With the eyes slightly open can be particularly helpful if you've just woken up or feel like you're about to fall asleep.
But I recommend having them closed or just open the tiniest bit.
And then starting by just dropping your attention straight away to the parts of the body in contact with the floor.
So if you're seated that might be your sitting bones and parts of your legs.
If you're lying down the entire back body.
And just feeling how the weight of the body creates a sensation of kind of pressure of contact there where your body touches the floor.
And feel how the weight of the body and that sensation of contact literally grounds your attention in awareness.
Just staying with those sensations for a moment or two more.
Beautiful and then from here we're going to go through our body scan starting at the crown of the head.
So starting at the crown of the head and then feeling the sensations around the area of the forehead.
And also behind the forehead so the frontal lobe this part of the brain that does all the heavy lifting and is switched on for most of the day.
You might find some sensations there you might find some tightness maybe some pressure.
And the self-compassionate aspect of this meditation is that whatever sensation we come across whether it's pleasant or unpleasant.
We remind ourselves that we are all united in experiencing both pleasant and unpleasant sensations.
And particularly when the sensations are unpleasant we respond with self-kindness.
So as you receive sensations in the area of the forehead behind the brow if there's any tightness or pressure there just acknowledging that every human experiences discomfort,
Pressure,
Tightness.
And just allowing yourself to be with those sensations for a moment.
And then dropping the attention down slightly towards the area of the jewel.
The jewel,
The mouth.
And you might ever so slightly just drop your bottom row of teeth away from the top row of teeth.
And the jewel also for many of us is where we hold on to quite a lot of tension.
Again if you find any tightness or any kind of discomfort in this region you might gently note it.
Discomfort or tension.
And then trying not to get caught up in wanting it to be different but instead acknowledging the universality of that experience and being with the sensations in kindness.
Dropping your attention down now towards the area of the throat,
The neck,
And the shoulders.
Feeling the shoulders from the inside out.
The shoulders in particular for many of us is where we experience some tightness,
Some tangle,
Some tension.
Again acknowledging that every single one of us experiences pain,
Discomfort in some form at some point.
Maybe acknowledging that the shoulders,
The arms do a huge amount of our lifting both physically and psychologically.
And allowing yourself to be with the sensations in that area for a moment in kindness.
Feeling then the length of the arms all the way down to the hands and see if there's some room for softening in the hands.
Maybe softening a little more.
And then drawing your attention back now to the area of the chest,
The rib cage.
Feeling the rib cage from the inside out.
Again sometimes we might feel some heaviness.
The rib cage,
The area of the heart is where we experience some of our emotions.
Sometimes we experience these as unpleasant.
Again if there's anything there just acknowledging that every single one of us at some point experiences discomfort in this area.
And trying to move away from adding that layer of judgment on top of it.
Being with that sensation in self-kindness.
If it helps you can say a phrase here such as ah that hurts but I'm here before the sensation.
Or even just I'm here for you.
So continuing downwards now with the attention towards the area of the belly.
And the belly can be particularly complicated both because we tend to hold some tension here sometimes.
We experience maybe sensations of fear in the belly.
But also because some of us have a little bit of a complicated relationship with the belly we might feel a sense of rejection towards the physical form.
And again acknowledging that both these things are universal experiences.
Both a sense of discomfort or sometimes even pain we might feel.
But also that we all at some point feel a sense of rejection towards part of ourselves.
Having acknowledged the common humanity in that see if you can stay with any sensations for a moment with an attitude of self-kindness.
Again if saying a phrase helps you might say a phrase.
Sometimes it's helpful to place a hand as well on the body part.
Whatever works for you.
Dropping the attention down now towards the pelvis the hips.
Again receiving any sensations there.
You might feel the pressure with whatever you're sitting on.
Again maybe there's some tightness.
Again maybe there's a complicated relationship with this part of the body.
Whatever it is sitting with it.
Recognizing the common humanity.
And then resting with the sensations with an attitude of self-kindness.
And then finally feeling the weight and the length of the legs all the way down to the feet.
Any sensations you feel there.
The heaviness of the legs.
Maybe some tightness somewhere.
Temperature.
You might feel heat or coolness in different parts of the legs.
Again if anything's uncomfortable or difficult responding with the common humanity and then the self-kindness.
And then finally expanding your awareness to experience the whole body.
Kind of like a field of sensations.
So holding all the sensations of your whole body in your awareness for these last few moments.
If your attention is drawn to one particular area.
Again acknowledge that.
Know that that's so common,
So normal.
Come back to expansive awareness of the whole body if possible and if not just sit with whatever part calls your attention for these final few moments.
If you're experiencing the whole body you might feel as though the whole body is breathing.
Whole body is gently waving with the breath.
So and then just for a few moments letting go of any focus.
No focus on the body,
No focus on the breath.
And then just as we started drawing your attention back once more to the grounding sensation of your sitting bones and whatever you're sitting on or the whole back body with whatever you're lying on.
And then in your own time you might only open the eyes again.
Take a moment before you move if you can just to receive sights,
Colors,
Shapes.
