This meditation will have more space in it than you might usually experience on a guided meditation.
And that space is to allow you to practice without the interference of my instruction.
So there will be instruction,
But it will be minimal.
So use these times of silence,
These minutes of no instruction,
To simply follow the practice.
So come into a seated posture and allow the eyes to gently close.
Take your attention to the top of your head and feel whatever is present.
What can you feel on the top of your head?
Tingling?
Itching?
Coolness or warmth?
Just feel it deeply for a moment.
And feeling it change.
Changing sensation.
And then almost as if the scalp were to let go,
The muscles to dissolve.
Feel that happen.
The softening of the scalp.
And then move that same energy of acceptance,
Inquisitiveness and openness to change.
Move that down now into the forehead.
Feeling that soften too.
And then down into the eyes.
Relaxing the eyes and the jaw.
Then scan your attention down your neck and into your shoulders.
What's happening in the shoulders?
Tension?
Perhaps tension.
Accept it.
Don't try to change it.
Just explore.
We can't force tension out of the body.
But if we look at it,
With a mind of acceptance,
We allow it an off-ramp,
A door.
And it can leave through that door,
But only when we're aware of it.
And this is what I mean by softening.
And then take your attention down into the chest.
Feeling the ribs.
Expand and contract with the breath.
And then round to the back.
Feeling whatever you can in the upper back.
And seeing if you can tune in with the breath from here.
We can't control the breath in the back the same way that we can in the belly or at the nose.
And so we automatically,
When feeling the breath at the back,
Let go of trying to control it.
And then down into the middle back.
The lower back.
Then bring your attention round to the abdomen.
What can you feel here?
Expansion and contraction.
Maybe a gripping,
A holding that you can now let go of.
And then feel the buttocks meeting the seat upon which you are rested.
The thighs.
The lower legs.
And the feet.
And then bring your attention back up to the shoulders for a moment.
Perhaps they're a little lighter now.
Or maybe not.
And can you feel the breath here?
The rising and falling of the shoulders.
And then sweep your attention down both arms.
Feeling whatever's present.
Sweeping your attention down.
Softening.
Down the forearms.
And into the hands.
What can you feel in the hands?
And now just come to stillness.
Physical stillness.
And now just come to stillness.
Making a commitment to just be still.
To the best of your ability.
If there's pain or discomfort,
You can,
If you wish,
Choose to move mindfully to ease that.
But then settle back into stillness.
Making the body even stiller.
And stiller.
And as you come to this stillness,
It's so obvious there's a breath.
We can feel it.
Feel it effortlessly.
If we're not hunting it down.
Or chasing it.
Or even holding onto it.
Just being aware of it.
Wherever it presents itself.
The mind will wander.
That is completely natural.
Notice it's happened.
And bring your attention back to this still body.
That's breathing.
And we're not fixing our attention on any particular place.
The whole field of the body.
Is our practice.
So wherever the breath shows up,
It's perfectly fine.
And we rest in the body.
Rest your attention on the breath.
Just sitting.
In stillness.
Feeling the body move with life.
And this rest is healing.
Profoundly so.
And we will now begin to draw the practice to a close.
So begin moving your body slowly.
But stay mindful.
Staying bright.
And in your own time.
Allow the eyes to open.
And now take this aliveness out with you into your world.
Have a wonderful day.
