Let's start by coming into a posture that will support you for about 15 minutes.
You can be sitting on the ground or in a chair.
You can be standing or you can be lying down.
Coming into stillness and placing our attention first on the breath,
Wherever it's most present for you right now.
Noticing the physical sensation of the breath,
Whether that's the feeling of the rise and fall of the chest or the belly,
Or both,
Or feeling of air through the nostrils,
Or a widening of the sides of the belly and the back from the breath.
As we are with our breath,
In terms of accepting whatever is present and however the breath is right now,
That's how we'll be with the rest of our body.
We'll move through placing our attention and our awareness and our acceptance on various places throughout the body.
We'll notice just what comes up when thoughts or emotions arise that are connected with that body part or just arise,
Bringing a kindness to it all and allowing.
If we notice a judgment,
That's okay.
Or if we get lost in a story or a thought or a plan or a memory that's inspired by what arises,
That's also okay.
Anytime it happens,
Just notice and bring your attention right back to wherever your awareness is in your body at the moment.
We'll start at the top of our head.
As you shift your attention from your breath up to the top of your head,
What's immediately present?
What's immediately kind of makes itself clear to you?
There might be tingling or pressure.
There might be nothing.
All of it's okay.
Just noticing and accepting.
Let's kind of inch our way down with our awareness down the back of our head.
Is there pressure or tightness,
Softness?
And then down the back of the neck.
Let's now move our attention to our forehead.
You might even notice if you've been kind of furrowing the brow.
If it feels all right,
You can just allow it to soften.
Sometimes if we're focusing really hard on looking for what's there,
We can be tensing our face.
And sometimes just in noticing that,
Our face naturally softens.
And down to the eyes.
What's the feeling of the eyes behind the lids,
Holding the eyes in awareness?
Sensing the cheekbones.
And you can always,
As I move through this,
Feel free to kind of move from one cheekbone to another,
Or one side to another,
Or hold both at the same time as I direct throughout various parts of the body.
And the jaw,
What's present in the jaw?
Is there clenching or loosening,
Warmth,
Stillness?
And the lips,
What sensation is present on the lips when you place your attention just there?
Let's move our attention to the ears.
And then down the front of the throat.
Any time we notice we're lost in thought,
Just coming back to what is the experience of the area that I call my throat right now.
And we'll move down to the shoulders.
You may feel the kind of outer experience of your shoulder touching clothing,
Your shoulders touching clothing.
And then see if you can turn it inward towards the inner experience of the shoulders.
And again,
You can do one and then the other if that feels better.
With our arms,
We'll do one at a time.
So let's do with the left arm,
Working from the shoulder down the bicep area.
What immediately presents itself there?
Tightness,
Openness,
Warmth,
Coolness.
Noticing how body sensations just happen by themselves.
Any pain arises throughout this meditation.
Also noticing,
Bringing curiosity to the pain.
Or if it's too much,
You can turn your attention away.
Moving down to the left forearm,
To the wrist,
And to the hand.
If you like,
You can explore either kind of a broad awareness of the hand,
Or you can pay attention to what's just on the palm of the hand,
Or the back of the hand,
Or explore each finger.
It might be tingling in the hand,
It might be warmth,
Coolness.
Whatever is there,
We are witness.
Now let's turn our attention to the right arm,
Starting again at the shoulder,
And bringing our awareness down inside of the bicep,
Upper arm.
Do you feel the sensations of any clothing,
Or anything external?
Moving down to the forearm,
Internal and external experiences of the forearm.
Into the wrist,
The right arm,
And into the hand.
Again with the hands,
The changing nature of experience,
And how fluid sensations are,
Can be really present,
And really evident.
But as always,
If you don't feel anything,
There's no problem.
Just continue resting there,
Being witness to anything that arises.
Let's move our awareness to what's present in the back body,
And the upper back,
Between your shoulders,
The upper spine,
And working our way down the back.
As you shine the light of awareness in every location,
What comes up?
Working down to the lower back,
And then we'll come up to the chest.
Maybe you'll immediately feel the rise and fall of the chest,
With whatever the breath is like right now.
Working down to the belly.
Belly is another place we often hold tension,
So feel free to soften,
Or allow the kind of softening.
Noticing thoughts around what should be happening,
Or shouldn't be happening,
And bringing our attention back to the physical sensations that we notice in our belly at this moment.
And then we'll work our way down to the pelvic area,
Internal and external experience.
And then we'll move down the legs individually,
Like we did last time with the arms.
Left leg,
Working our awareness into the thigh,
Into the knee,
And down into the left calf and shin,
Whole lower leg.
You might even sense light movements as you sit in stillness.
There's always fluidity in the body.
What is the experience of the ankle,
The top of the left foot,
The bottom of the left foot,
And the toes?
And let's move to the right leg,
The upper leg,
The thigh.
Again,
If nothing comes up immediately,
No problem.
Just rest there,
Down to the lower right leg,
The ankle,
The top of the right foot,
The bottom of the right foot,
Toes of the right foot.
Now,
If you'd like,
You can open up your awareness to include the whole body,
And then bringing your attention to the quality of our breath at this moment.
Thank your body for all that it did today,
And close your practice with a smile and word for yourself for taking this time.
Open your eyes when you are ready.
