And welcome to this body scan practice.
If you're an over-thinker,
A person that spends a lot of time up in your head thinking,
Mulling over things,
Worrying about things,
You might find that you're very rarely connecting in with your body.
So this is a practice to drop you down from your head and deepen your sense of connection with your body.
It can make you feel more grounded,
More stable.
And if you think what it's like to live at altitude,
The air is very thin up there.
So it's a very calming thing on your mind and body to connect a little deeper.
So start by taking a comfortable seated position in a chair or on a cushion.
There are no real rules about how you should be seated.
Just try and check for an evenness in your body,
A sense of ease within your body and try and keep your head unsupported.
This will help you stay awake.
And your hands can go in your lap or on your legs.
And if you'd like to,
You might gently close your eyes or just keep a low,
Soft,
Gentle gaze.
And bringing your attention to your breath,
Noticing the inhale and the exhale,
Where the breath moves to in the body.
And you might find that you start to deepen your breath just through paying attention and that's okay.
And a couple more breaths now.
And then letting your attention drift away from the breath,
But knowing that through the practice,
If you get distracted or lost,
Just use your breath as your anchor.
Take a couple of breaths,
Focus on those and then slip back into the practice wherever we're up to.
Now letting yourself drop into this very moment using your senses.
So start with this sound,
Just tuning into any sounds near and far.
Noticing what you can see in that space behind your closed eyes,
If anything,
What you can observe with your gentle gaze.
And then can you smell any fragrances?
And are there any lingering tastes in your mouth?
And then finishing with touch,
So seeing if you can notice the temperature of the air on your face and your hands.
And the feeling of support that the chair or the cushion provides.
See if you can sink into that a little deeper.
And then bringing your gentle attention to the body.
And as you move your attention through the body today,
You're going to see if you can let go,
Loosen,
Release,
Melt away any tension that you're storing in the body.
Starting with a holistic look at your body,
Which parts are standing out for you as holding tension right now.
And just seeing if it's okay to loosen,
Melt that tension away.
Now for some people,
Just the words are enough.
If you need a little more,
You might like to tense the area that you're thinking about and then deliberately relax and loosen it.
So let's get more detailed now.
Let's go to the crown of the head and the scalp and the skull and the brain.
And just noticing if you're holding any tension in these parts of the body.
Seeing if it's okay to let them go.
Maybe imagine the head as light as a balloon floating in the air and see if that helps the sensation of release.
And turning your attention to your forehead and your eyebrows and your eyes.
Seeing any tension,
Seeing if you can release that.
Remembering to breathe.
Moving your awareness across the cheekbones and the jaw joint and the jaw bone and the bottom row of teeth and the top row of teeth and the tongue.
Just checking for any stored tension.
Seeing if it's okay to release,
To let go,
To relax.
Remembering that you can tense up these parts and then release if that helps.
Moving your awareness down through the back of the neck.
You might even like to roll the head around a little bit.
Just relaxing,
Loosening,
Letting go.
And then down across the shoulders,
The traps.
You might like to squeeze those shoulders tight and then let go.
Release down,
Away from the ears.
Moving your gentle awareness down through the tops of the arms,
Noticing any tension.
Melting it away into the elbows.
And the forearms.
And then the wrists and the hands.
You might like to squeeze the hands before releasing,
Letting go of the tension in them.
Moving your awareness back down through the torso from the shoulders,
Down to the shoulder blades.
Middle of the back,
The lower back and then the bottom.
Just see if you can melt away some of the tension you're holding.
You might like to squeeze your bottom and then release,
Letting go,
Sinking a bit deeper.
And then taking your attention down through the pelvis and the hips,
Releasing.
Down the backs of the legs,
Down the thighs,
Noticing any tension and just letting it go.
You might like to squeeze the thighs and then release.
Down through the knees,
To the shins,
Through the calves,
Noticing any tightness,
Any tension,
Any holding on.
See if you can let it go.
Moving your awareness down through the heels,
To the soles of the feet and the arches,
Noticing any tightness and seeing if you can gently release it.
You might like to arch your foot,
Press your toes into the ground just to aid that feeling of letting go.
Noticing the big toes,
The second toes,
Third toes,
Fourth toes and little toes.
Noticing the tops of the feet and noticing any tension there.
And noticing now how it feels to have dropped down into the body,
To have tuned into what's really going on here.
And taking a few extra moments now to see if there are parts of the body still storing some tension,
Often between the eyebrows,
The jaw joint,
The neck,
The shoulders,
The bottom.
And just see if you can move through the body,
Taking your attention anywhere that it needs to go and seeing if it can melt away any tightness,
Any stress.
Cycling again back through the body,
Looking to see where tension is being stored,
Seeing if you can just let go a little bit.
And then just sitting for a moment or two,
Letting the effects of the body,
Integrating with the breath.
And gently starting the process of coming back to your day,
Taking in a few deep breaths again.
Noticing the sounds.
Noticing any taste.
Noticing your fingers and toes and starting to bring some movement to them.
Extending that up through the body,
Stretching,
Twisting,
Yawning,
Whatever your body needs to do right now.
And congratulate yourself for connecting with your body.
Enjoy any feelings you've created,
Any connection that's deepened.
And well done you for committing to your practice today.
Thank you.
