Hallo and welcome to today's practice.
For today we're doing a little mindful body scan.
If you're ready to begin coming into a nice easy comfortable seated position.
It can be on a chair,
On the floor,
Wherever you are just make sure your spine is nice and straight.
Getting nice and supported.
Going tall through the spine.
Take a moment now to just let go.
Let go of anything that you need to do today.
Let go of the day behind you leading up to this moment.
Relaxing any tension,
Anxiety you might have about the day ahead and bring your awareness to the present moment.
Just you,
Your body and your breath.
If you want you can even work with a mudra.
Resting your hands on your knees.
Making an okay sign.
Bringing the tip of the thumb and the index finger together.
Just take a moment to let go of anything that needs your attention.
And just become more and more present with your own breath and your own skin.
Notice how your breath is feeling.
How your breath is doing today.
And with every inhale starting to soften the edges of the breath.
Deepening the inhale.
Lengthening the exhale.
And if there's any thoughts,
Sounds or noises drawing your attention away,
Just notice and bring your awareness back to the breath.
Back to the present moment.
Focusing your awareness on your body.
Bring your awareness to your toes.
Noticing the sensations of the toes.
And see if you can relax and release the tension in the toes.
All the muscles,
The ligaments,
Soft.
The soles of your feet relaxed open.
The tops of your feet relaxed.
Relaxing into your ankles.
Releasing tension in the ankles.
And in the calves.
Your attention is now on your knees.
In the joints and the nooks of the crannies of the knee joints.
And see if you can surrender any tension in those areas as well.
Softening your thighs.
The back of the thigh.
Going into the hip.
The ball and soccer joint of the hip.
Feel the sensation of your hips.
And release all effort.
In the pelvic floor,
There might be some hidden tension.
So you need to play closer tension.
Noticing the tension,
The tightness.
Holding onto and just breathing into this area and soften with every exhale.
Into the belly as well.
The belly can hold a lot of tension,
Tightness.
See if you can soften with every exhale,
Letting go of all effort.
Bring your awareness to the chest and the heart area.
Also a place where we hold onto tension and see if you can soften with every exhale.
Letting go of your whole tension in the shoulders,
In the arms,
Forearms.
And in the wrists.
Bring your awareness to the palm and the fingertips.
Releasing sensations in the fingers,
In the palm of your hand.
Releasing the tension in the hands,
The effort.
Into the elbows.
Softening the elbows with every exhale.
The shoulders.
The back of the shoulders.
The shoulder blades.
The tops of the shoulders and the muscles in the neck.
Where are you holding on the tension?
Where is your body not letting go?
Releasing into those areas and softening.
Your awareness now is on the jaw,
The muscles in and around your jaw and in the tongue.
See if you can surrender the effort in the jaw,
The tongue.
All the way up into the ear.
Noticing the layers of tension in this area.
Releasing with every exhale.
And the eyes.
The eyes work quite hard for us in the day.
It's quite active.
Can be quite aggressive.
Looking,
Seeing and just now looking inward.
Releasing the gaze inward.
And with every inhale sending love and gratitude into the eyes.
With every exhale surrendering all effort.
The awareness is on the crown and the top of your head.
Loads of little muscles on the skull.
Where are you holding on to tension?
Where can you let go?
The base of the skull,
All along the spine.
The base of the skull and the base of the spine.
Feel your whole spine.
The whole spine from the base to the base of the skull.
Also a place where we can store some tension,
Some stress.
Especially at the base of the skull.
Breathing into the areas all along the spine.
Softening with every exhale.
Feeling your whole body,
Your whole body in this present moment.
Your whole body surrendering to gravity.
Soft and open.
And see where you might be holding on to physical energy still.
Stuck pockets of physical energy that might be quite sneaky.
So just check in and breathing into those areas and softening.
Surrendering the tension.
And as you do you might notice that stillness.
You might notice the quiet place that's always present.
You might notice the quiet place that is always present.
Inherently so.
The stillness that is vast.
Ever expanding.
And just rest here for a little bit.
Starting to bring your awareness back to the breath.
Deepening your breath again.
Fill the lungs from the bottom to the top.
Deep breath.
Release your mudra.
Bring your hands together in prayer at your heart center and rub your palms quite fast.
Generating some heat with the friction as you rub.
Bring your warm palms over your closed eyes.
Allow the heat to drain into the sockets.
Send the energy from your palms through the eye sockets.
Once all the energy has been absorbed,
Blink your eyes open underneath your cupped palms.
Slowly letting some light open the fingers.
Dropping the hands down.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
And go into this day from this place of peace and stillness.
Hari Om Tatsat.
