Come into a comfortable seated or lying down position.
Become aware of your breath.
As you feel your breath,
Feel your body.
Allow your awareness to flow into the body with the breath.
The way you experience the body from within through your breath will be the same quality of attention we bring to this detailed body scan,
Filling each part of the body with the wholeness of your awareness.
Let the quality of attention be gentle but persistent,
A vigilant,
Soothing quality.
Let's begin with the heart center.
Bring your attention to the area around the heart and connect with the simple wish for well-being,
Which is at the heart of meditation practice.
In this space,
Let your awareness take on the soothing quality of a salve,
A healing balm that travels anywhere your attention is placed,
Simply aware of the breath and resting fully in the heart center.
Now allow your awareness to move up into the throat,
Aware of the throat's role as a passage for the breath,
As a center for communication.
Rest the awareness here,
Feeling the life here,
The basic vitality,
And slowly migrating up into the mouth,
Aware of the tongue resting in the mouth,
The bottom of the mouth,
The roof of the mouth,
The teeth and gums,
Aware of the environment of the mouth,
The moisture,
The life there,
And the lips,
The cheeks,
The jawbones,
The nose,
Aware of the movement of breath in the nose,
The temperature of the inhale and exhale.
Become aware of the eyes,
Resting in their sockets,
The extraordinary complexity of muscles,
Now largely at rest,
And the temples,
The forehead,
Smooth,
And at ease,
The top of the head,
The back of the head,
Down into the back of the neck,
Letting the awareness be like a massage,
Each breath bringing ease,
Releasing tension,
And now slowly moving outward to the shoulders,
Feeling them sink even more into your frame,
Gravity doing all the work,
Down into the upper arms,
The elbow joints,
The forearms,
Wrists,
And touching each finger with your awareness,
Letting the muscles of the forearms and hands release a little more,
Not being called by any task at present.
Return to the heart center,
Feeling the ease,
The life,
The vitality there,
And reestablishing the intention for well-being.
Feel into the whole area of the rib cage,
Into the clavicles,
The shoulder blades,
The diaphragm,
Doing the gentle work of breathing,
The spine,
Holding the body up with an easy balance,
And down into the lower torso,
The muscles of the abdomen and lower back,
Completely at ease,
Feeling the massage of the breath,
The gentle expanding and relaxing,
Filling the whole space with awareness,
And down into the pelvis,
Breathe into this space,
The bones like a vessel into which the soothing energy of your awareness flows,
Relaxing all the muscles around and in the pelvis,
And bringing the attention to the hip joints,
The upper legs,
The knees,
The lower legs,
All relaxed,
With no tasks at present,
And the ankles,
The top of the feet,
The bottom of the feet,
And give some attention to each of the toes,
And once again returning the awareness to the heart center,
And having traveled through the whole body,
Let your body be open to growing the awareness from the center outward,
Filling the entire body,
Aware of the entire body,
Feeling the vitality,
The ease,
The refreshing breath,
An open,
Spacious,
Healing awareness that holds the entirety of your being.
