Hello again.
The following exercise is a great one that you can do in just a few short minutes of the day.
It's a body sensing exercise.
You'll be guided from individual body parts to considering the body as a whole.
We start with the feet and work our way up to the top of the head.
This is one of my personal favorites because it takes your attention from the micro to the macro and trains your mind to start sensing the subtle body or sukshma sharira in Sanskrit.
This is the realm of the mind,
Intellect,
Emotions,
And prana or vital life force.
The first few times you perform this exercise the temptation will be to wiggle your toes or move your arms or shift any part of your body in order to feel it.
But you actually want to resist that temptation and solely use the mind to train your awareness without having to move your actual physical body.
So find a comfortable place to sit with your back straight,
Preferably on a chair or sitting straight legged.
I find that cross-legged sitting or lotus posture not as beneficial for this exercise.
I prefer my hands on my thighs or at my sides facing upward rather than interlocked or in a specific mudra.
But play with that.
Whatever feels best for you is great.
And with that let's begin.
Starting with the eyes open and a nice soft gaze,
Bring your attention to bear on your surroundings.
Notice the physical space around you as well as all the sounds you're hearing without any resistance.
Softening the focus a bit more,
Begin to sense the pressure of your body on the seat or floor beneath you.
Notice the movement of your breath.
It's up and down or in and out motion.
Spend a few beats in this awareness,
Emphasizing an effortless rhythm of breathing versus any kind of control of the breath.
Keeping the feeling of that connection to your breath,
Your surroundings,
And your body,
I invite you to gently close the eyes,
Giving yourself permission to relax.
Shift your conscious awareness down towards your feet.
We'll start by scanning the left foot.
So train your attention on it.
This is a relatively quick scan.
You needn't spend too much time dwelling on each body part,
As we'll go back to an individual body part or parts of your choosing at the very end.
What are the sensations that your foot is feeling?
The weight of it on the ground,
Relative heat or cold,
Starting with the toes,
Then move to the sole,
Then the upper part of the foot,
And then the ankle.
If you can't feel any raw sensory data from your foot,
Just imagine what that would feel like.
It works in much the same way to use your imagination.
From the ankle,
We continue to move up the leg to the calf and the shin,
Then arriving at the knee,
Travel up the thighs,
And terminate at your hip.
Now see if you can gather into your awareness all of the parts of the foot and leg that you just scanned or imagined as one holistic entity,
Meaning the leg and foot all as one thing.
And we'll do this for each section of the body that we scan.
Now consciously move your awareness to the right foot and go through the same procedure.
Toes,
Sole of the foot,
Upper part of the foot,
Ankle,
Calf,
Shin,
Knee,
Thighs,
And finally the leg as a whole.
If you're experiencing any pain in these areas,
Note the pain,
Mentally place it to one side,
As again we'll come back at the end of the exercise to negotiate either pain or discomfort.
Move your attention to the hips,
Sit bone,
And buttocks,
Groin area,
And then sense that as one whole.
Now we start with the left hand,
Individual fingers,
The palm,
The back of the hand,
Wrist,
Forearm,
Upper arm,
And finally the arm as a whole.
Same for the right,
Individual fingers,
Palm,
Back of the hand,
Wrist,
Forearm,
Upper arm,
And the arm as a whole.
We go now to the lower back,
Then the mid-back,
Upper,
And shoulders.
Note any discomfort or stress without resistance as we'll come back to it.
Come around to the front of your body,
The chest or breast area,
Ribs,
Abdomen,
And finally the entire midsection of the body.
Sense that as a whole.
Moving to the back of the neck,
In particular note where the spine meets the skull,
The front of the neck,
And the throat area,
Then the neck as an individual unit.
Travel up the back of your head to the top of it,
Then the forehead,
The temples.
Feel into the eyes and the ocular cavity,
And the nose and sinuses.
Sense the lips and the area around them,
The cheekbones,
Your cheek.
See if you can feel your ears since there aren't many sensory receptors there,
Or imagine where they are in relation to the rest of your face.
Then the jaw,
And note any tension there,
The chin,
And lastly feel your head as a whole.
Now bring your awareness to your breath in the void between the tip of your nose and upper lip.
Let's rest here for a few seconds just hanging out with the breath.
Take a couple of deep breaths if you want,
And then observe the rhythm of your breath.
Now return to any areas in the body where you felt pain or discomfort,
Starting with whichever part seems to call out to you the most.
I invite you to lean into the pain or discomfort.
Place your awareness firmly on the sensory experience of it,
And rest the breath and the attention there.
Breathe in a sense of expansiveness and healing.
Breathe out and feel the pain or discomfort dissipating.
If you like,
You can also visualize the pain leaving that part of the body as you exhale.
Keep breathing into it.
If your attention strays,
Gently bring it right back to that same spot for as long as you like.
If you feel compelled to move on to another part of your body,
Please do so.
And if you want to stay and give that same spot some more love,
That's great too.
For those of you who do not really experience any pain or discomfort,
You can imagine the body as one whole,
Complete,
And entire unit.
So from head to toe,
Mentally put together all those sections we scanned individually and keep them in your conscious mind as a total organism,
And maintain that awareness as you breathe naturally.
A similar technique applies here.
With each inhalation,
We breathe in healing,
Expansive energy.
However,
With each exhalation,
See if you can bring your attention to your skin as a whole,
The entire epidermis,
The largest organ in the human body.
Try to sense the extremely subtle heat signature coming off of your skin,
Hovering your awareness just a few centimeters or inches from it,
And continue to rest and breathe with that awareness in mind.
At this point,
If you are enjoying the state you're in,
Please continue the exercise for as long as you like.
However,
I will conclude the formal portion now.
Thanks for being with me on this brief adventure.
