Start by closing your eyes and taking three deep breaths.
Inhaling through the nose,
Exhaling through the mouth.
With each breath settling in to being here,
And then gently allowing your breath to return to normal rhythm,
Whatever you feel to be natural,
Becoming curious to the quality of the breath on each inhalation,
Noticing how it feels as it enters your nostrils.
Let's spend a few moments becoming present to where we feel it the strongest,
Whether it's in your nose,
Or your upper lip,
Or the rise and fall of your chest.
As thoughts arise,
We gently turn back to the breath and use the breath as an anchor,
Becoming curious to how breath manifests in the body.
And as you notice thoughts arising,
Just gently turn back to where you feel the breath,
Opening up to the curiosity around the breath,
Placing your attention and your awareness there.
Let us now begin a body scan by becoming present to our feet,
Noticing how they feel on the ground with the ground supporting us,
Now that we're settled in our bodies,
Starting with where we're most grounded physically in our bodies,
Noticing the sensations in our toes and the bottoms of our feet and our ankles,
Perhaps moving them to draw your awareness to that part of our body,
Noticing how the ground feels against the pressure of our feet,
Recognizing that the earth is holding us here from the point of contact of where our feet lands,
Wherever it is,
On the bed or on the floor,
Recognizing that this is a point that we can return to at any point in our day to ground ourselves in the physical presence of our feet landing on the floor.
Now drawing upwards from our feet to our ankles and our calves,
Noticing any tightness that we may be holding there,
Both the right leg and the left leg,
Breathing into these areas,
Feeling free to roll your ankles if that feels natural or move your feet.
As this is a morning practice,
We want to bring some awareness to these parts of our bodies that have been asleep,
And now draw that awareness upwards to your thighs and to your pelvis,
Your hips.
If you are seated,
Notice how your sit bones are feeling on your seat.
Again,
With each breath,
Drawing your awareness and your focus to these areas of your body.
If you feel some tightness somewhere,
Spending a little bit more attention,
Drawing the breath to relax those areas.
Now drawing the energy again down from the root of your feet up through your calves and your knees up through your calves and your knees and your thighs and your pelvis into your abdomen,
Into your belly,
And your lower back,
Softening these areas,
Breathing into the muscles of the abdomen,
The lower back,
And into the mid-back.
Feel free to shift your body in your seat as necessary to draw some awareness into these areas.
Now breathing into your chest and heart space,
Noticing the rise and fall of your chest,
And now becoming in tune with your heartbeat.
If it's helpful,
Placing a hand on your chest,
Allowing your breath to flow through your chest.
To enter this area,
Noticing any warmth,
Coolness that you feel in this region,
The heart space signifying the areas of compassion and warmth,
Opening.
Now draw your awareness upward to your throat,
To your jaw,
To the muscles of your neck and your shoulders,
Noticing if you're holding any tension there,
Noticing if you're holding any tension there,
Relaxing your neck,
Your jaw,
Your mouth,
Placing a soft smile on your face to relax the muscles of your cheek,
Relaxing into the muscles underneath your eyes,
Drawing your awareness upward to your eyes itself,
The space between the eyebrows,
The eyebrows,
Your forehead,
The area that's sometimes known as the third eye or the wisdom eye,
That space in the middle of your forehead,
Relaxing all the muscles of your face and your head,
Feeling that relaxation,
It's now come from your feet upwards through your body to the top of your head,
You can release it up from the top,
Your forehead,
Your skull,
Visualizing your breath,
Your skull,
Visualizing yourself relaxing into the body,
Becoming present to all of it in an energized way,
For me that's drawing the breath inwards now through the nostrils,
Through my face which is newly relaxed and aware,
And noticing the sensations of the breath through all of the body,
Drawing it from the face now downwards through the areas that I have drawn my awareness to in this practice,
The heart space,
The chest,
The abdomen and the belly and the pelvis,
The thighs and the calves,
Going down to the ankles and the feet,
Seeing the wholeness of your body and recognizing that you can turn back to any of these areas at any point in your day,
Regardless of what you're doing,
That your body is with you and that the breath is here to center you,
And now in our final minutes,
I would like you to set an intention for the day,
How would you like to show up for others and for yourself,
What purpose do you want to draw your awareness to your day,
And what intention will you ground yourself,
Is it an open awareness,
Curiosity,
And perhaps staying present to the body,
When you have this intention in mind,
State it to yourself in words that resonate with you,
And then place that out to the universe as an intention for who you're going to be when you show up today,
And now you will soon hear a bell,
And that bell will be the entrance for you into your day,
Take a moment before exiting to offer yourself some thanks,
And gratitude for showing up for this practice,
For giving yourself the space to be here today,
And bring this back to you,
Bring the feelings of being in this space back to your day at any point,
To ground yourself in the body,
