The body scan.
So taking a few moments before we begin to allow yourself to settle into your chosen posture.
So whether you're sitting,
Standing,
Lying down,
Making any little adjustments you need to to increase your comfort level.
So we're looking to feel supported,
Relaxed in the body but also having a sense of being awake,
Being alert and knowing of course that you can move during the practice if you need to.
So perhaps taking the next few breaths to release down and back into gravity a little bit more.
So with each out breath releasing,
Softening,
Trusting that you're held,
Supported by gravity and then starting to get an overall sense of your body resting here.
What's it like to inhabit this body today?
Maybe you just have a sense of your body feeling a bit tired or maybe it's full of energy.
Maybe you're warm or cool.
Maybe you're aware of what your body's in contact with,
So the surface that you're resting on.
You might even be aware of the air in the room.
Seeing as we begin the practice,
If we can bring an open-hearted attitude to ourselves,
To our bodies,
To our sensations.
So in mindfulness there is no right or wrong way to feel.
We're simply doing our best to allow,
To befriend what is already here and knowing of course that our sensations are bound to change from moment to moment.
So let's start the body scan itself,
Moving through each part of the body and just exploring what sensation is here.
What can we feel?
So let's start in the feet today,
So taking your awareness all the way down through the body into each of your toes.
So what's here?
What kind of sensations are you feeling in your toes today?
So it could be very,
Very subtle.
It might just be the temperature.
Maybe there's a bit of a tingle.
Maybe they just feel quite numb.
So exploring each toe in turn and then moving on to the rest of the foot.
So the soles,
The heels,
Tops of the feet.
What's here?
And then continuing up into the ankles next.
The lower legs,
The calves,
The shins.
Moving up into the knees next.
And as we go,
Seeing if you can really feel from the inside out,
So you're not just picturing that area or imagining it.
You're really feeling it.
So what do you feel in your upper legs,
In your thighs,
The front,
The back,
The sides of the thighs?
How about in the hips and the pelvis,
The whole pelvic region,
The buttocks?
As we move,
It's like we're just saturating each area in this warm,
Gentle,
Friendly awareness.
So moving up now to the back of the body.
So starting from the sacrum,
Exploring the whole length of the spine,
The breadth of the back.
And knowing,
Of course,
That sooner or later,
It's very common that our mind starts to wander off.
So if you notice that you're no longer with your body,
That you've got caught up in thinking or daydreaming,
Planning.
Knowing that that's a completely normal part of the practice,
That you've not done anything wrong.
And really,
The practice is to notice that you've wandered off and then to make the choice to come back again to the body.
So returning as many times as you need to,
Very gently,
Very patiently,
Knowing that this is the training.
So let's return to the back of the body.
What do you feel here?
Moving up the back.
Might be aware of the back of the ribcage,
Moving gently as you breathe.
And how about the shoulder blades?
And coming up into the shoulders themselves.
It can be an area that many of us hold tension in.
So if you do find any sense of tightness or holding or even discomfort here or anywhere in the body,
Seeing if we can befriend that experience too.
Can we breathe with it?
Breathe into it?
Allowing the breath to soften,
To soothe those areas of discomfort.
But knowing if any area feels too intense,
Too painful,
There's also the option to just move on,
To shift your focus.
So moving now from the shoulders,
Down each arm,
All the way from the armpits,
The upper arm,
Elbows,
Forearms,
Down into the wrists,
The hands,
Each finger,
Each thumb,
The palms,
The back of the hands.
So again,
Just noticing what kind of sensations are happening just now in my hands.
What are your hands touching?
Are they warm?
Are they cold?
And then flowing back up the arms,
The shoulders.
And let's explore the rest of the torso now.
So moving back down the body into the belly now.
So maybe feeling the swell of your belly as you breathe in,
That sense of expansion.
And the belly subsiding as you breathe out.
And you might notice that same rhythm along the sides of the body,
In the chest,
In the ribcage.
It's like the whole torso is breathing.
The whole torso expanding,
Subsiding.
So continuing up the torso,
The chest,
The shoulders.
And let's continue up into the neck,
The front,
Sides,
Back of the neck.
From here,
Moving into the head.
So maybe getting a general sense at first of the whole shape of your head,
The weight of the head.
And if you're lying down,
You might even like to have a go at releasing a little bit more back into the cushion or the support that you're resting on.
And then zooming in a little.
So exploring the surface of the head,
Starting with the scalp,
The touch of your hair.
And then moving into the face,
The brow and the eyes,
The cheeks,
The jaw,
The nose,
The lips.
You can even take your awareness inside your mouth,
Noticing how your tongue is sitting.
Check out the ears,
The whole face.
And again,
If there's any sense of holding,
Of tightness,
Can we allow the breath to soften,
To soothe that tension?
And then finally expanding out a little bit.
So zooming out,
So now holding the whole body in awareness.
All the way from the tips of the toes to the top of the head.
The whole body resting here,
Gently held in this warm,
Accepting,
Kindly awareness.
So allowing yourself to rest here for a few more moments.
Just feeling the gentle ebb and flow of your breath moving in the body.
So we'll bring the practice to a close there.
So you might like to stay where you are for a little bit longer.
Take some more time to rest.
Or you might like to start moving the body,
Transitioning into the rest of your day.
