For the body scan practice,
I invite you to choose a posture that really supports restfulness.
So you can lie down on your back or on your side,
Or if you'd like you can stay seated in a chair.
But I invite you to allow yourself to be supported.
So doing whatever you need to do to make that happen,
Whether it's a pillow under the knees,
Or a pillow under your head,
Or making yourself a little nest so that all of your body is supported.
Go ahead and do that now.
And as you start to rest into the surface that you're on,
Starting to notice the sensations of gravity in the body.
Feeling where the body presses into the floor or the bed or the chair.
And taking a few full rounds of breath here.
With each out breath,
Letting the body soften and rest a little bit more.
Now bringing the full focus of attention up to the top of your head and the sides of your head.
Noticing any sensations that are making themselves known here.
Becoming aware of the weight of your head pressing into the floor,
Resting on your shoulders.
Scanning your attention through the muscles of your forehead.
Softening your forehead.
Including the muscles of your eyes.
Noticing the muscles above your eyes and below your eyes and letting your eyes rest deep into their sockets.
Maybe even feeling gravity in the eyes.
Sliding attention down into your cheeks and your cheekbones.
Noticing the muscles of your jaw and your lips.
Just spend a moment here in this awareness of the head and the face.
Softening.
Resting.
And appreciating these muscles.
They work really hard to express our feelings and carry us through the world.
Giving them some permission to rest.
Now gently releasing the head and face as the object of your attention.
Sliding attention down into the neck.
The sides of the neck and the back of the neck.
You can include your throat.
You might even become aware of air moving through the throat.
Maybe taking a moment to thank these neck muscles for the hard work they do all day.
Now sliding attention down into the shoulders and the collarbone.
Including the fronts of the shoulders and the backs of the shoulders.
The sides of your shoulders and your shoulder blades.
You might even imagine that you've just taken off a heavy backpack.
You can let your shoulders know they don't have to carry anything right now.
Feeling gravity in your shoulders.
Now sliding your attention down both arms to the fingertips of your hands.
Noticing the weight of your hands and the shape of your hands.
You might be aware of the texture of whatever your hands are resting on or the sensation of air moving across the skin of your hands.
You might even become aware of the space between your fingertips.
Bringing awareness to the knuckles,
The palms of your hands.
Take a moment here to acknowledge the hard work of the hands and send some kindness and some gratitude to the hands for all they help us create.
Releasing attention from the hands and sliding attention up into the wrists and the forearms.
Can include sensations at the level of the skin and deep within the layers of muscle and bone.
Can notice the joint of the elbow,
The upper arms.
Become aware of the space between the arms and the body.
Letting your arms be heavy and soft.
Feeling gravity in your arms.
There's no need to do any heavy lifting right now or accomplish anything.
Just giving the hands and arms permission to rest.
You might notice at a certain point that attention gets pulled into thinking or planning,
Distracted by sounds or activity around you.
When you notice this,
Just gently acknowledge this movement of mind and with kindness and compassion towards yourself.
Gently guiding your attention back to the part of the body that we're focused on as best you can.
Now we'll bring attention back across the shoulders to include the chest and the upper back.
Noticing the rising and falling of the chest as it expands and contracts with each breath.
Becoming aware of the space in between the shoulder blades.
Maybe feeling the breath moving in your back body.
Now letting awareness settle in the area of the heart.
Wrapping the heart in loving attention.
Acknowledging and appreciating the heart for keeping us alive without needing to be asked to do so.
This heartbeat that forms the rhythm of our lives.
And appreciating the heart,
Maybe sending some gratitude,
Some kind thoughts to the heart.
And now sliding attention down to include the belly in the middle and the lower back.
Wrapping attention around your torso.
Sending some kindness and gratitude to all the organs of digestion,
Delimitation.
Appreciating this process of nourishing and releasing what is no longer useful.
Maybe you can spend a moment just thanking the organs for all they do to keep us going.
You might notice sensations in the belly or in the middle back.
Or lower back.
And getting curious about what's here.
Bringing some kindness.
This spirit of investigative inquiry.
And each time you exhale,
Softening just a little bit more.
Feeling gravity in the torso.
Often these muscles in our abdomen work really hard to protect us.
And sending some messages of restfulness to these muscles for just a moment here.
Letting them know that they don't have to guard against anything right now.
Now sliding attention down into the hips and the pelvis.
Including the bowl of the pelvis and the sacrum.
That upside down triangle at the base of your spine.
And the large muscles of the buttocks.
The muscles of the hips.
And inviting some softening and rest here.
Letting the hips and pelvis be soft and heavy.
Sometimes this can be a part of the area that holds a lot of difficult emotions.
And so if that's true for you,
Just wrapping this entire area in kind,
Loving awareness.
There's no need to change the sensations or fix anything that's happening in this part of the body.
Just offering yourself some appreciation.
Some gratitude for how hard these hip and pelvic muscles work to keep us moving through the world.
Now releasing the hips and the torso as the object of attention and sliding down into the thighs and the hamstrings.
Circling attention around the upper legs.
You might be aware of sensations of clothing resting on the skin.
Sensations deep within these layers of muscle.
And bone.
Tracing attention from the hip socket all the way down to the knees.
And sending some gratitude to the upper legs.
These large solid muscles that carry us around all day.
And now sliding down to include the knees.
Wrapping attention around the knees,
Appreciating the knees.
Bringing awareness to the fronts of the knees and the backs of the knees.
The space beneath the kneecaps.
Acknowledging the hard work that our knees do.
Bending and standing and lifting.
And just spending a moment here,
Sending gratitude and care to this area of the knees.
Now releasing the knees as the focus of attention and sliding down into the lower legs.
Including your shins and your calves.
The muscles and bones of the lower legs.
Letting your kind,
Loving attention seep deep into the muscle tissues.
Bringing care to the lower legs.
Letting the legs be heavy and soft.
Now sliding attention down into the ankles.
Circling the ankles with your attention.
Including the many small bones here.
Doing the hard work of keeping us going and balancing.
Including the tops of your feet.
The bottoms of your feet.
The heels,
The balls and the arches of your feet.
And appreciating your feet.
Bearing your weight.
Carrying you from one moment to the next.
Now allowing attention to slide from the feet and toes up through the ankles.
The calves and the knees.
The thighs and the hamstrings,
Hip,
Pelvis,
Your belly,
Your lower back,
Your ribcage.
Continuing up through your chest and shoulders.
Including the hands and arms,
The neck.
Letting attention wrap all the way around the head and the face.
Just resting in this whole body awareness.
Wrapping your entire being in gratitude and kind,
Loving awareness.
And thank you for taking the time to honor the body that you already have.
And feel free to continue resting here and to drift off to sleep.
Or to bring this moment to moment awareness into the next moments of your day.
