We are about to begin the body scan practice so just make yourself comfortable,
Your choice of sitting on a chair,
Seated on the floor or lying down.
This is a nice practice to receive lying down especially lying on your back,
Face up so you can feel your body as a whole.
But either way just keep yourself relaxed and somewhat alert throughout the practice.
At the end of the meditation you hear a small chime and this will signal us just to slowly and mindfully leave the practice.
And gently just close your eyes or if you prefer them open simply half close your eyes and empty your gaze.
Take a moment just to settle into this shape,
Maybe one little last wriggle into this shape and start settling the body.
Start by feeling how your body is just generally feeling as a whole right now,
Right here and right now.
And we begin by settling into a nice comfortable posture with your arms resting by your sides and start to disengage the mind from all the busy thoughts and ideas and allow things just to be as they are.
Focusing your eyes softly and let your eyelids just rest without force and gently gathering all your attention towards the centre of your body.
Try to really all the thoughts that take you to the outside world and just allow the outside world to gradually disappear and melt away and dissolve into empty space.
In the breath but not necessarily changing it just noticing it as it rises and falls naturally without force.
We can now take a nice conscious in breath in through our nose and then a nice out breath just to settle us down a little more.
Now we are going to bring our attention to the top of the head and what we are going to do is gradually work our way downwards through the body and right down to the tips of the toes.
So bringing your attention up to the crown of the head and focusing on that area and feeling a nice sense of lightness around there.
And imagine that all the tension in this area is just gently dissolving away.
Focusing on the temples and the forehead and imagine any tension or stress or headaches or pain just dissolving away.
Just slowly disappearing as you start to bring attention to this part of the body.
Just let it drain downwards through the body and into the ground.
Bringing our attention now to the ears and the jaw.
We often do hold a lot of tension in the jaw area so maybe just giving it a gentle little wiggle side by side and letting go of any tension or tightness in this area.
Let that tension drain downwards through the body and into the ground.
Feel it as it leaves your face feeling nice and loose and light in this area.
Just pause for a little while and just feel that whole face and head area,
The jaw.
Just comfortable and relaxed.
Now focusing on the area around our neck and our shoulders.
We often hold a lot of tension and stress in this area so we're slowly just going to let that go and relax and release.
Just relax your shoulders towards the ground.
Imagine all the tension dissolving downwards and into the ground.
Letting gravity do its natural work.
Not resisting gravity,
Just surrendering to gravity.
Feeling grounded towards the ground.
Think to yourself now my shoulders and my neck are now comfortable and relaxed.
Now relaxing the arms and the hands.
Let them also drop downwards towards the ground.
Any tension or any stress or any pain just drain downwards through the fingertips and away from the body.
Feeling a nice downward bearing weight through your arms,
Through your elbows,
Through your wrists,
Down towards the floor.
And now focusing on the back,
The whole back from the top of your neck right down through to your tailbone.
Just bringing your attention to any areas of contact to the chair or to the floor and just let them sink down naturally.
Again,
Not necessarily changing them,
Just let it sink down naturally.
Just feeling each vertebra from the top of the neck down through to the tailbone.
Feeling supple and relaxed.
Letting gravity just sink you down naturally.
Surrendering to this posture and just bringing your awareness to your body.
And now bringing our awareness to the front of the body.
Again to the face,
The jaw,
The neck,
But also to the area around the chest and the stomach.
Try to identify if there's any stress or tension in this part of your body.
And imagine that it all just dissipates as you focus on it.
And the chest is definitely an area we hold on to a lot of caught up emotions like anxiety or stress or grief,
Fear.
So just try to let go of any built up tension in this area and feel a nice lightness in this area.
And feel more relaxed and light and comfortable.
Let all the tension just dissolve away.
Now bringing our attention to the hips and the legs and noticing how they feel.
Are your sit bones even?
Your ankles even and open?
Are your feet dropping out or are they evenly weighted towards the ground?
Just feel your legs as a whole.
From the top of your legs right down to your feet.
In today's world we spend much of our time sitting in chairs and cars driving.
So we're trying to let that shape drop out of us and just let it all dissolve away.
Feeling your knees and your ankles and feeling the ground beneath your feet or beneath your heels if you're lying down.
And let all your tension dissolve downwards into the ground.
Feeling a nice grounded heaviness on all those back regions as your portions relax towards the ground.
Slowly letting them dissolve downwards.
Feeling our whole entire body now relaxed as you gradually scan down from the top of your head right down to your feet.
And feeling the connection of all things.
Feeling the connection of the body,
Of the joints,
Of the muscles,
Of the skin.
Just feeling the body as a whole,
Connecting the body,
The breath and the mind.
Feeling totally relaxed and grounded and peaceful and comfortable.
Feeling your whole body.
Breathing through your whole body.
Connected,
Grounded,
Peaceful and relaxed.
Save this moment now just for a while and just feel the whole body in its wholeness.
Becoming aware of the nice relaxed aliveness of your body.
And we're slowly going to leave the practice in a moment,
But just one last moment just feeling that whole body as one connected,
United being.
Now slowly bringing some life back to your body and wriggling the fingers and the toes a little bit.
Maybe moving the arms and the shoulders,
Keeping that relaxed awareness in our body.
Gently opening your eyes whenever you're ready.
Bringing yourself back to a nice comfortable place.
And saving this moment of calm and relaxed awareness.
