you're having trouble connecting to the sensation you can place one or both hands over your belly to feel the belly rising on the inhale and falling on the exhale.
If the breath is hard for you to follow you can rest your awareness on the body's contact with what's underneath you or on any part of the body that brings you a sense of ease of connection.
Now if you're staying with the breath just continue to notice the inhale and the exhale.
Embodied awareness is a way for us to stay with our experience by using the body,
The breath or any sensory experience as a way to firmly connect us with the present moment.
We're not resisting,
We're not pushing away any thoughts or uncomfortable emotions.
We're simply allowing the body to be the ground for our awareness.
Now let's take a moment in silence to rest in this embodied awareness.
As we end this meditation take a moment to express gratitude towards yourself for taking time to cultivate this practice and know that in any moment you can reconnect to the body,
The breath,
The sense of groundedness as a way to create spaciousness,
Ease and rootedness.
You can slowly begin to open your eyes now,
Maybe wiggle those fingers,
Wiggle the toes,
Do a couple of neck rolls and let yourself reconnect to your surroundings as we finish this meditation.
Perhaps even taking a final breath,
Inhaling through the nose and exhaling.
Thank you for joining me.
