Body Awareness & Appreciation Meditation

You can use this practice either as a visualization or a gentle stretching practice, great to do in the morning. Take a tour of your brilliant body. Explore its movements, sensations, connections, energy, and systems. Visualize the body and all the miracles within it. Connecting with the physical form and seeing it differently can be useful for appreciating its constant action, balancing, rebalancing, feeling, and healing. Experiencing gratitude and appreciation for our body helps us to heal our relationship with it in a deep and lasting way, recognizing that for this moment, it is ours, although it is constantly changing, it is our greatest gift, tool, and anchor for this life.

Transcript

Welcome to this exploration of the physical body.

During this guidance,

There will be instructions to make some gentle,

Slow movements using the body.

These are all just suggestions.

If you are injured or would prefer to make this a visualisation lying down in stillness,

Then that is also a great way to practice.

Please take a comfortable position for your body now,

Seated perhaps on a pillow or lying down on a mat,

Sofa or even a bed.

Relax.

Do what you can and most importantly,

Listen to your amazing body.

It is our map and our instruction for what is happening inside and outside of ourselves.

Because we feel very familiar with our bodies,

We can often take them for granted.

However,

The body is a miracle in its own right.

Constantly working to keep us healthy and balanced.

Through this exploration,

You will develop a deeper knowledge of your own unique body.

Knowledge is a great tool for developing appreciation,

Love and respect.

Before we start,

It is important to understand what your body would look like in an advanced x-ray machine.

Approximately where everything is.

The skeleton,

Organs,

Joints,

Muscles and tissues.

Try to visualise as best you can and you can repeat this audio as many times as you like,

Developing your awareness each time.

Let's begin.

Take a deep breath in.

As you exhale,

Close your eyes.

Bring the whole body to stillness.

Start off by simply breathing.

As you draw the breath into the body,

Visualise the expansion of the lungs.

As you release the breath from the body,

Visualise the contraction of the lungs.

The inhale expands,

Widening the whole body.

The exhale contracts,

Pulling all the rib bones in towards the spine.

Inhale expands.

The exhale contracts.

With each exhalation,

Feel the body relax.

The breath smoothly flowing into your lungs.

You can breathe through the nose or through the mouth.

There are around 600 million alveoli in your lungs.

Each of these little pockets fills with air.

So the deeper you breathe in and the longer you breathe out,

The better quality of breath you have.

Filling and clearing all these pockets.

The inhalation fills all the alveoli.

The exhalation,

Long and slow,

Clears all the little pockets.

Each breath you take sends your heart the oxygen it needs to infuse each circulation of thousands of billions of blood cells around your body.

Each red blood cell is carrying millions of oxygen molecules.

Perhaps you can feel your heart beating now.

Or perhaps you can visualize it beating in the chest.

What is the energy keeping it beating?

Trust your body.

Trust the energy that is beating your heart,

Digesting,

Regenerating hundreds of millions of blood cells per minute.

This is cellular consciousness.

Automatic,

Natural,

Equilibrious intelligence.

It is the intelligence that keeps us alive without us even trying.

Rest in the safety of your body,

Your breath,

Your heartbeat.

Visualizing the major parts.

Start with the head and neck.

See your head and neck as if it were in an x-ray machine.

The top of the cervical vertebrae connected to the skull.

Begin to make some very small internal movements of the neck.

Forwards,

Backwards,

Side to side,

Perhaps around in small circles.

These internal movements are so delicate that they may not be noticeable from the outside.

Start to increase the movements,

Holding the visualization on the tiny discs of the neck that are supporting the skull,

The house of the brain.

Exhale,

Drop the chin down to the chest.

Inhale,

Slowly lift the head up and back.

Open the jaw.

Visualize the jawbone open.

Exhale,

Close.

Close,

The chin drops down to the chest.

Inhale,

Lift the head,

Open the jaw.

Exhale,

Tilt the head back down,

Close the jawbone.

Repeat this movement a few times with the visualization on the movement of the neck,

The bone and hinge of the jaw,

And the muscles that surround these joints.

On the next exhalation,

Keep the chin at the chest.

Inhale,

Roll the right ear up to the right shoulder.

Exhale,

Take the chin back down to the chest.

Inhale,

Roll the left ear up to the left shoulder.

And exhale,

The chin back down to the chest.

Once you become used to these semicircles,

Internalize the awareness and focus on the visualization of the skeleton.

The bones and discs of the neck rolling from one side to the other side,

Smoothly and gently,

Controlled by the surrounding muscles.

Perhaps you intuitively want to stay with one ear at the shoulder to stretch out the neck.

And once you feel that the stretch is sufficient,

Continuing the half circles.

The next exhalation,

The chin stops at the chest.

Inhale,

Bring the head back up to centre.

Stack the skull on top of the top vertebrae.

Deep breath in,

Lengthen up through the whole spine.

Lift from the crown of the head,

Making space between each of the vertebrae,

All the way down the spine.

Exhale,

Look to the right.

Inhale,

Back to the centre.

Exhale,

Look left.

Inhale,

Back to the centre.

Looking over the shoulder in one direction.

Carefully coming back to the centre.

And then exhale,

Look in the opposite direction.

Once you have an understanding of this movement,

Drop the attention to the neck,

The bones inside the neck.

Visualise the neck as if it were under the x-ray.

The discs twisting from side to side to allow this different range of motion.

On the next inhalation,

Bring the head back to centre.

Keep the eyes closed.

Hold the visualisation of the vertebrae in the neck.

And take any movements that you feel intuitively would be good for your neck in this moment.

Perhaps a full rotation.

Perhaps dropping the ear down to the shoulder.

Notice how all of the muscles and tendons support this movement of the neck.

Use these muscles to draw the head back to stack on top of the shoulders.

Move the awareness down to the shoulders.

Visualise the shoulders as if they were under an x-ray machine.

Inhale,

Draw the shoulders up to the ears,

With control.

Exhale,

Roll them back and down.

Inhale,

Draw the shoulders up to the ears.

And exhale,

Roll them back and down.

Beginning to feel the sensation of the ball and socket joint of the shoulders.

Continue this movement,

Deepening the visualisation of this most intricate joint.

The shoulder joint.

The next exhale,

Reverse the direction.

Inhale,

Draw the shoulders up to the ears,

With control.

Exhale,

Shoulders forwards and down.

Inhale,

Draw the shoulders up.

Exhale,

Forwards and down.

Maintaining the awareness of this incredible joint.

The bones.

The muscles that move the bones.

All the veins wrapped around the muscles.

Diving into the muscle tissue to carry the fresh oxygen to strengthen and support the muscles.

The whole body,

One beautiful ecosystem.

Begin to take some full rotations of the shoulders.

First in one direction.

And then in the other direction.

Noticing now this full range of movement.

Bringing that movement into the full arm.

Sweep the hands forwards and up,

Back and down.

Forwards and up,

Back and down.

Making a circle with the arms.

Simultaneously making a circle with the joints at the shoulders.

Visualising the full limbs as if they were under the x-ray.

Reverse the direction of the shoulders.

Reverse the direction of the arms.

On the next exhalation,

Slowly rest the hands back down by the sides of the body.

Inhale,

Draw the shoulders open,

Push the chest forwards.

Exhale,

Draw the shoulders together and push the back out.

The inhale draws the wings of the shoulders together towards the spine.

The exhale opens the wings of the shoulders and pulls them away from the spine.

Hold the visualisation at the upper back.

Shoulders opening,

Shoulders closing.

Wings of the shoulders closing.

Wings of the shoulders opening.

These two wings of the shoulders,

Large plates of bone surrounded by muscle and connective tissue.

Use the breath to support this movement,

Stretching deeper.

From the jaw down to the middle spine.

Visualising the body just as the bones of the skeleton.

The tendons and the surrounding muscle tissue.

Opening and closing the shoulders.

The next inhalation,

Draw the shoulders open,

Wings of the shoulders come towards the spine.

Exhale,

Settle the shoulders to rest,

Stacked over the hips.

Wiggle the fingers,

Maybe squeeze the hand into a fist,

Open the fingers out.

Visualise all the tiny bones of the fingers move.

The tiny muscles and tendons that support this movement,

Just like the keys on a piano.

Take the hands to rest on the knees.

Bring the awareness to the spine.

The spine as if it were under an x-ray.

All the discs stacked beautifully,

One on top of the other.

Use the muscles of the torso to gently bring some movement into the body,

Just as we did with the head.

And the neck,

Tiny internal movements.

Forwards,

Backwards,

Side to side.

Starting to bring some gentle movement to the spine.

The muscles of the back that surround the spine.

And the front and side core muscles that support the spine.

Deepening the range of movement,

Visualise the spine twisting and bending at a slow,

Gentle and controlled pace.

Forwards,

Backwards,

Side to side.

Perhaps using the hands to bring a small twist over to the right,

A twist over to the left.

Fixing your attention and awareness on what feels good for your unique body and your unique spine.

As the spine moves,

Visualise the direction that the discs of the spine move.

In between each of the discs of the spine,

There is a small disc.

Mostly made of water,

Like a tiny jelly plate.

Giving the fluidity to the movement of the spine.

Allowing it to move in silence.

Twist in silence,

Bend in silence.

Keeping each disc separate,

But working as one whole spine.

Start to reduce the movement and come to stillness.

Taking the last part of the attention down to the lower part of the skeleton.

The hips,

The legs,

Knees and feet.

Whether you're sat cross-legged or with the legs extended out in front.

Visualise the bones of this lower part of the body and the surrounding muscles and take some small movements.

Perhaps rolling in the hips,

Squeezing the muscles of the legs.

Flex and point the ankles and the toes.

And then relax the movements.

Rest in your incredible body.

Visualise the entire structure of the body as if it were under an x-ray.

The skeletal system,

All the bones held together in place.

The skeleton containing all your organs,

This living organ tissue.

Working by itself 24 hours a day.

Surrounded by all the veins,

Tendons and ligaments.

All alive and engaging.

Holding itself together,

Holding you together.

Everything surrounded by muscle,

Wrapped in a web of connective tissue,

Connecting everything.

What an incredible creation that houses you.

How precious and complex.

Sending love and gratitude to your body in its stillness.

In its stillness and in its motion.

For all that it has fought.

For all that it has carried you through.

All the years it has worked and given you your life experiences.

Celebrate this beautiful living being.

This gratitude is a way to gently transform any critical or unsupportive thoughts or beliefs towards the body.

Creating a space of harmony between the body and mind and an unconscious pledge to be kinder to yourself and your body.

To love yourself and your body.

Loving yourself is the greatest revolution.

This practice is now complete.

Take a last few deep breaths in this position.

Slowly open your eyes.

Take as much time as you need to move and stretch and have a beautiful onwards journey.

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Such awareness💯