So allowing your body to settle into a posture that's relaxed and at ease.
If you're sitting,
Try and keep your back and neck upright,
But if your body is feeling very distressed right now,
Maybe lie down comfortably on your back,
Bringing a commitment to being fully awake and present for this meditation.
You might like to gently close your eyes.
For a few moments,
Just becoming aware of your entire body.
Maybe you can consciously soften any areas of tightness or tension.
You might be able to gently soften your foreheads.
Gently open the jaws just slightly and let it float back closed.
Maybe you can allow the shoulders to drop to soften.
Just notice where your hands are resting,
Allowing them to be soft at ease.
And notice in the places where your body makes contact with the floor or the cushion,
Sense the warmth and gentle pressure of those places where your body meets the earth or the chair.
We can expand our attention outwards,
Becoming aware of the entire body resting,
Allowing there to be whatever ease there can be in this moment.
Bringing a wholehearted caring attention to the body.
We can begin to notice all the different sensations that are present.
Perhaps we can feel the cool air on our skin,
Or the touch of our clothes on our body.
Maybe you can notice your heartbeat,
Or the gentle rise and fall of your chest or your belly with your breath.
Imagine the multitude of other sensations happening within your body,
Tingling,
Warmth,
Movement,
Pleasant and unpleasant sensations.
Within the range of these different experiences,
Begin to notice the sensations that are most dominant,
The areas of your body that stand out through the intensity of the sensation there.
This is the area calling for our attention.
Beginning to focus on that area of the body,
Tracing the edges of the discomfort with your attention,
Like you might trace an outline on a page.
Connecting directly with those sensations,
Trying to stay close to the actual experience of the sensations in the body,
As much as possible letting go of any discursive thoughts around why,
How long,
To connect actually with the experience in this place just as it is.
Noticing the edge of the pain of the discomfort,
Where does it begin to fade into different sensations,
Sensations of warmth,
Pressure or movement,
Allowing your attention to rest in those neutral or pleasant areas surrounding the pain for some moments.
Noticing the texture of these places.
You might also notice the sensations in your hands or the soles of your feet or other parts of the body that are not in this area of pain.
Noticing those points of pressure,
Warmth and then gently bringing the attention back into the area of pain or discomfort and focusing very directly on where those sensations are most acute,
Noticing the points of intensity,
Maybe noticing how they are surrounded by areas of tension or discomfort.
Moving your attention into the centre of the pain,
Beginning to notice the texture,
The flavour of the sensations,
Are they tight,
Piercing,
Aching,
Stabbing,
Investigating the nature of these sensations.
And if you notice that your attention begins to become tight or aversive or fearful,
Just moving back to a part of your body that is outside this area of pain,
Allowing yourself to rest and focus your attention there once more,
Finding some groundedness,
Some calm in these areas of non-pain,
Resting in the gentle pressure of where our hands or feet are resting,
Or some other pleasant or neutral sensation.
And when you feel ready just coming back into the pain,
And maybe there's a number of these points,
We can carefully move our attention from one to the next,
Gently exploring each one,
Noticing especially any change in these areas of discomfort.
How do the sensations shift or move?
Do they rise and fall in intensity?
Do they come and go?
Maybe the sensations themselves shift?
We can be patient in this exploration,
We don't want to demand that the pain goes away,
We simply want to be willing to explore the truth of what is now,
Just seeing clearly things as they are in this moment,
As much as possible letting go of the need for it to be different.
And again when we notice our attention becomes tight or aversive,
That's the signal to just gently go outside of the pain once more,
To reground in an area of the body that's relaxed,
At ease.
We're just learning to visit the pain,
To explore it,
See it as it is,
But always giving ourselves permission to go,
To return to a place of safety,
A simple point of contact or pressure,
Maybe the feeling of our lips meeting each other.
Assuming this dance into the pain,
And back to an area of non-pain.
We can end this meditation by just coming back once again to the awareness of our whole body resting here,
Mindful of the whole spectrum of different sensations,
The shifting qualities of life,
Movement in our body,
Resting in that spacious awareness for some moments,
And when you feel ready you can gently open your eyes and slowly come out of your meditation posture.
Thank you.
