Coming into your body.
Moving out of the external world,
You might close your eyes to make that a little more easy.
You might stretch,
You might yawn.
Wiggle,
Just feel where you are in your physical embodiment.
Crooked,
Stiff,
Sore,
Well-rested,
Vigorous,
Energized.
Where are you starting?
Noticing your body,
Your breath,
Your pulse,
Your digestion,
All these physical and internal processes that support you.
You could use any one of them as a cue during this meditation.
Returning to the activity of your physical body.
This incredible vessel for our experience of existence.
Breathing in deeply,
Out slowly.
Just slowing down as we meditate.
Relaxing.
Coming in.
You're not doing anything in particular,
You're just stopping.
You can't stop your thoughts,
You can only slow down.
Take a pause.
Move from the cognitive to the sensory,
Move outside in.
Deeply in,
Slowly out,
As a way to relax,
As a way to soothe oneself.
Settling down,
Feeling gravity getting heavy.
And paradoxically,
A little light,
A little floaty.
We're gonna do a body scan,
Taking in all the bruises and bumps,
Warts and irregularities,
Discomforts of our body,
And embracing them.
Starting with your feet.
It might be possible that every person's feet are funny looking.
Irregular,
Toes twisted and gnarled,
Calloused.
Arches not exactly as you'd wish.
Spots,
Moles,
Irregular skin color.
Toes not all the length you would expect.
Can you embrace that as a kind of beauty,
Even if you're not a foot model?
But that irregularity is what makes you special.
Unique,
Uniquely you.
Can you love your toes and your heels and your arches and the top of your foot?
And all that it does and all that it appears and all that it is for you,
Just you.
Move up to your legs.
Calves and shins and knees,
Thighs and hamstrings.
Skin,
Bones,
Sinew,
Patella,
Cartilage.
Shapely,
Maybe there's some cellulite.
Odd hairs,
Knock-kneed,
Bow-legged,
Funny knees.
Wrinkles,
More muscles in some place,
Fewer in the others.
It's all good,
It's all you,
It's all special.
Uniquely and wonderfully made.
Maybe you're uncomfortable in shorts or a bathing suit.
But how would you like to feel about your legs?
Go towards that feeling.
Embrace yourself as you are who you are in your body.
Wonderful and glorious and odd and pretty and funny looking all at the same time.
Can it all bring you joy?
Moving into your hips and torso.
Growing generative spaces.
It's definitely funny.
Human bodies are gangly and oddly shaped and beautiful.
Beautiful just as they are because that's the way they are.
No mistakes,
That is,
As you were intended to be made.
Can you love all of you?
The beauty of your torso and groin and hips,
Shoulders.
Strong,
Well-muscled,
Thin,
Little portly.
Skin getting a little dry,
Gray hair,
Whatever you have.
Love it.
Breathe into it.
Breathe into the entire lower section of your body,
Just wonderful and wondrous and beautiful.
Maybe not in the superficial ways you would have thought when you were young.
Beautiful in entirely new ways.
How would you like to feel about your body?
Deeply in,
Slowly out,
Just settling,
Just becoming one with who you are physically,
Emotionally,
Spiritually,
Your conscience.
And extending this generous awareness all the way out your arms to your hands,
Fingernails.
Exposed veins,
Freckles,
Moles,
Muscles,
Older skin,
Younger skin,
Wrinkles,
Surgeries,
Scars,
Definitely scars.
We don't have the body of a child anymore.
We have a body of wisdom and experience.
Showing all of its capacities and histories,
A new kind of beauty,
An important beauty.
Even with the soreness and stiffness in our joints or weakness in muscle or old broken bones that act up in the rain,
This is who we are.
This is our glorious and wondrous body in which we get to exist,
Charmed by the world.
Love it.
Breathe into it.
Think about your head,
Your face,
Your ears and your nose are getting bigger,
Getting more wrinkles,
Gray hair every day.
Can that be fun?
Can that be delightful?
Can it be handsome and beautiful and strong?
Not the perfect skin we see airbrushed in a magazine,
But our skin,
Our real face.
Conveys all of our emotions and shows our experiences,
Passions and compassions.
Can that be and be loved?
Thinning hair,
Graying,
Shorter or longer than we might've anticipated,
Unevenness,
Stiff jaw,
Itchy nose,
Thinning lips,
Graying teeth.
Can we love it all and see a beauty therein?
How would you like to feel about your face and your head and really your whole body,
This whole experience of self?
Can you see your own beauty?
In a new framework,
With a new lens,
With new words.
May it be so.
