Welcome.
This is a 10 minute body scan practice.
So finding a settled place,
Whether seated with feet flat on the floor,
Or lying down with your arms and legs resting away from the body.
And making a choice whether to have your eyes closed or keeping your eyes open,
Softening and stilling the gaze.
So as you sit or lie here,
Having a sense of the body being supported by whatever it's resting on.
Tuning in to the points of contact.
And taking a slightly deeper breath or two.
So having a sense of knowing that you're here,
Resting and breathing in this body.
Putting out the welcome map now for yourself however you are arriving,
However busy the mind,
Whatever the mood,
However the body's arriving.
Just meeting yourself just as you are right now.
So the intention in this practice is to bring awareness to the body and also to bring a sense of curiosity and friendliness to anything else that we experience or comes along within this time we've set aside for this practice.
So bringing your attention down to the sensations in the feet right now.
Checking out the left foot.
Checking out the right foot.
Noticing the points of contact between each of the feet and the surface they're resting on.
Bringing some curiosity to any sensations that you notice in the toes or the balls of the feet or the heels.
So there's nothing really to get right or perfect here.
It's just you tuning into the sensations in both feet as best as you can right now.
Maybe having a sense of the changing sensations within the feet themselves.
Maybe having a sense of the sensations right out on the edge of the skin in both feet as you sit here.
And seeing if it's possible to just expand your awareness to include not only the feet but the ankles.
Taking a slightly deeper breath now.
And on the out breath just allowing your attention to let go of the sense of the feet and the ankles.
And bringing your awareness to the sensations in the lower legs.
Maybe a sense of the shin bones to the front,
The calves to the back.
And as the practice unfolds,
Noticing too what's happening to the attention.
Remembering if your attention wanders off to thinking or daydreaming or planning or distracted in any other way then nothing has gone wrong.
Without criticising ourselves or judging ourselves we can bring our awareness back to the sensations in the lower legs for ourselves right now.
So seeing if it's possible to expand our awareness of attention to include not only the lower legs but both knees,
Both upper legs.
And a sense of what's happening with the pelvis,
Contact with the chair,
Contact with the surface we're lying on.
So once again bringing a sense of curiosity,
A sense of friendliness,
We're finding this practice tricky or judging ourselves and our progress.
So tuning into the sensations down in the hips as best we can.
Seeing if we can bring our awareness up now to include the sensations in the lower back,
The middle back and the upper back.
And if we notice any discomfort in the back or any other part of the body,
Seeing if we can bring some curiosity to the sensations as they change for us moment by moment.
We may even wish to explore a sense of softening and letting go with the out breath.
So taking a slightly deeper breath in now and on an out breath,
Just allowing our awareness to move from the back of the body round to the abdomen.
Tuning into the changing sensations that come along with each in breath and the changing sensations with each out breath.
Noticing to the changing sensations in the ribs and the chest as we inhale and as we exhale.
And seeing if we can also notice the micro movements with each breath up in the shoulders.
Taking a slightly deeper breath in now and on an out breath.
Just seeing if we can let go of our attention and awareness in the shoulders and the upper torso.
And seeing if we can bring our awareness to the sensations in the upper arms,
The elbows,
The lower arms and the hands.
So bringing some curiosity.
What's the temperature in the hands?
What sensations are around for us as we shine the spotlight of awareness on the palms of the hands,
The backs of the hands?
And the places our hands are in contact with whatever they're resting on.
So taking a slightly deeper breath in and on an out breath.
Letting go of our awareness in our hands and arms.
Having awareness again in the shoulders and the neck.
Bringing our awareness to the sensations in the jaw and the mouth.
The lips and the cheeks.
Around the eyes and the forehead.
Expanding our awareness now to include all the sensations around our scalp.
So the sensations in the head.
And expanding again to include the neck and the shoulders,
The arms and the chest.
Awareness of the belly and the hips,
The legs and the feet.
So the whole length of the body,
The whole width of the body.
Sensations right out to the edge of the skin.
And as we come to finish the practice,
Seeing if we can allow our experience to be just as it is.
Allowing ourselves to be just as we are.
