Let us begin with a few deep breaths.
Inhaling through the nose and gently seeing how the lungs are filled.
If you are lying down,
You might notice the expansion of your chest.
Or your belly rising with each breath.
If you're lying down,
On each exhalation,
Notice your body sinking more deeply to the bed or mat below you.
Letting go of any concerns or worries that you're holding.
Notice what's drawing your attention.
If it's a part of the physical body,
Rather than push the experience aside,
My invitation today for you is to feel the experience.
And notice if your mind goes to the phrase,
I am in pain or my hip is hurting.
And see if you can shift that view to,
This hip is in pain.
Or pain becomes described as its sensations.
This joint is warm or cool,
Tight,
Sharp,
Dull.
Notice how in the moment when you remove the use of the personal pronouns,
I,
Mine,
That a new opportunity presents itself.
To recognize yourself as more than this body.
To open up to a deeper awareness that's always present.
And with this view,
I'd like us to begin a body scan.
And starting from the crown of your head.
Here I could say the head that you have.
Relaxing muscles of the forehead and the temple region.
Noticing if the eyes are tight or loose.
Relaxing the muscles under the eyes.
Even the eyeball itself.
With the next breath,
Draw your attention to the muscles of your cheeks,
Jaw.
Becoming present to the sensations.
Providing each breath to loosen,
Relax the muscles of the face.
Now draw that awareness with your next breath to your throat,
Back of the neck,
The upper shoulders which often carry a lot of tension.
Allowing the muscles to release some of their hold.
And recognizing the structure that remains regardless of how tight the muscles grasp is of the underlying skeletal structure.
Notice how your shoulders lay on the bed or on the mat.
Relax the muscles of the arms,
Upper arms and lower arms reaching into your fingertips.
Noticing the pattern of having competing muscles that both extend and flex.
Seeing what the experience is of releasing the mind's hold on any of them and just allowing them to be.
With the next breath,
Let's bring our awareness to our torso,
Chest.
The muscles along your spine.
Ribs as they expand and contract.
Opening up with curiosity to what the breath's experience is in the lungs,
The heart,
The chest.
From the lungs we bring our awareness down even further into our abdomen,
Lower back.
Noticing the spaces between the organs of elimination and digestion,
Reproduction.
Now bring your attention directly to your pelvis.
Noticing the experience of the muscles,
The tendons.
Inviting a release of the hold that the mind has on the experience.
Any stories that are being told about it.
Just experiencing it.
Is it warm or cool?
Sharp or dull?
As you sit with the experience,
Notice the separation between the one that's experiencing and the experience itself.
Take a few deep breaths,
Drawing the breath's energy into the pelvis to relax and release some of the tension and grasp the hold that it has.
Recognizing that you're not changing the moment,
But experiencing it fully.
With the next breath,
Draw your attention to the muscles of your legs,
Femur,
Quadriceps going down to the knees,
The calves.
Relax.
Inviting relaxation and ease into the lower extremities.
Noticing the experience of your ankles and your feet,
The muscles of the soles of your feet.
All the way to the tips of your toes.
Noticing if you can experience them from within the toes themselves.
With the next breath,
Notice the entirety of this body.
Crown the head to the tips of the fingers,
Down to the soles of the feet.
Experience the body in its fullness.
With each breath,
Inviting energy and care and warmth in to support this body.
In these last few minutes,
Clear the mind of any and all thoughts.
Letting go of the experience of the body to allow yourself to rest in open awareness.
