Begin by finding yourself in a comfortable lying down position.
And let's take three purposeful breaths.
Breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth.
In through the nose and out through the mouth.
And once more,
In through the nose and out through the mouth.
And allowing yourself to just be held in this moment,
Allowing your breath to be natural and inviting your body to be at ease.
And let's bring our awareness now to your left big toe.
Just noticing how it feels for you to do this,
To bring your focus to that particular spot in the body and expanding your awareness to all of your littler toes and the bottom of your foot,
The top of your foot,
And noticing the area where the bottom of your foot makes contact with the surface beneath you.
Just noticing the pressure in this spot,
Moving up your leg,
The calf,
The shin,
Noticing your knee and your upper leg.
And now just noticing how your whole left leg feels.
And maybe you notice some tingling or other sensation,
Warmth or coolness,
Or maybe there's nothing at all.
And all of those feelings are fine.
And now bringing your focus to your right big toe,
To your smaller toes,
The bottom of your foot,
The top of your foot,
Feeling the weight of your foot as it rests against the floor or the bed beneath you.
Feeling the weight of your lower leg,
Noticing how your knee feels and your upper leg.
Feeling your whole right leg and having gratitude for both of your legs and your feet for carrying you everywhere you need to go throughout the day.
And shifting your awareness now to your pelvic region,
Noticing your hips,
Feeling the weight of your bottom,
Making contact,
Feeling the pressure,
Feeling your lower back,
Your mid-back,
Your upper back,
Just noticing which parts are making contact.
Where is their pressure?
Where is their heaviness or lightness?
Maybe noticing how your shoulder blades rest on the surface beneath them,
Noticing if there's any tension there.
And if there is,
Knowing that you can go ahead and take a nice deep breath in and send that area some compassion and some love.
And circling around back to the front of your body,
Bringing into your attention your lower abdomen and your belly,
Your stomach and then your chest.
The chest and the belly are two spots where we carry so much of our stress.
And so maybe for these few moments,
With each breath in and each breath out,
You can invite those two areas to soften just a little bit,
Loosening in the chest,
Just softening in the belly.
And moving back up through your chest to your shoulders and really focusing for a minute on your left shoulder and just seeing what's there.
Is there tension?
Is there tightness?
The physical sensation of stress.
Are your shoulders up to your ears?
They soften down and whatever you notice,
Just responding to it with curiosity and kindness.
And moving from your shoulder to your upper left arm and your elbow and to your forearm and into your hand and just noticing how each finger feels when you bring your attention to it in the back of the hand and the palm of the hand and the whole left arm.
And then bringing your attention to your right shoulder and seeing what's there.
Maybe noticing that with each breath,
With each passing minute,
Your shoulders are softening.
Bringing gentle awareness to your upper arm,
To your elbow,
To your forearm and then to your hand.
And noticing again each one of the fingers on your right hand,
Allowing each one to be felt.
The back of your hand,
The palm of your hand.
And then both of your arms and your hands being so thankful for the hugs that these provide the comfort and all that your hands allow you to do each and every day.
Moving back through the center of the body to the neck and to the back of the head,
Feeling the weight of it.
Knowing that in this moment,
You don't have to hold up your head.
You can just let it be held.
Just noticing how it feels to just be still and to be supported.
Wrapping around to the front of the face,
Noticing if there's any tension in the forehead,
How it feels behind the eyes,
The sinus region,
Your cheeks and then into your jaw.
Perhaps even allowing it to flop open and for your tongue to just sag.
Breathing in this moment here,
Being thankful for the gift of this body.
Let's take another nice deep breath.
Let's breathe in to all of our fingers and all of our toes.
Maybe one more breath,
Breathing in kindness and gratitude for ourselves.
And if it feels good,
I invite you to curl your lips into a smile and bringing yourself back to this physical space as we end this meditation,
Inviting you to do whatever feels good,
A shoulder roll,
A full body stretch,
Whatever feels right for you,
Thanking yourself for taking the time to connect and to be still and to be present.
