Body Awareness - Meditation

Mindfulness of the body followed by breath meditation.

Transcript

Generating mindfulness,

Body sweeping meditation,

Bringing your attention to your sitting posture,

Being simply aware that you are now sitting with an upright yet relaxed posture.

At first simply feeling the physical feelings of the buttocks pressing against the surface underneath,

The cushion,

The mat or the chair,

Grounding awareness in this present moment.

Allowing a broad awareness to embrace your whole body for a few moments.

Simply knowing that you are sitting,

Aware that you are sitting.

And now we are going to take three slow and deep in and out breaths.

Try to release any tension you may be feeling with the out breath.

Breathing slowly and deeply in all the way into the abdomen.

And then breathing out,

Letting go,

Relaxing.

And once again breathing in and breathing out.

And one more deep in and out breath at your own pace,

Bringing a fresh awareness,

A sense of being present into this new moment.

And now allow your breathing to become relaxed and natural.

Breathing naturally,

Ordinarily at your own pace.

Acknowledge that we are now doing a session of sitting meditation,

A body sweeping meditation for the purpose of generating present moment mindfulness.

Other than meditating now,

We don't need to do anything or go anywhere.

We're just taking small,

Relaxed,

Natural breaths.

Just sitting.

Just breathing.

Not following thoughts.

Allowing thoughts to simply drop away.

Understanding that there will be time to think later.

Now with mindful awareness,

Try to feel the area around the top of the head.

Simply aware of the various feelings on the surface area of the skin,

Around the area of the top of the head.

And then from the area at the top of the head,

Move your awareness to your forehead.

Simply aware of the feelings in the area of the forehead.

Sometimes there are pleasant feelings,

Sometimes unpleasant feelings,

And frequently there are neutral feelings in the body.

We are practicing simply being aware of the feelings on the surface of the skin.

Now move your attention down,

Becoming aware of the area around the eyes.

Feeling the eyes and relaxing any tension that you might observe there.

Simply being aware,

Relaxing into natural awareness.

Throughout this meditation,

Hear my voice as if it is in the distance.

Move your attention primarily to mindfully being aware of feelings on the surface of the skin.

Yet at the same time,

Hearing these simple instructions and reminders as if quietly in the background.

Although often distracted or diffused,

Awareness is always here with us.

When practicing mindfulness,

We are raining our attention inwards in order to recognize and strengthen this quality of mindfulness.

To clarify and cultivate this natural,

Inherent quality of awareness,

We practice by being aware of physical feelings.

Feeling your awareness down over the nose,

And then include the cheekbones,

And the mouth.

Now the right ear,

And then the left ear.

Now be aware of the area of the chin,

And then slowly move the awareness down the front part of the neck.

Simply being aware of the feelings on the surface of the skin,

In the area of the neck,

The front part of the neck.

And now once again,

Return your attention to the very top of the head.

And then move your awareness mindfully down slowly over the back area of the head,

Down to the top of the back of the neck.

And then move your awareness down the neck,

To the bottom of the neck.

Move your attention now over the area of the right shoulder,

The top part of the right shoulder.

And then slowly move your attention down the right arm,

Not trying too hard,

Simply encouraging the mind to rest in natural awareness in this present moment,

With the felt experience of the body.

Moving awareness down the outer part of the upper right arm,

And then the under part of the upper right arm.

Then over the inner side and the outer side of the elbow.

Then moving your awareness down the lower part of the right arm,

The outer side of the forearm,

And the underside of the forearm.

Move your awareness now to embrace the back of the right hand.

You may feel it pressing against the other hand or your leg.

Slowly aware of the feelings.

And now move your awareness to the right palm.

Then slowly move your awareness down your right thumb,

From the very base of the thumb to the very tip,

And then from the base of the first finger to the very tip,

And then the next finger from the base to the tip,

The next finger,

And then finally the little finger,

From the base of the right little finger to the very tip,

Relaxing into mindful awareness.

Next we are going to repeat the exercise with the left shoulder and the left arm.

So bring your attention now to rest upon the area of the upper left shoulder.

Move your awareness over the area of the left shoulder,

The top part of the left shoulder,

And then slowly move your attention down the left arm,

Allowing the mind to rest in natural awareness in this present moment.

Moving awareness down the outer part of the upper left arm,

And then the under part of the upper left arm,

Then over the inner side and outer side of the elbow,

Then moving your awareness down the lower part of the left arm,

The outer side of the left forearm,

And the underside of the forearm.

Move your awareness now to embrace the back of the left hand,

Aware of the feelings,

And now move your awareness to the left palm.

Then slowly move your awareness down your left thumb,

From the base to the tip,

And then from the base of the first finger to the very tip,

And then the middle finger,

And then the next finger,

And then finally the little finger,

From the base of the left little finger to the very tip.

Next we are going to move our awareness over the front part of the body.

Bring your awareness to rest once again upon the upper right shoulder.

From your right shoulder,

Slowly move your attention down over the pectoral or breast area on the right hand side.

As we move over the various parts of the body,

There is no need to think about these body parts,

To judge them,

Or comment on them,

Or make any assessment at all.

We are simply feeling the way that they feel,

As they are,

And holding these feelings in neutral,

Objective,

Natural awareness.

Bringing your attention to rest once again on the upper left shoulder.

From your left shoulder,

Slowly move your attention down over the upper chest area on the left hand side.

Now move your awareness over the area of the stomach,

Feeling the feelings on the surface of the skin.

Over to the right side of the stomach area,

And then the left.

And then bring awareness down slowly over the entire abdomen area.

Now include the groin,

Embracing this area with a simple quality of knowing,

Knowing whatever physical feelings are present,

Simply being aware.

Now we are going to move our attention in a similar fashion down the area of the back.

Bring your attention to the bottom part of the back of the neck.

And now move your awareness down over the right side of the upper back.

And then down over the left side of the upper back.

And then in the middle area of the back.

Awareness of the area of the back,

And then the right side of the back.

Relaxing any tension that you observe,

Allowing the body to simply relax into the therapeutic quality of mindfulness.

Feeling the right hand region in the middle of the back,

Relaxing.

And then aware of the left hand region in the middle of the back.

Now move your attention down the lower back,

Simply being aware of the physical sensations on the surface of the skin,

To the left and to the right.

And feeling where the bottom of the back meets the buttocks.

Now bring your awareness to the feelings of the right buttocks pressing against the surface upon which it rests.

Perhaps there is a sense of warmth or heat,

Some pressure,

Simply aware.

And move your awareness down the underside of the upper right leg.

Under the thigh,

From the buttocks,

All the way to the back of the knee.

And then feeling the area at the back of the right knee.

Now return your awareness to the top of the right leg.

This time moving awareness over the upper side of the right thigh,

From the top of the leg to the kneecap.

Feeling the kneecap.

Now move your awareness over the right shin.

Slowly down over the upper side of the ankle.

And then bring the awareness from behind the right knee,

Down over the calf muscle.

Be aware of any feelings on the surface of the skin.

Moving awareness over the back of the ankle.

And then bring awareness over the heel of the right foot.

Over the sole,

All the way to the base of the toes.

And now bring the awareness to the ankle again,

The upper ankle,

And slowly move your awareness over the upper side of the right foot,

To the base of the toes.

And then simply,

Slowly,

Move your awareness from the base of the big toe to the very tip.

And then the second toe,

From the base to the tip.

And then the same with the third toe.

And the fourth toe.

And finally,

The little toe.

And now we will repeat this process with the left leg.

Now gently bring your awareness to the feelings of the left buttocks,

Pressing against the surface upon which it rests.

Once again,

Perhaps there is a sense of warmth or heat or pressure.

Simply being aware.

And move your awareness down the underside of the upper left leg.

Under the thigh,

From the buttocks,

All the way to the back of the knee.

And then feeling the area at the back of the left knee.

Now return your awareness to the top of the left leg.

This time moving awareness over the upper side of the left thigh,

From the top of the leg to the kneecap.

Feeling the kneecap.

Now move your awareness over the left shin.

Slowly down over the upper side of the ankle.

And then bring the awareness from behind the left knee,

Down over the calf muscle.

Simply aware of any feelings on the surface of the skin as they are.

Over the back of the ankle.

And then bring awareness over the heel of the left foot.

Over the sole,

All the way to the base of the toes.

And now bring the awareness to the ankle once again.

The upper side of the ankle of the left foot.

And then slowly move your awareness over the upper left foot to the base of the toes.

And then simply,

Slowly move your awareness from the base of the big toe to the very tip.

And then the second toe.

And the same with the third toe,

From the base to the tip.

And the fourth toe.

And finally the little toe,

Aware of the feelings from the base to the tip.

Having become mindful of the sitting posture and having generated a clear present moment awareness,

We will now turn this awareness to be mindful of breathing.

Gently bring awareness now to the area of the face.

And then to the tip of the nose.

Creating the intention to be aware of the feelings involved in breathing.

As the breath enters into the nose,

Passes down through the chest and then into the abdomen,

Being mindful of the feeling.

And similarly,

Be aware of the feelings in these areas as the breath passes from the abdomen through the chest and out the nose once again.

Gently being mindfully aware of each in-breath and each out-breath.

One breath at a time.

There will be a one minute pause now for you to practice being mindfully aware of the feelings of the breath.

This brings us to the end of the body sweeping meditation.

If you have time,

Please continue with your own breath meditation for as long as you can.

Enjoying the calming effect of the ordinary,

Natural in and out breaths.

Breathing and becoming alert by practicing mindfulness of breathing.

One breath at a time.

Reviews

Thorough body scan done slowly and calmly and steadily. Thank you

Ever excellent, good, and helpful. With gratitude!
So calm, so peaceful, so thorough!
✨💖🙏🏽🪷🙏🏽💖✨

Best body scan ive ever encountered! Thank you for your loving kind devotion to expanding human awareness!! 🙏🙏🙏

Incredible scan. Thank you so very, very much. Just perfect

Thank you, best to do later in the day as I almost fell asleep a couple times in the morning haha, will return 💚

Good awareness practice and being present, thank you 🙏

Good reminder of awareness of the body to learn to be in the here and now. Thank you for your clarity

Thanks for the meditation! Love and miss you. Metta from ex-Jalito

This has become my daily meditation setup. I always rush body scans and need the relaxed support that this provides. Amazing foundation practice.

Wonderful way to be present and grounded, thank you!

The best yet ! It was wonderful..so relaxing and unwinding ! Thank you 🙏

Thank you so much for this great meditation. 🙏

A wonderful body scanning meditation. Challenging and rewarding!

Wonderful meditation

The best body scan meditation, very relaxing and replenishing.

Perfect guided meditation, very detailed body scan and the added mindfulness of the breath at the end is perfect.

If there was a longer version made, perhaps 30 minute body mindfulness and 30 minute mindfulness of the breath, that would be wonderful.

Namaste ❤

Very nice meditation. Thank you.

Excellent meditation.calmed me down thank you 💜🙏🏼 x

Wonderful. Calm. Soothing.

Thank you. The sound of the water in the background is quite relaxing. Your gentle guidance is perfect.