Meditation On Gratitude For The Body

This is a guided body scan combined with love and gratitude and playfulness towards the body.

Transcript

So,

Begin by feeling the whole body sitting,

Whatever posture you're sitting.

Notice where you're in contact with the earth.

And breathing into those places of connection with the earth.

Feeling how the body is supported by the earth and how the earth is in relation to the body,

Pressing back on the body as we sit.

How the earth supports us in so many ways.

So the gratitude for that simple simplicity of that,

Just feeling the tactile support of the earth.

And how the earth supports us in so many aspects of our life.

Breathing into the sense of being on the earth,

Supported by the earth and body.

Bring your awareness to your feet.

Feel where the feet are in contact with the earth.

Feel the sensations in the feet.

Perhaps tingling.

Breathe into those sensations.

Perhaps there's numbness in parts of the feet.

Perhaps there's soreness.

Bring to mind how hard our feet work to carry us from one place to another.

Keep us standing.

Sense of gratitude.

Gratitude for our feet.

For the intricacy with which they're fashion-shaped.

Maybe your feet are calloused.

Maybe you have a bunion.

Maybe your toes or toenails are yellow.

That happens as we get old.

Just have a sense of affection for maybe your less than lovely feet.

Affection,

Compassion,

Gratitude.

Connecting to your feet with your heart through your breath.

Aware of what your feet are feeling in this moment.

Feeling your legs.

Your knees.

Your thighs.

Also,

Hardworking parts of the body.

What are the sensations that you feel in your legs?

Breathe into those sensations.

Let your awareness,

Let your breath be a vehicle for awareness in the body.

Are there places of intensity where you feel intensity of sensation?

Maybe in the knees.

Maybe in some of the muscles of the legs.

Opening to those sensations with the breath.

Not contracting around them.

Just opening gently to those sensations with compassion for this human body that gets worn,

Worn out.

Just wear and tear.

And perhaps you have an image of your legs,

Your thighs.

Maybe there's a judgment.

Maybe there's a habitual judgment that you hold around your body.

Maybe there's cellulose.

Maybe your thighs,

I think,

Are too lumpy,

Too big,

Or too skinny.

Connect with kindness,

With affection,

Not only with the feelings,

The image that you hold of that part of the body,

But also with your feelings about them.

Just be kind about those judgments.

Be compassionate.

Breathe in compassion about those judgments in your body if you have them.

Be mindful,

Compassionate,

Affectionate to your legs and your feet.

Bringing your attention to the whole pelvic area of your body,

So your hip joints,

Your lower abdomen,

Your sexual organs,

Groin,

The buttocks,

Lower back,

And also the internal organs in the body,

The reproductive organs,

The digestive organs.

Feel that whole part of your body,

The lower abdomen,

Breathing into it,

Feeling sensations that are there with each breath.

Feeling the sensations in the hips,

In the lower abdomen,

Buttocks,

The genital area,

Lower back.

With appreciation for all those parts of the body,

Parts where we digest our food,

Our food moves through the large intestines,

The small intestines,

Where we excrete the waste products of the body.

Gratitude that we can do that.

Gratitude for our sexual organs,

For the pleasure,

For the perhaps sometimes discomfort also,

So compassion,

With compassion and gratitude for those parts of the body.

And compassion,

Too,

Again,

Bringing to mind what judgments we bring to the body,

Places in this part of the body that we think are not right,

Not perfect,

Too big,

Too small,

Too many stretch marks,

Too saggy,

All of these judgments that we bring about the body.

The body should be the ideal image that we bring to our body.

And how disconnected that is from the reality of being present in the body and appreciating,

Being grateful for the way that our bodies keep us alive,

And particularly this part of the body that we're connecting with.

And perhaps some of you have brought life into being through giving birth through this part of the body or been intimate with somebody who's done so.

Creating that amazing capacity of the human being.

So breathing in,

Feeling into that whole part of the body,

Sensing with gratitude,

With affection,

With compassion.

Moving our attention upward to the upper torso.

So feeling the whole area,

The midsection of the torso,

Also the digestive organs,

The back,

The chest,

Shoulder blades,

And shoulders.

The breasts,

Female or male,

Sensations that we experience there around the heart,

Feeling into the heart,

The sensations that we experience in the heart,

Perhaps aware of the beating of the heart,

The rhythm of the heart,

Shoulders,

Shoulder blades.

We may also have illness in the body.

There may be disease in the body.

In any of the places that I've mentioned.

So being with perhaps the pain of that,

Breathing into that,

The pain which may be physical,

May be emotional,

The heart,

The lungs,

The chest,

Shoulders,

The stomach,

Reproductive organs.

Any of those places in the body where we're experiencing illness,

With compassion,

And also with gratitude for the health that is there,

Even with the presence of illness,

There's in greater measure a presence of health,

A presence of life,

Or we wouldn't be here right now.

So appreciating,

Acknowledging the life that's present in the body,

Continuing to connect with the breath to all of these places in the body,

Breathing in gratitude,

Breathing in compassion,

Bringing to mind the way that we judge,

The ways that we judge these parts of the body.

Too big,

Too small,

Too saggy,

Too lumpy,

Too whatever.

These ideas that we have about how the body should be.

The body is perfect as it is.

Each body is perfect as it is.

Each body has its own unique beauty.

Each body is a manifestation of the life,

The joys,

The sorrows,

The work,

The burdens we've carried,

Physical and emotional.

So just deeply appreciating,

Loving this body with each breath.

Our hands,

Our hands,

So many things we do with our arms and our hands.

We carry,

We nurture,

We caress,

We push away,

Perhaps we punch,

Perhaps we hug or embrace all the things,

All that we can express with our arms and our hands.

So full of expression life.

I'm grateful for these manifestations of the human body,

These expressions of the human body.

Feeling into the arms and the hands with each breath,

Feeling the palms of the hands and how alive they are with sensation.

So many nerve endings in the palms of the hands.

Feeling all the joints,

The many,

Many joints in the fingers.

So versatile,

These hands that we have,

We can draw a tiny fine line,

Expressive line,

We can knead dough,

We can pick up a heavy rock.

Do we have any ideas about what our hands should look like?

Maybe we're not happy with how our arms and our hands look,

We have judgments about them.

And so just bringing these to mind and compassionately,

Affectionately realizing that our arms,

Our hands are just right,

Just fine.

Those that we hold hands with,

Those that we embrace are grateful as well for those arms and hands of ours.

Bring your attention to your neck,

Your shoulders,

Your neck,

And feel the sensations there.

Just breathe into the shoulders and the neck and the throat.

The shoulders carry so much on our shoulders,

Just I'm always throwing bags on my shoulders and they complain but not too much.

Just breathe into your shoulders and feel grateful for these parts of our body.

And feeling the neck and the throat,

The voice box in the throat,

The windpipe,

The neck carries the head,

Allows the head to turn,

See in many directions.

Again breathing into these,

Into this part of the body,

Feeling what sensations are there.

Is there tightness,

Is there soreness?

Feeling the breath in the windpipe.

You don't often think of that part of the body as being part of our respiratory system,

But it's an essential part.

Feeling awareness to the head,

The face,

Feeling the face,

All of these sensory organs clustered in this part of the body,

The eyes,

The ears,

The nose,

The mouth,

All of these sensory organs clustered there,

The brain.

What an amazing capacity we have to see in the range of light that we can see.

We can't see the whole range of light,

We can see a certain range of light.

And so we know that there's so much that we don't see that's not in our capacity to see.

It's not in our range of reception in our seeing,

Our sight organs.

And so much we can hear.

We can't hear everything.

There's such a wide vibration,

Range of vibration,

Sound vibration,

Far beyond our capacity to hear.

Other animals can see and can hear with greater capacity than we have.

And smell,

There's a whole world of smells that we don't know that other animals know.

And yet these do work to help us interpret the world around us in a marvelous way.

So using the breath,

Connecting with all of these sense organs,

Eyes,

Ears,

Nose,

Tongue,

The brain,

Grateful for how we can see and engage with and interpret the life around us.

And the brain,

The organ of consciousness,

The organ of perception,

The organ of memory and thought,

Interpretation.

Just a marvel that we just barely have knowledge of as a human species.

Breathing into the head,

All of our organs and also connecting with our sense of what is our face?

What is this face?

So much of our identity,

So much of how we think of me is in the face.

We look in the mirror and we say we think that's me.

What are our judgments about the face,

About our eyes,

Our nose,

Our mouth,

Our skin,

Our hair,

The shape of our face,

Our chin?

Opening in compassion for all of the judgments we bring to our face,

Our faces.

Opening to affection to this face,

However droopy,

Saggy,

Wrinkled,

However perhaps asymmetrical or imperfect in our judgment,

It may be.

Can we love this face?

Can we love this face as a parent,

A dear friend,

A lover,

A child who looks up at us,

Would love that face,

Who looks back at them with love?

Can we love this face?

Just as it is in all its beauty,

In all its perfection.

Breathing into that whole part of the body,

Breathing in gratitude,

Breathing in love,

Breathing in compassion,

Breathing in awareness and sensitivity.

Now as you breathe in and breathe out,

Bring your breath back to a sense of being sensitive to the whole field of the body,

The whole field of energy that is the body.

And see if you can let go of the images that you hold about the body,

The images that you hold about,

This is me,

This is mine,

This is who I am.

The ideas that you hold about this body is imperfect,

Not good enough.

Just breathing into this body which is alive and full of sensation,

This body which is a field of energy and has this energy not only of sensing but of loving,

Of connecting,

This feeling energy of being alive and loving this life,

This living being.

This living being which is a part of nature,

Part of nature which has come together for a little while,

Earth elements,

Fire elements,

Water elements,

Air elements,

Space elements coming together for a little while to form a wondrous and unique human being.

Breathing in,

Breathing out,

Letting the body breathe itself.

May each,

Each one of us,

Body,

Mind,

Body,

Body,

Mind,

Mind,

Mind,

Mind,

Mind,

Mind,

Heart,

Be happy,

Be free from suffering.

May each body,

Mind,

Heart,

Breath be at peace and live with ease and with peace.

May each one of us,

Body,

Mind,

Heart,

Breath come to freedom.

And may the life,

The energy,

The manifestations of this body,

Mind,

Heart,

Breath be of benefit,

The happiness,

Well-being and liberation of all beings.

Reviews

Enjoyed this very much having gone through a major health crisis, working through immediate then long term healing/recovery, and coming to terms with and appreciating the miracle of my body. Even the fat parts. :)