And welcome to this meditation.
We're going to do kind of a classic centering,
Embodying body scan,
And move into our Vipassana practice.
So a little bit of instruction up front,
A reminder in the middle,
And a little refresher at the end.
So if you like,
You might just close your eyes and take a few moments just to check in.
Notice the quality of the felt sense,
What it feels like on the inside.
And with a real sensitive attunement to your body,
Just let your body move in any way that feels right.
Any little micro adjustments that would be helpful.
As a way of gathering attention,
You might move into some coherent breathing,
Breathing in slowly to the count of four,
At the top of the inhalation,
Gliding right into the exhalation to the count of four.
And for the next minute or so,
Just matching the length of the in-breath with the length of the out-breath.
And just sense how focused and relaxed you can be as you feel the breath on the inside.
An invitation,
If you'd like to change your focus a bit,
And that is to retain the inhalation to the count of four.
And on the exhalation,
Let the breath simply fall out of your body.
On the out-breath,
Letting this be a deepening into awareness of the felt sense.
And for as long as it's comfortable for you,
You might stay with this breath,
Breathing into the count of four,
Exhaling freely and sensing inside.
And from the inside out,
Feeling your forehead smooth,
Sensing the muscles around the eyes.
And the muscles of the face,
Letting all the micro-muscles relax.
And sensing and exploring the inside of the mouth,
The weight of the tongue,
The volume of the lips.
And sensing the space inside the throat,
The space inside the lungs as you breathe,
The diaphragm and ribcage.
And sensing now into the belly,
The lower abdomen,
The lower back and the buttocks.
And the floor of the pelvis and the hip joints.
And feeling the weight of your arms and sensing now down through the elbows,
Down through the wrists.
From the inside out,
Sensing the palms,
Fingers,
Backs of the hands.
And sensing the volume of the legs and sensing down now from the hip joints down through the knees,
The knees down through the ankles,
The tops of the feet and the toes,
Soles of the feet and the heels.
And sensing the whole body,
The outline of your body.
Is there anything inside that could soften or relax right now?
And from this place of embodied,
Relaxed awareness,
Escorting your attention to an anchor of your choosing,
To the breath or sound,
The felt sense in the palms.
And letting this be a portal to the here and now,
Returning again and again to the felt sense of the breath,
Or the vibration of sound,
Or sense of aliveness in the hands.
Where is your awareness right now?
You might let there be a moment of pleasure in re-arriving to again soften inside what could relax right now.
As you bring your attention to your anchor,
To your point of focus,
How much more could you relax right at this point of contact?
You might refresh the sense of embodied awareness,
Sensing from the inside,
The inside of the mouth,
And the space inside the throat.
And sensing again,
Down deep into the belly,
The lower abdomen,
Or what could relax or soften right now.
Can you sense who you are as the observer?
And you might in these remaining minutes,
Let your attention explore the foreground,
Breath,
Sound,
Felt sense.
And to widen to sense the background,
The entire field of changing phenomena.
Deeply relaxed,
And at the same time alert.
Intimately present,
And yet at the same time,
Open and allowing.
And you might explore now in these remaining minutes,
Shifting your attention from the willful act of present moment awareness to a deepening sense of relaxation and resting in presence,
Letting all effort fall away.
And to take this time to deeply relax,
Feel and receive.
And sensing again,
How might your body like to adjust or move as you take this remaining minute dedicated to listening deeply to your body as you begin your transition.
