Feel The Whole Body Breathing

Breathing is often something you notice in one place, such as the nostrils, chest, or belly. This guided body scan meditation invites you to explore a wider experience of breathing by becoming curious about sensations throughout the body. Rather than trying to control or change the breath, you are invited to notice its qualities and gradually widen your awareness. You may explore warmth, coolness, texture, color, and subtle sensations before sensing the whole body as one living, breathing experience. The practice then offers space to let thoughts, sensations, and whole-body awareness soften into open awareness. A bell opens and closes the meditation as a gentle cue to arrive and return. This recording comes from a live Journey You Own Meditation Gathering, so natural pauses and gentle references to shared practice may be present.

Transcript

Let us begin by noticing our breath. Drawing your awareness and focus. To your upper lip and your nostrils as the air enters and exits. Invite some curiosity into that initial experience of the inhalation. What is the quality of the breath? Notice the texture, The temperature. Perhaps even a color to the breath as it enters and exits your nose and mouth. From the tip of your nose now with your next inhalation draw your awareness to the inner portions of your face, The sinuses, The spaces below your eyes. Inviting a gentleness with the breath to relax the muscles. Along your face, The eyebrows. Softening the eyelids. Notice if you're carrying any tension on your forehead. Temple. Perhaps your jaw, And invite with the breath. A gentleness and a relaxation of the muscles of your face. With your next breath, Draw your attention to the muscles of your neck and your upper shoulders. Areas where we often carry some tension. And invite yourself to shed the layers of tension so you drop more deeply into the practice. What is the experience of the breath from within the shoulders and your upper back itself? The rise and fall with inhalation and exhalation. Tune in to any experience of subtle energy in the breath. Subtle winds. In the inhalation and exhalation, Wherever you feel it most strongly. As you feel your breath and the energy in your body, Notice if there are any other places in your physical body that are needing or desiring any more attention. And draw the breath and that energy to those areas. To soften the muscles, The hold, The tension that might be carried there. This might be the upper back or lower back. The hips or your legs. Perhaps the soles of the feet or your hands. With your next breath, Notice the experience of the body being breathed. In its entirety. From the tips of your fingers to the crown of your head. Down to your feet. Connecting with what it means to be a living, Breathing body. In this present moment. The last few minutes of our practice. I invite you to release all thoughts, All experience of the body. And rest in open awareness. When I ring the bell, I invite you to take three more deep breaths, Rooting yourself again back to your present body. The ground below your feet into our space together.