Taking a moment to tune into what your intention is for this meditation.
So it might be relaxation.
It might be some form of peace.
If at any point your mind starts to race,
Sometimes opening the eyes so that you can really notice your surroundings and be where you are.
That can help to mitigate mind racing.
But if it feels comfortable for you,
Having your eyes closed is always welcome.
And allowing your awareness to alight gently on your feet.
Just noticing your feet from the inside.
Hmm,
What's going on with my feet right now?
So,
The balls of the feet,
The arch,
The heel.
On some days,
Some meditators have a sense of the bones or the muscles,
The joints inside.
You might even briefly wiggle your toes to feel that movement.
As you move up through the ankles and into the lower legs,
There's the shins in front,
There's the calves in back.
So you're not so much thinking about the leg as feeling it,
Direct sensation from the inside.
As you move up into the knees.
And as you're simply receiving the feeling inside your knees,
There might be a sense of nothingness,
A numbness.
And if you're paying attention,
And the only thing to pay attention to is a zero,
It still counts.
It's still excellent mindfulness.
In that case,
You would simply say,
Hmm,
That's kind of a zero.
Okay,
And still having an open awareness of what's going on in the knees anyway.
If you are in a position where you'd benefit from bending and straightening the knee in order to feel the movement in the joint,
That's an option for you if you'd like to take it.
And bringing the awareness of the knee into the knees,
And bringing the awareness up into the thighs,
Tops of the thighs,
Backs of the thighs,
Inside and out.
If you're sitting in a chair,
You might feel the pressure of the chair underneath your thighs.
If you're lying on the bed,
It might be similar.
There might be a place where you feel the fabric of your pant leg.
There might be a sense of nothingness.
Sometimes things are positive,
Sometimes things are negative,
Sometimes things are neutral.
And the experiment,
If you're choosing to experiment,
Is to have a kind of open field of awareness.
And whatever kind of sensation happens to be in your upper leg right now,
Simply noting it,
Receiving it.
Sometimes we even say befriending it,
If that's possible.
And then moving up into the hips,
And of course taking care of yourself and moving your attention away whenever you need to.
Perhaps moving up into the lower back of the knee,
Or perhaps moving up into the lower back,
The belly,
The lower part of the torso.
There are organs of digestion and elimination inside.
There might be a belly gurgle.
Then moving up into the upper part of the torso,
The chest,
The breasts.
In back there's the scapulas,
On the sides are the rib cage.
Inside is the spine.
You might be aware of some form of movement along with the breath.
There are muscles between the ribs called intercostal muscles.
And depending on how things are going with the breath and what your position is,
You might feel the ribs opening like a balloon on the inside.
You might feel the ribs opening like a balloon on the inhale and gently falling back towards the spine on the exhale.
But you might not be feeling that.
I'm using my voice to indicate things that I've heard meditators report to me and things that I've felt myself.
But you're out in the field of experience.
You're the one who knows what's predominant in your awareness right now.
There might even be a sense of the heart beating.
Moving up into the shoulders,
And then allowing the awareness to go out into both hands and the fingers.
Palms of the hands,
Backs of the hands,
The little muscles and joints inside the fingers.
If you want to make slow fists and release it in order to feel the gentle motion that happens,
Go ahead and do that.
Maybe including the wrists and the forearms in your awareness,
The elbows.
Moving the awareness up into the upper arms,
Maybe including the armpits.
Moving into the shoulders.
And again,
Seeing if it's possible to have an open field of awareness and noting what's real.
Bringing the awareness up into the neck,
Moving the awareness up into the jaw,
Maybe including the teeth and the tongue,
The lips,
Cheeks,
Nose,
Eyes,
Eyebrows,
Ears,
Top of the head.
Seeing if there's some sense of inside your head,
The brain.
We just went systematically through each part of the body.
We just went through in a way where I mentioned the different parts of the body and the intention was to feel it or not according to what was real.
And now seeing if there's a way to have a more loose awareness of the whole body altogether.
So including the head and the face and the ears and the neck,
Including the shoulders,
Including the arms all the way down to the fingers,
Including the chest,
Including the rest of the torso,
Including the whole spine down to the tailbone,
Including the hips,
Including the legs through the knees,
Down the calves and through the ankles,
And including the feet and the toes.
In some way,
Just feeling the whole body,
The whole body,
Being aware of what's predominant in your awareness,
Putting out a kind of welcome mat to whatever happens to be here as it is.
So And knowing that it's time to end the meditation for now,
Perhaps deepening the breath,
Or breathing.
And as you listen to the sound of the bell,
Coming to a sense of completion with your meditation for this time.
