Body Scan Meditation: Nourish

Your needs are not a burden. You are a human with needs. This is a meditation and body scan for self care, a great meditation for a morning check in with yourself and your body. This will help you get through your day and address your mind and body's needs as they arise.

Transcript

Your needs are not a burden.

You are not needy.

You are a human with needs.

As a human,

You are solely responsible for meeting your needs.

Each morning,

Begin your day by scanning your subtle body,

Checking in with yourself,

And tending to your tender spots,

Places of felt need.

Braid meeting your needs into the fabric of your day,

Fusing this caregiving in with the rest of your plans for the day.

What do you need right now?

Start here.

Start with your eyes closed.

Begin to survey your body from the tips of your toes to the top of your head.

Feel into the question,

Leaning into your needs as they present themselves.

Know that this is a dialogue between you and your subtle body.

It is a conversation that you have with yourself upon waking each morning that guides the trajectory of your day.

Start here.

Start by acknowledging that you are not needy.

You are not needy.

You are a human that has needs.

You are a human and you're working hard each day to make ends meet,

To take care of those around you,

To take care of yourself.

You are a human and you have needs.

Start right now by asking yourself the question,

What do I need right now?

Scan your body.

Start with your toes and move your attention up through your feet and into your ankles.

Bring your attention to your calves,

Feeling it swirl around your kneecaps before heading up your thighs.

As you inch closer to the core of your body,

Bring your attention through your root to your pelvic bowl,

The energetic center of your body.

Breathe deeply to this place.

Feel your lower belly expand beneath your hand as you breathe steadily in and out.

Allow your attention to rise through your core,

Ricocheting through your abdomen.

Is there any discomfort here?

What tension do you notice?

Where does the breath not travel?

Feel your body soften and expand beneath your attention.

Start to notice the small places where stress or pain might be hiding.

Bring your attention to your chest,

To your lungs as they fill with air again and again.

Bring your attention to your neck,

Into your shoulders.

Let it meander down both of your arms and into your hands.

Feel every part of your skin sing as your skin passes over it,

Grateful for a moment of your attention.

Bring your consciousness to your head,

To your face,

To your brain.

Ask yourself,

What does my body need from me today?

As you begin to scan your emotional body,

Open your skin,

Deciphering any emotions that are present for you in this moment.

How do you feel?

Breathe deeply in and out as you settle into this question.

Do your best to sit there in the moment with feelings as they arise.

You do not need to leap up to fix them.

You do not have to cast them away unwelcome.

For this moment,

Urge your emotions to bubble to the surface,

Making themselves seen.

You do not need to have the language to describe the emotion to someone else.

You do not need to qualify your emotions here in order to prove their validity.

In this moment,

All of your emotions are welcome.

There is space for their complexity right here.

Take a moment to put your hand on your heart in a show of faith and gratitude to yourself for navigating these waters.

As you breathe deeply,

Take the time to validate your feelings,

Taking note of them,

So that you can carve out space for them to travel and change throughout the day.

Allow yourself to start here in deeply granting yourself permission to have your feelings.

Know that you don't have to alter them or fix them or tidy them up for public consumption.

Allow yourself to feel fully here.

Ask yourself,

How do I feel today?

Bring your attention to your mental body.

Bring your attention to the language that you tend to use with needs as they arise.

Do you tell yourself that you are undeserving?

Or do you tend to use your actions to tell yourself that you are undeserving?

Trespassing against yourself again and again as you put yourself at the end of every line in order to serve those around you.

When you ask yourself what you need,

Do answers come readily?

Is your body alert and talkative this morning?

Is it sluggish?

Weepy?

Do you wish you didn't have to answer these questions?

As you deepen into conversation with your mental body,

Notice the quality and caliber of the exchange of words.

Do you speak to yourself the way that you would speak to someone that you love?

Imagine a younger version of yourself in your mind's eye for just a moment.

Imagine speaking the words that you use to describe yourself and your daily actions aloud.

How does it feel?

As you head into your day,

Invite yourself to use this as a litmus test for your inner dialogue,

Conjuring up that image of your younger self as often as you need.

Feel into the knowledge that if it is not good enough for her or him,

It is not good enough for you either.

Feel into believing that you are the deserving recipient of your own adoration and compassionate communication.

Ask yourself,

How will I communicate with myself today?

As you feel your attention deepen,

Scanning the deeper realms of your spiritual body,

Let your mind wander as you start to bring your awareness here.

Where are you connected to your spirit this morning?

Where are you disconnected,

The truths that emerge with tender hands?

Be gentle with places of disconnect.

Work to deepen your breath,

Breathing into those places and feeling them soften and unfurl.

Allow this conversation to be an open-ended pledge to find a way to connect with yourself and the world around you today.

Allow yourself to string these moments together,

Noticing how you crave this feeling of connectedness and the choices that you are able to make to help yourself feel grounded here.

Know that your grounding is that cord,

That tether,

The complex root system that connects you to the Earth's core.

If you are feeling disconnected,

You can always take off your shoes and stand upon the ground beneath your feet.

Allow your focus here to be in breaking down the boundaries and borders that stand between you and the Divine,

Because there is no need for a mediator here.

You can return here anytime that you like.

So today,

As you navigate the world,

Keep it simple.

Tend to the levels of hydration that you feel.

Pledge to breathe into areas of tension.

Allow yourself the extra rest that you ache for.

Make time to move your body joyfully.

Nurture sacred moments of connectedness.

These moments can be small in the scheme of things,

But meaningful too.

String them together,

Prayer flags of met needs celebrated at dusk each day.

Keep it simple.

Start here with one thing.

Start here by asking yourself,

What do I need today?

You've got this.

Reviews

I love this as a place to start the day! It skips in a few places which is distracting, maybe it could be re-loaded? Thank you!!