Begin by finding a comfortable position where you're alert yet relaxed.
Letting your hands gently rest in your lap,
Closing your eyes if that's comfortable for you,
Or gently lowering your gaze,
Tuning back into the body,
Taking a few deeper breaths at your own pace,
Remembering to release with each out breath,
Dropping your shoulders back down and away from the head and neck.
Letting go of any expectation or how you will feel at the end of this meditation,
Inviting yourself to simply be here as best you can,
Relaxing back into natural presence,
Slowly scanning through the body,
Inviting yourself to soften and release any obvious areas of tension.
Those areas that may not yet be ready to release,
Seeing if you can make space around that tension,
Not pushing it away,
Just allowing it to be there,
Seeing what that's like for you.
You may invite yourself to offer some gentle phrases of compassion,
Loving kindness,
May my body be at ease,
May my body be at ease,
Noticing any effect that phrase has on your body.
There may be some resistance around it,
May you feel mechanical.
You may allow it to soften your body.
May my body be at ease.
May my body be healed in natural presence.
May my body be healed in natural presence.
You may wish to say to yourself,
I calm my body.
I calm my body.
Witnessing the impact that phrase on your body,
That help to release areas of tension that cause greater resistance.
Whatever's there,
Opening to it,
Taking room for it.
I calm my body.
Dropping the eye.
Calm body.
Calm body.
Witnessing the effect on the body and also on the mind.
Inviting it in as best we can.
And letting go of the phrases.
Drawing your attention to the feet,
To the sensations in the feet.
Allowing whatever is present in the feet to come and go on its own.
Not trying to control the sensations in the feet in any way.
Perhaps imagining expansion and contraction with each in-breath and each out-breath.
Observing any tingling,
Any numbness.
Eat.
Eat.
Aching.
Twisting.
Vibrating.
Any sensations in the feet.
Staying present with what's there through each breath.
And drawing your attention to the ankles,
Including the sensations of the ankles in your field of awareness.
Including the calves,
The shins in your field of awareness.
Again,
Any tingling,
Aching,
Numbness.
Whatever sensations are there,
You can room for them.
Allowing the sensations to be received in the space around your shins,
Your calves.
And drawing your attention to the knees.
Acknowledging all that the knees do for you.
Witnessing from moment to moment the changes and sensations in the knees.
Inviting sensations to be received in a softening awareness.
Becoming aware of the thighs.
Changes and sensations with each in-breath,
Each out-breath in the thighs.
Seeing if you can imagine the thighs breathing.
You find that your attention wanders.
It's not a problem.
Very sweetly bringing it back to the sensations of the thighs.
Letting go of any judgments.
Drawing your awareness to the hips.
A tightness.
Openings.
Vibrating of the hips.
Moment to moment attunement.
Now getting a sense of the legs in their entirety.
All the simultaneous pulsating,
Aching,
Opening.
Letting it all be there.
Using the interface between the breath and sensation of the legs.
And now softly bringing your attention to the lower belly,
The abdomen.
A place where we often hold much tension.
Seeing if you can release the abdomen as much as it's ready to do so.
Feeling it expand and contract with the breath cycle.
Letting the breath nourish the belly.
Moving your attention now to the chest,
To the heart.
Letting the heart release.
Let go.
Relax back.
Relax back into natural presence.
Allowing the chest region to be completely held and the space around it by the back of the chair.
Now getting a sense of the arms,
The length of the arms.
All that they do for us.
Feeling the hands from the inside out.
Again,
Being attuned to any pulsating or vibrating of the hands.
Seeing if you can relax the hands.
Now letting go of the hands and drawing your attention to the shoulders and the neck.
Again,
Releasing any obvious areas of tension.
Perhaps imagining the shoulders shift from ice to water and water to gas.
Inviting in a sense of lightness in the shoulders and the neck.
Now tuning to the muscles of the face.
Allowing the muscles to relax back.
We often try to control the muscles of the face.
Control the emotions that are present,
That are expressed through the face.
Seeing if for a few moments you can just let the face drop away.
Releasing any tension around the eyes,
Cheekbones.
Allowing that tension to be received in loving awareness and the space around you.
Now broadening the attention to the whole body.
Getting a sense of the whole body breathing.
Being completely absorbed by the sensations of the body.
Expansion and contraction in space.
Allowing the body to be received by softening awareness.
All body breathing.
Resting in natural presence.
And when you're ready,
Relaxing your body and your concentration.
Inviting in some movement into your body.
Gently opening your eyes.
