So arrange your body however you want to be for this meditation.
You may lie down,
You may sit on something very solid with a nice straight but relaxed posture,
Or you may stand if you feel like you just want to be grounded through your feet right now.
So pick your posture and begin by turning your attention to your breath.
And at this outset,
We're not going to try to manipulate the breath.
We're going to meet the breath with total acceptance.
How is your inhale right now?
How is your exhale?
Perhaps the space in between the turning point is a long pause,
And perhaps there's no pause at all.
Just get curious.
Just notice.
You may find that as you notice your breath,
Just the noticing it changes a little bit.
That's okay.
We begin to practice allowing the breath.
Now open your senses.
Arrive in this place.
Let's start at the feet.
Can you feel all 10 of your toes?
How do your metatarsals feel?
The arch of the foot,
Arch of the other foot.
Feel into your heels.
Feel into your ankles,
The bones,
The joint,
The ligaments.
Let your attention move upward to the backs of your calves.
Can you feel the soft muscles?
And is there any tension you can release to get even softer?
Feel the shins,
How much closer the skin is to the bone there.
And feel up the shins and into the knees,
Fronts of the knees,
Backs of the knees,
Right into the center of the knee joints.
What do you need when you feel your knees?
Can you allow what you find there?
Now to the thighs.
Can you feel the big strong muscles of your thighs,
Quads,
The hamstrings?
Can you feel the femur bone?
All the way up to the top where the head of the femur bone fits into the pelvis.
Can you feel that joint,
Leg into pelvis?
Feel it on both sides.
And just notice.
Notice what arises.
Feel in to the strong muscles of your buttocks,
The gluteus maximus,
Gluteus minimus.
Feel into the muscles of your pelvic floor.
Can you feel your pelvic floor?
Can you feel the pelvis itself,
The bone bowl that holds your organs?
Feel for your reproductive organs.
Feel your genitals.
Are they alive right now?
There's no right or wrong answer.
Spend some time in the bowl of the pelvis,
Just meeting what is.
You might find strong feelings,
Physical or emotional.
You might find nothing.
You might find total numbness and detachment.
Can you welcome whatever it is that you find?
Can you welcome not finding?
Bring your attention down to the perineum,
The very root of you,
And into the bone of the sacrum,
Your tailbone,
And then up the spine,
Just stopping right at your lower back.
Feel for the sensations in your lower back,
In the bone,
In the nerves,
In the muscles that wrap around like a corset.
Can you soften these muscles?
Can you let your belly relax?
Feel for the organs inside of the belly.
Feel for the sensations in the gut,
Maybe a gut feeling,
Maybe digestion.
Maybe there's noise,
And maybe it's quiet.
Just meeting and welcoming sensation in the gut.
Move up to the diaphragm.
Can you feel your diaphragm breathing you?
Can you feel your belly rise and fall,
Or your ribs expand and relax?
Feel from the back of the spine,
The movement of the ribs.
Feel all the way around the ribs from back to front on both sides,
Wrapping you in this beautiful cage of protection,
And then feel the vital organs inside that the ribs and the breastbone protect.
Can you feel your lungs working?
Can you feel your heart beating?
Are there other sensations that want to be felt here,
Right in the heart of you?
And how is the breath right now?
Now come back to the skin.
Can you feel your skin shift and move?
Can you feel into your armpits?
Can you feel around front to your breasts?
What is there to feel in the breasts?
Back inside to the core of you and rising up from the heart,
Can you feel the air moving in your trachea,
In your windpipe?
Can you feel a swallow in your esophagus?
Can you feel into the center of your throat where your voice resides?
Is there a sound that wants to come out of you right now?
Just go for it.
Let it go.
Can you allow the sound that wants to come out of you?
Can you let it be whatever it is?
Not whatever you want it to be or expect it to be.
And if the sound is silence,
Can you let that be your sound too?
What are the sensations in your throat?
Can you provide them welcome?
Pleasant or unpleasant?
Friendly or hostile?
Can you open yourself to invite whatever is in your throat right now and welcome?
Now up into the jaw.
Maybe you need to move your jaw to feel your jaw.
Does it feel the same when it's closed and it's open?
What do you feel in your mouth?
So much sensation in the mouth.
Feel up into the ears.
Can you feel how your jaw is attached to your ears?
Can you feel the muscles wrapping around the ears to the back of your head?
You can move to explore this or you can sit in total stillness.
Follow your instincts.
Trace the sensation up the scalp to the crown of the head and down the face.
Forehead,
Eyebrows,
Eyelids,
Upper and lower.
Can you feel your eyeballs in your eye sockets?
Can you rest that there?
Just give your eyes over to gravity in the cradle of your skull and cheeks,
Temples.
Back into the sinuses,
Into the breath.
Can you feel the breath at your nostrils?
Can you feel how deep the breath circles behind your face,
Through your sinuses,
Back to the throat?
Now feel the core of you from your tailbone through your pelvis,
Through your stomach,
Heart,
Throat.
Can you feel right through the center of your brain where your glands are,
Your pineal gland?
Can you feel to the crown of your head?
Can you feel your sensation radiate out from this core outward to the edges of you,
To the shoulders,
All the way down to your extremities,
Arms,
Elbows,
Forearms,
Hands,
Fingers,
Back down the femurs,
Knees,
Shins,
Feet,
Toes.
Feel yourself from the inside out.
Now just lie in stillness or sit or stand,
Your chosen posture,
And open yourself to this broad awareness of all of you.
The body is so wise.
What does it have to tell you?
