Become comfortable and at ease.
Begin to drop into your breath and notice how you're arriving.
What word would you put to how you are arriving to this time and this space?
Feel your body in contact with the surface beneath you and sense the way that gravity pulls on the body and holds you.
Feel the contact points of the back body and sense the way the air presses against your skin.
And as you feel the body breathe itself,
Begin to sink into the ebb and flow of your own breath.
During this practice,
We are going to do what's called nyasa.
Which is the practice of giving and receiving blessings.
And this is a practice where you will be placing the essence of blessing into your body.
You can do this with touch if you'd like or you can do it with your imagination.
Just imagining that you're touching the points of your body that I am asking you to touch.
But we will use touch,
Attention,
And breath to infuse your body with blessing.
And if you will be using your hands,
Take a moment to rub your hands together,
Warming the hands,
Feeling the energy gathering in the hands.
And when you feel that energy and warmth,
Gently bring your fingertips or your hands to softly rest over the eyes.
Notice the sensation of your hands against your eyes or your attention on the eyes.
And as you breathe in,
Allow a blessing for your eyes and your vision to wash through you.
And as you breathe out,
Allow thanks for the gift of your vision to flow out.
And sense the ripple of this blessing on the eyes and the vision to move through the whole body.
Can you feel the blessing reverberating through you?
And moving your hands now to cup the ears,
Feeling the warmth of your hands or your attention at the ears.
And without changing the volume of the breath,
Just allow the breath to move into the area around the ears.
And as you inhale,
Allow a blessing for your ears and your hearing to flow in and around the ears.
And as you breathe out,
Giving thanks for the gift of hearing,
Feeling the tenderness of your attention and your touch and your breath.
And when you feel ready,
You can move your hands gently to either side of the jaw.
And as you breathe in,
Allowing a blessing for your jaw,
Your mouth,
Your sense of taste to wash through you.
And as you breathe out,
Giving thanks for the gift of hearing,
For the sense of taste.
And you may even find that the jaw and the inside of the mouth begin to soften.
And can you sense the way that this blessing flows through the body?
Moving your fingertips to splay,
Pinky to first finger across the cheekbones,
Or for your attention to rest at the nasal passages across the cheeks.
And as the attention and perhaps your pinkies rest against the nose,
Breathe in a wave of blessing for the sense of smell.
Remembering a sweet smell.
And as you breathe out,
Can you sense ripples of gratitude for those myriad smells that soothe and delight you?
And notice how this blessing infuses blessing throughout the body.
Moving your hands now or your attention to the hollow of the throat or the top of the collarbones.
Feeling the contact of your fingers or your attention right against the throat.
And breathing in a deep well of blessing for your voice.
All the words,
All of the things that you express that the world needs to hear.
And as you exhale,
Offering thanks and noticing how this blessing of voice ripples through the body.
Moving your hands now to rest at the heart.
Feeling the contact of your hands or the sweetness of your attention against the sternum and beneath it the heart.
And allow this touch and attention and the very movement of the breath to be a blessing.
Can you allow the way that the lungs on the inhalation hug the heart?
Can you feel the blessing of that movement?
And exhaling gratitude as you trace the river of this blessing for your heart through the body.
Moving your hands or your attention to rest at the solar plexus.
Feeling your attention or the contact of your hands against the body.
Allowing touch,
Attention,
And breath to be a blessing for the vital organs that reside in the body.
Perhaps extending a smile to these invisible workhorses that make life possible.
And with an exhalation,
Offering thanks and sensing how this blessing moves through the body.
Moving your hands or your attention to the low belly now.
Breathing in blessing to the low belly.
And allowing that blessing to cascade through the pelvis,
Down the thighs,
The knees,
The calves,
And into the feet.
Feel that waterfall of blessing.
And on your exhalation,
Offer gratitude and sense and feel the movement once again of this blessing through the body.
Opening to the pulse of energy in the body and noticing if there is a place in your body that would benefit from your hands,
From your attention,
From your blessing.
And you can move your hands to rest on that part of the body or your attention to rest on that part of the body.
Breathing in blessing and breathing out gratitude.
Taking another breath to sense the signature of this blessing as it moves through you.
Sense and feel the whole body,
Whole body breathing,
Whole body being blessed.
Feel this as you ride the ebb and flow of the natural breath.
Resting in stillness.
Resting in blessing.
Beginning to gently rotate the feet,
Feeling that wash of fluid through the ankle joints,
Maybe pointing and flexing slowly and gently.
Bending the knees and bringing your feet to the earth.
Slowly rocking the knees back and forth so gently,
Offering this movement like a blessing to the hips.
And allowing the knees to come back to stillness and beginning to rotate the wrists so gently,
Allowing the movement to wake up the hands to bring blessing into that movement.
And if you're in a position to do so,
Just rocking the head from side to side so gently,
Taking a moment to move the body in whatever way she asks,
In whatever movement would be a blessing to your body in this moment.
And when you feel ready and your body feels ready,
Rolling to the side,
Taking some breaths as you adjust to waking the body up and in your time,
Coming into a seated position with the eyes closed and taking a moment to notice what is alive in your body now.
And you may wish to bring your hands to Anjali Mudra at your heart with gratitude and thanks for this practice.
Namaste.
