Comprehensive Mental Massage

This guided meditation uses principles of neuroscience and mindfulness to attend to various aspects of subjective experience, from the body to connectedness with relationships and the world.

Transcript

And so you can let yourself find a comfortable position.

A position where you're both relaxed and supported.

And you can begin by taking a few deep relaxing breaths.

Feeling the air move into your body and letting go.

Feeling your lungs with fresh air and releasing.

Noticing what it's like to breathe in deeply.

And to let go in a relaxed way.

Breathing normally now you can let your attention be curious about just what it's like to breathe.

Feeling the air as it comes into your body,

Temperature as it releases.

Noticing any subtle shifts of your body that happens during this simple act of breathing.

And as you're breathing and during this whole exercise you may be aware of various thoughts,

Sensations,

Feelings,

Awarenesses that come into your mind.

And with each awareness you can let yourself be curious and just notice what the awareness is.

If you'd like you can even remark to yourself,

Oh that's a thought or there's a feeling.

Just noticing it and then letting it move on.

Sometimes that thought may come back or that awareness may return.

And if it does you can again just acknowledge its presence and then let it move on its way.

Letting your attention come back to what we're talking about.

And so you can let your mind come back to your breath.

Just noticing this simple act of breathing.

And with your eyes open you can let them have a soft focus.

Without even moving your head or your eyes you can just notice the color blue.

Just notice if you see any blue anywhere in your field of vision.

The color green.

What do you see that's green?

Letting yourself notice the color red.

Is there any red in your field of vision?

Letting yourself notice any shapes on the left side of your field of vision.

What shapes do you notice on the right side?

Texture is on the left half of your vision,

Texture is on the right.

You can let your eyes close now.

Letting your awareness go to sounds.

What sounds do you notice?

Letting yourself be aware of where the sounds might be coming from.

Are they distant or near or are they behind you,

In front of you,

Or to your left or right,

Up or down?

Letting yourself notice positions of sounds.

Being aware of pitch,

Are they high sounds or low sounds?

Are they loud or soft,

Noticing the quality of the sound?

And now you can let yourself be aware of any smells.

What smells do you notice?

There may be many smells.

Sometimes smells evoke memories and feelings.

So just being aware of any smells and also being aware of any memories or feelings that they evoke.

And then letting the memories go,

Letting the feelings go.

Letting your awareness back.

And now to taste.

What tastes are you aware of right now?

You can be aware of how things feel in the left side of your belly.

How does your gut feel on the left?

Letting your awareness of feeling go up through your throat to your tongue.

How does the left side of your tongue feel?

Your left jaw and your lips on your left.

Being aware of how the left side of your face feels.

Your cheek and your temple,

Your forehead.

How does your left nose feel and nostril and the air moving through your left nostril?

How does your left eyeball feel?

Noticing sensations in your left thumb and forefinger,

Middle finger and ring finger.

Noticing your left little finger and the left palm of your hand.

Being aware of any sensations in the back of your left hand and your left wrist.

Your left lower arm and your left elbow.

Noticing your left upper arm,

Your left shoulder.

Noticing any sensations on the left side of your head,

Your left neck,

Your left chest and upper back,

Lower back and belly,

Your left hip and buttock.

How does your left upper leg feel?

And your knee?

And how does your left lower leg feel?

Your heel and the sole of your foot,

The top of your foot and your left little toe,

The toe next to it and the middle toe on your left foot.

Just noticing any sensations in the toe next to that and in your left big toe.

Any sensations in your left big toe.

Noticing feeling and sensation in the left side of your genitals.

Noticing the right side of your genitals.

Being aware of your right big toe,

Any sensations there,

Your right second toe,

Your right middle toe and the fourth toe in your right foot and your right little toe.

Just noticing the sensations in the top of your right foot,

The ball and sole of your right foot and your right heel and your right ankle.

Letting your awareness move to your right lower leg and your right knee.

Just noticing how your right upper leg feels.

Your right buttock and tip.

Noticing your right lower abdomen and lower back.

And your right chest and upper back,

Your right side of your head and neck,

Your right shoulder and right upper arm.

Noticing feeling in your right elbow,

Lower arm,

Your right wrist,

Palm of your right hand and back of your right hand,

Your right little finger and your right ring finger.

Just letting attention go to your middle finger and your right index finger and then your right thumb.

Being aware of your right eye and nose,

Your face on your right side,

Your forehead and temple and cheek and chin,

Your lips on your right side,

Your jaw,

Inside your mouth,

Your tongue on the right.

Being aware of any sensations in your tongue as it goes down through your throat,

Down into your belly,

On your right side.

Then letting yourself picture what it is like to swallow on your right side.

What would it be like to swallow without actually swallowing?

Just letting yourself imagine what it would be like to chew on your right side.

Imagining salivating,

Particularly from your right side.

Imagining moving your tongue without actually moving at all.

Imagining moving your jaw,

Especially on your right side.

You can imagine making sounds with your voice.

I don't know if they'd be high-pitched sounds or low-pitched sounds,

Words or singing,

But paying particular attention to imagining just what it would be like to make some sound,

But without actually making any sound at all.

Imagining moving the right side of your lips and imagine moving the right side of your face.

Your right eyelid and eyeball.

Just imagining moving it all around without actually moving it.

Imagining moving your right brow and your neck.

Your right thumb.

What would it be like to move the index finger on your right hand?

Your middle finger,

Your ring finger and your little finger.

Imagining moving your right hand.

What would that be like to move your right hand?

Imagining moving your right wrist,

Again without actually moving anything at all.

Picturing moving your right elbow,

Shoulder.

Imagining moving the right upper part of your trunk,

Your lower back and belly,

Your right hip.

Imagining moving at your right knee without actually moving.

Imagining moving your right ankle.

Your right big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

And your right little toe.

Imagining moving your left little toe and the toe next to that and your middle toe on your left foot and the toe next to that.

Imagining moving your left big toe without actually moving anything.

Imagining moving your left foot and your ankle,

Your left knee and your left hip.

Imagining moving your left trunk,

Lower back and belly and then chest and upper back.

And moving your left shoulder and elbow.

Moving at your left wrist and your hand.

Your left little finger and ring finger,

Middle finger,

Index finger.

What would it be like to wiggle your left thumb without actually moving it?

Just imagining moving your neck,

The left side of your brow,

Your left eyelid and eyeball,

The left side of your face and lips.

Just imagining what it would be like to make some sounds,

To speak,

To sing,

Particularly from your left side without making any sound at all.

Imagining what it would be like to move your jaw on your left side.

Imagining salivating from your left,

Moving your tongue,

Chewing and swallowing.

And letting yourself be aware again of your breath coming from your belly.

Now you can let your awareness come to your thoughts.

Letting any awarenesses come in,

Thoughts,

Feelings,

Emotions,

Sensations.

And each time you're aware of a thought or a sensation or a feeling,

An emotion,

Again just be curious of the thought.

You can even note it by remarking to yourself,

Oh there's a thought,

There's a feeling,

There's a sensation.

And then letting it go on its way.

That comes back,

You can do the same thing,

Just with a sense of curiosity.

Noticing just what you're thinking,

Just what you're aware of.

Letting it go.

And so in a moment I'm going to give you a minute of clock time and in that time you can take all the time you need to be aware of your thoughts and to let them go.

Just observing what goes on in your mind.

Thinking if you can observe each awareness and then let it move on its way.

And so that minute of clock time will begin soon and at the end of that time I'll begin to speak again.

And when I do my words can serve to deepen your experience.

So that minute begins now.

Yes?

Over there?

And so at this point,

You can let yourself become aware of important people in your life.

Being aware of any people who are important to you.

They can be living or they can have passed on.

Becoming aware of the connections between you and them.

Becoming aware of a sense of connectedness to other people.

And tuning into any feelings of love.

And you can let your awareness go to people in your community,

Your connectedness,

And also to other people in your community.

You can become aware of people,

Animals,

Plants,

Other living beings,

And objects that are not living in your area.

Just letting yourself be aware of living beings and also of objects in your area.

Expanding your awareness to people,

Animals,

Plants,

Other living beings and objects,

And earth in your country,

In your continent.

Becoming aware of people and plants and animals,

Other living beings and objects and matter on the earth itself,

All together.

Letting your awareness go to that.

Becoming aware of the earth itself,

Its environment,

Its changes,

And its stability.

What goes on not only on its surface,

But also deep inside.

And letting yourself become aware of the Sun and the other planets in our solar system,

And the moon.

Expanding your awareness to our galaxy,

The entire Milky Way.

And expanding your awareness from there to other galaxies and to the whole universe.

And letting yourself tune in to feelings of gratitude.

Becoming in touch with a few specific things that you're grateful for.

What are you grateful for right now?

Letting yourself name to yourself a few.

And letting your awareness come back to your breath.

Just noticing what it's like to have this gentle rhythm of breathing in and breathing out,

Over and over again.

And just noticing what it's like,

Air moving in and down into your belly,

And then releasing.

Breathing in and letting go.

And so you can take a few more relaxing breaths.

And in your own way,

In your own time,

You can gradually begin to bring this exercise to a comfortable close.

Reviews

Uniquely good. I was glad that the bright piano chords did not continue.

Very relaxing. It put me to sleep. I will definitely have to try this one again to start my day with.

When I was in elementary school we had an activity day where there were a whole bunch of different booths. Some were games, some were challenges, some were super easy ways to get prizes without trying too hard, and there were even face painting and fortune telling booths. This meditation is kind of like that, but more relaxing.

Creates a deep level of consciousness to the present and to stillness. Namaste.

That was an amazing experience..thankyou so much..

Loved this one for the morning. Great way to start the day with presence and awareness

I found this meditation very special in it’s pacing and I like how it tracks through the body. Thank you

This is quite a treasure - panoramic guidance yet so easy to follow!

Excellent thank you!

Different, very enjoyable. A new favourite I think. Thanks