This meditation can be done either lying down or in a seated position in a chair or on a cushion on the floor.
If you're in a seated position,
Be sure to support the weight of your own body.
That is,
Don't lean against the back of a chair if you're sitting in a chair.
Start by centering your weight,
Both front to back and side to side,
By just rocking your weight gently on your sit bones.
Until you can relax around your central column and let go of as much muscular tension as possible.
Start with your awareness of the crown of your head and just let it open.
Feel that openness start to spread into the muscles around your cranium,
Feeling them soften and expand.
Feel the muscle that is your brain relax inside your skull.
Let go of the muscles around your eyes and even let your eyeballs themselves soften back into their sockets.
Feel your sinuses open.
Even open your inner ears to disengage from the thoughts in your mind and actively listen to the layers of sound around you.
Even listen beyond the layers of sound to the vast and deep silence that lies behind it all.
Let that silence permeate your being.
Feel the roof of your mouth spread.
Let your bottom jaw relax.
Let your tongue just rest inside your bottom teeth.
Allow the back of your throat to open and expand.
Let that work its way down your neck and the rest of your throat.
Let your shoulders drop away from your ears.
Let your arms just hang from the shoulder sockets.
Imagine all of the cells of the muscles of your upper arms moving away from each other.
Expanding into the space around you.
Let that spaciousness work its way down your arms into your elbow joints.
And down into the muscles of your forearms as you allow all of those muscles to relax away from the bones.
This opening and expanding continues down into your wrists and your hands.
As you allow tension to just melt away.
You feel that your hands are getting bigger.
Your fingers growing longer.
And then bring your awareness back to your torso and feel your heart center soften.
Gently unwinding any gripping in the chest.
Feeling bands of tension unravel from your lower rib cage and your solar plexus.
Allowing this relaxation to permeate your internal organs.
You feel your abdomen soften.
Your low belly relax.
Down into your pelvis and your hips and your glutes.
Just let go.
Expand.
Soften.
Loosen.
Relax.
Down into your thighs.
Feel your hamstrings and your quads softening.
Space permeating your knee joints.
Taking your way down to your lower legs,
You feel your shins and your calves just melt.
Down into your ankles and your feet.
All the way to the tips of your toes.
And then expand your awareness to a global perspective of your body.
Feel as if your entire body is expanding into the space around you.
As if you were breathing with every pore on the surface of your skin.
And enjoy the spaciousness that you've created.
