This is a guided meditation aimed at taking you much deeper than you might usually go.
In order to do this we have to have long periods of silence so when you encounter that silence know that the audio is continuing and just carry on meditating.
So come into a seated posture now that can be on a chair or if you're used to it you can sit cross-legged on the floor and come into an upright posture with the back relatively straight but not stiff.
Allow the eyes to gently close and take your attention to the top of your head feeling whatever you can feel right now.
That might be tension,
Pressure,
Coolness or warmth.
You might feel tingling on the top of your head.
Just be with whatever arises and take your attention to the top of your head and then relax the whole top of the head and allow the awareness to move down into the forehead again feeling for sensations,
Relaxing any tension and being with the change that occurs and now down into the eyes feeling the eyelids gently pressed together feel around the balls of the eyes in the eye sockets and allow them to relax then down into the cheeks and the jaw letting the jaw just give up any tension and relax then take your attention to the lips and feel them pressed together.
Can you feel moisture or dryness?
Taking the attention into the mouth feeling whatever you can feel and then down onto the chin and slowly down the front of your neck including the throat relaxing any tension you can find here and slowly making your way to your shoulders spreading the awareness over both shoulders.
Is there more tension on one side of the shoulders than the other?
Just notice that.
Feel the shoulders rise and fall,
Rising on the in-breath,
Falling on the out-breath,
Allowing if it's ready any accumulated tensions to be released allowing the attention to slowly move down both arms starting at the upper arm slowly making your way down feeling as much as you can as you make your way to the elbow and when you reach your elbow feel what you can feel there then down the forearms feeling the forearms as you go.
Are they in contact with clothing?
Is there any pressure as they rest wherever you have placed them making your way down to the wrists and now allowing the attention to seep into the palms of the hands.
Feeling the hands what can you feel?
There's lots of sensations in the hands.
Can you feel temperature?
Can you feel the life in the hands?
And then on to the back of the hands.
Perhaps they're rested one in the other or they're on your lap.
If so feel for any contact as they rest and meet the surface they are resting on and now allow the awareness to spread.
Allow it to spread into the fingers allowing the fingers to fall out of the sockets of the hand relaxing letting go and sweeping the attention now up into the chest allowing the muscles of the chest to relax and spread that awareness into the ribcage and detect any sensations of breathing seeing if you can meet the expansion and contraction that happens here due to the process of breathing down into the abdomen,
The upper abdomen,
Feeling for breath there,
Feeling for tension that you can let go of now in the navel area feeling the breathing process there then out to the sides of the abdomen feeling the whole abdomen moving with the breath letting go of any tension that might be held here and then coming down onto the fronts of the upper thighs slowly scanning your awareness down them feeling whatever you can feel relaxing and letting go of tension maybe your hands or arms are resting on your upper thighs feel that contact slowly down trying to get every minute detail of what's happening here down into the fronts of the knees and slowly down the shins the fronts of the ankles and the tops of the feet down towards the top of the toes and if you're wearing shoes or socks can you feel them against the tops of the feet how do they feel temperature gentle pressure tips of the toes and the underside if you're seated on a chair with the feet flat on the floor can you feel any contact on the underside of the toes with the floor or the soles of your shoes you may be surprised to find that they don't all touch the floor or the soles of your shoes and relaxing the toes letting them fall out of the sockets of the feet taking your attention to the balls of your feet what can you feel here now the underside of the feet including the arches relaxing any tension you might find here and then the heels if you're seated on a chair is there a gentle pressure as the heels take some of the weight to the body and now allow your attention to slowly make it up into the back of your ankles slowly moving up the calves relaxing as you go feeling for sensation the backs of the knees and then up the back of the thighs all the way up until you reach the buttocks and feeling the pressure as the buttocks meet the surface you sit on allowing any tension any holding to dissolve away and are the buttocks taking equal amounts of the weight to the body or does it seem like the weight is more on one side than the other just feel this and now spreading the attention up into the lower back what can you feel here and it's a good time to experiment with your posture the gentle curve in your back can act as a great support to carry the whole spine on so if you need to make a tiny adjustment in either way just to test can you be a little more upright but not using effort using balance and alignment we can also hold great tension in the back so allow that to release now if it's ready to go and move the attention up the spine to the middle of the back and feeling the breathing process happening in the ribs at the back of the body feel the gentle swell the expansion and contraction at the back of the ribs this can be a great place to watch the breath from because it's harder to interfere with it we can be more receptive feeling the breath here then up to the top of the spine and as you do spread your awareness across the upper back into the shoulder blades allowing the shoulders to relax as you move up again onto the tops of them and feeling on the top of the shoulders to see if they're more relaxed than when you visited them the first time feeling the breath again here the rise and fall and then slowly up the back of the neck feeling whatever you can feel relaxing then slowly up the back of the head and then along each side from the back to the front and including the ears and then back to where we started on the top of the head and running the attention now through the whole body the whole body and we're now going to look for sensations of the breath you may feel this at the nostrils the air slowly coming in and out if you do find a point at which it's strongest and stay there meeting the breath as it crosses over this point as it comes in and as it leaves or you might prefer to feel the breath in the abdomen the gentle rising and falling or maybe the chest just look now at wherever the breath is the most prominent for you and once you find that place root your attention there feeling the effects that happen with each in breath with the pause at the top of the breath with the out breath and the pause at the bottom of the breath and then the whole process all over again remaining with the process of breathing as long as you can the mind will inevitably wander away that's fine when that happens see it and say in your mind thinking thinking and then return to the breath you will now enter longer periods of silence to allow you to feel the breath to work with it in your own time and meeting the breath the relaxed mind meeting it in stillness for as long as we can not judging ourselves when the mind wanders away simply labeling the thoughts and returning to the breath over and over knowing that each time we return to the breath we've strengthened our ability to return to the present moment and as we stay with the breath we're strengthening our ability to remain in the present moment not getting into a fight with the breath allowing it to be making allowances for the mind which constantly leaves it abandons the breath the present moment this is all normal and it's all meditation even the wandering mind is part of the process and now to draw us closer into the breath we'll look at the quality how is the breath as it comes in this breath now is it long or short and the out breath is that long or short and seeing that no two breaths the same trying not to interfere with the breath not making it long or short allowing it to be exactly as it is and being quite happy to rest in the pauses either side of the in and out breath and then seeing if the breath which comes in is smooth does it come in in one smooth steady flow or is it bumpy does it stop and start and the out breath is that smooth leaving the body in one gentle stream or does that stop and start and then drilling down into the experiences of the breath the physical contact of the breath with the body finding out as much as you can not to add words but to live the experience of the unfolding breath happening here and now allowing the breath to soothe the body and maybe to calm the mind relaxing the breath relaxing the body relaxing the mind and now letting the breath just recede into the background you will still feel it but open up to everything that's happening in the body now what can you feel a tingle pressure coolness warmth just be with these sensations and watch them change and then they disappear and then up comes a new sensation so just be in with this process of being in a body that's alive to the moment relaxed and experiencing the life within it along with the change in a moment I will ring the bell to bring the practice to a close and as the bell goes listen to that fade away and don't be in a hurry to jump up and get on with the rest of your day instead sit maybe in silence for a moment allowing the peace to permeate throughout your whole being
