Welcome to day 2 of the Pure Essence Awareness Sequence.
Today we are going to become more aware of our body and its sensations.
When we slow down and give ourselves time to observe what is going on in our bodies,
We start to become aware of our feelings,
Our surroundings and our needs.
We are building new pathways in our brain that help us to navigate our life with more ease and to gain greater awareness of how we feel and where we feel emotions in our body.
As always,
Start by making yourself very comfortable.
Once you are settled into your position,
You may gently close your eyes and allow yourself to arrive here and now,
In this moment.
Notice the breath as it enters your nose.
Notice each time you breathe in how the breath feels on your nostrils.
Feel the breath as it passes through your nasal passages and down behind your throat.
Notice where the air enters your lungs.
Allow your breathing awareness to deepen the feeling of relaxation.
Feel the air expand your lungs with each in-breath.
Feel your lungs expand and relax,
Expand and relax.
And now notice the exhalation phase of breathing.
Observe as the air leaves your lungs and begins to travel upward.
Open your awareness to the breath traveling up and out through your mouth.
Feel the breath in your throat,
Your mouth and across your lips.
Notice each breath as a whole now.
See how the breaths flow like waves.
First in,
Then a pause,
And out,
Then a pause.
Notice the pauses,
These rests between the breaths.
And notice how calm and relaxed you are,
And how calm your breathing is.
In this newfound state of awareness,
I invite you to scan your body with your mind to release any build-up tension.
If you think as your body,
As energy,
You can imagine all stored tension is causing hurdles for the energy to flow around.
It makes it more difficult for your body to run smooth,
To cleanse,
To rejuvenate and restore the energy flow.
Starting with your face,
Noticing if you're holding any tension in your forehead,
Eyes,
Your jaw.
And now imagine the tiny air particles of your face packing up all this tension and releasing this tension with your next exhale.
Feeling your face completely relaxing.
Moving down to your neck now,
Observing any tension or tightness that can be felt here.
And again,
Imagine the tension being gathered on the inhale and released on the exhale.
And drawing your shoulders away from your ears now,
And feeling them melt away to the back of your chair,
And allowing them to soften with each breath out.
And scanning your awareness from the top of your shoulders to the length of your arms,
Right to the tip of your fingers.
Again,
Notice the sensations and tightness you find along the way,
And allowing it to be dissolved with each breath out.
And bringing your awareness to your chest,
Observing any tightness that might be present here.
Taking a deep and cleansing breath into your chest,
And exhaling however it is comfortable for you to do so.
Bringing your awareness to your belly now,
Taking a deep breath in to your belly,
And gathering up all the tension as you do so.
And with your next breath out,
Letting it all go.
Feeling your belly soften,
And loosening,
And resting.
And we are now moving to your back,
And move your awareness down the length of your spine,
Releasing the tension wherever you feel it in your back,
And allowing it to be released with your breath out.
Now you may feel your legs,
And the top of your thighs,
And allowing them to sink deeper and deeper into your chair.
And running your awareness down your legs,
Your knees,
Your calves,
And your ankles.
Allowing your feet to rest easy on the ground,
And notice any sensations and tightness along the way,
And allowing it to be dissolved with each breath out.
And finally,
Sweeping your awareness over your total body once more,
Dissolving all the tension you find along the way.
Starting with your head,
Taking a deep breath in,
And once you exhale,
Releasing your body all the way down to your feet,
And out from the tip of your toes.
Dissolving all the tension you find along the way.
I invite you now to rest your awareness on your breath,
In a very effortless way.
You are resting your awareness so gentle on your breath,
That your mind will start roaming.
Making a way onto thoughts or physical sensations,
And this will happen many times throughout your practice.
We are just becoming aware of this roaming nature,
And accepting that this is what the mind does.
And whenever you realize your mind is roaming,
Very gently and kindly return back to your breath,
And begin to settle again.
Every thought,
Emotion or physical sensation that comes up for you during this meditation is meant to happen,
There is no need to control these.
Simply noticing when you happen to realize you are no longer resting your awareness on your breath,
Very gently and slowly return back to your breath.
You are not your thoughts,
You are not your beliefs,
You are not your feelings,
You simply are that beautiful person inside of you.
I invite you now to let go of your breath and simply rest,
And let the effects of the meditation to sink in.
And as you come to the end of this practice,
Take a full deep breath,
Taking in all the energy of this practice.
And now exhale fully,
And when you are ready,
Open your eyes and return your attention to the present moment.
