In today's practice,
We'll be doing a body scan meditation,
Where we'll go through different parts of our body and notice what sensations are alive,
And maybe for some of us,
What sensations are absent in certain parts of the body.
Just learning to meet whatever experiences there,
The sense of kindness in the heart,
Sense of openness and curiosity about what our direct experience of the body is.
So I invite you all to close your eyes or lower your gaze and sit in a posture that feels supportive for you,
Giving some attention to your spine and also your contact with the ground,
Feeling yourself rooted and stable as you sit here,
And letting your breath be easy,
Letting it flow in and flow out,
Letting it settle you and bring you into the present.
Now bringing some attention to the top of the head,
Noticing what's there.
Maybe it doesn't feel like much.
Maybe you can even notice a subtle tingling,
A little bit of pressure,
And letting your awareness travel down to the face,
Smoothing the brow,
Softening the jaw,
Letting your muscles completely relax,
Even bringing some attention to the ears,
Seeing if those can relax too.
Now noticing the neck and the throat,
What sensations may be there.
Is there a tightening or tension in the throat,
And if so,
Can we soften,
Let that go a little bit,
Feeling it open and loosen,
Traveling down to our shoulders,
Really letting them drop down and away from the ears as if they're melting down the back body.
What aliveness is present in the shoulders?
What feelings or sensations do you notice there?
Noticing that we are only trying to meet experience as it is,
Instead of trying to change or control it,
Just noticing.
Then moving down,
Traveling down each arm,
Notice the weight and the warmth,
Maybe even the tingling that's alive in the arms and the hands.
You may take notice of the temperature in the room and how that feels against your hands and your arms.
Is it warm,
Neutral,
Slightly cold?
Now shining our awareness in the torso and the belly,
Really sensing into and being intimate with the sensations that are there.
And if no sensations immediately call your attention,
Still resting in that,
The absence of sensation is still an experience we can meet with openness and curiosity.
Noticing if placing your awareness on it sparks more activity or more sensation to come alive.
And how sensations are rarely static,
Instead they have a fluidness to them,
An ebb and flow.
Now dropping into your buttocks as it touches the chair or the cushion you're sitting on,
As well as your thighs.
You may notice the density of this part of the body,
Maybe even a sense of stability that it provides you.
And similarly seeing what you can notice and feel.
And then finally traveling down to the legs and the feet,
Seeing how sensations are different and nuanced in every part of the body.
And that by just placing our awareness on it,
We start to notice them.
It doesn't require our effort to make them happen.
In the last few minutes of our sit together,
Just tracking the variety of sensations and how they're moving and changing and flowing through our body.
Getting a sense of this whole body sitting here and how alive it has come these last 13 minutes together.
I invite you all to open your eyes and get reacquainted with the room and the space you're in and really noticing what has shifted for you over these last 15 minutes.
What maybe surprised you about the body and its direct experience of it.
Thank you for sitting with me.
I wish you all a wonderful day or night.
