Close your eyes if that feels okay for you and let your body rest.
Notice if there's any unnecessary tension in the body,
Just letting that go.
Allowing as much relaxation to come into the body as you can.
Sensing the ground beneath and letting it fully support you.
No need to sit up really straight or hold your tummy in,
Just let it all go.
Let your jaw slightly open so it hangs a little,
Creating some space between your back teeth.
Allow your forehead to soften,
Your shoulders to drop,
Your hands to rest fully.
Even the parts that find it hard to relax,
Just invite them to be here naturally.
You don't have to try to be here,
You don't have to try to breathe,
You can just be here now.
Everything that you are doing is just natural.
And now we're going to get some practice bringing your attention inward.
Take a few deep grounding breaths.
When you inhale through your nose,
I want you to feel your chest and belly expand deeply.
And as you exhale through your mouth,
Just let everything drop.
Allowing the breaths to come and go.
For now,
Focus on the sensations of the breath.
Bringing your attention to the part of the breath that feels the most enjoyable or comfortable to you.
Whether that's in your nostrils,
Your throat,
Your chest,
Your abdomen.
Just a few moments to notice the air coming in and going out.
The rhythm of the breath.
And now as you take these breaths,
I want you to let your awareness slowly shift from the world outside to the world of your body.
We're not trying to change anything or do anything or figure anything out.
We're just watching,
Observing,
With a sense of detached curiosity.
A sense of ease without any judgment.
Like an observer in an aquarium.
Completely safe behind the glass.
Just marveling at anything that's coming by.
Any sensation,
Thought,
Feeling.
It's just another little sea creature.
It can't hurt you.
Your only job right now is just to notice what you're experiencing.
And allow yourself to breathe.
It's okay if you get distracted by thoughts or sensations in your body.
Or even if you get distracted by the urge to keep trying to work out what's happening or change what you're experiencing.
And when you do get distracted,
Just come back to your breath.
And remember,
We are just watching.
And we are holding this process loosely.
Just sitting back and letting it all play out.
Just watching those little fish float by in the aquarium.
Not studying them or trying to catch them or worrying about what they are or what they're doing.
Just letting them do their own thing and letting them float on by.
Now I want you to bring your attention to a physical sensation in your body.
Seeing it just in this way,
Just as it is in this moment.
Noticing whether it feels pleasant or unpleasant.
Whether it's widespread or it's localized to one area.
How would you describe the quality of this sensation?
Maybe a tightness,
Tingling,
Warmth,
Sharp feeling.
Whatever word makes the most sense to you.
Is it contracting?
Is it moving?
Is it ebbing and flowing?
Or is it completely stagnant?
Remember we know that you are safe and that these sensations are safe.
They are not causing you any harm.
We're just noticing them from a place of detached curiosity and interest and seeing what we can notice about them.
Now what happens to the sensation as you pay attention to it in this way?
Does it intensify?
Stay the same?
Subside?
Does it spread out or contract inwards?
Does it move around or does it stay in that one same spot?
Does the quality of the sensation change at all as you're able to just observe it?
Let it be.
Remember whatever happens to the sensation is okay.
The goal here isn't to force it to do anything in particular.
It's just to watch.
Just to observe gently,
Effortlessly,
Without a sense of intensity.
Notice in your body if there has been some tension created by paying attention to this sensation.
Taking a breath,
Allowing the belly to release,
The shoulders to drop,
The jaw to open slightly,
The forehead to soften.
It's like a symphony of sensations going on in your body and your job is just to sit back and watch the show.
You don't have to enjoy the show.
Your body does not always need your opinion.
Remember the sensations that you feel are not necessarily reflective of what's actually happening in your body.
They are just your brain's opinion and sometimes it has a lot of opinions.
Again,
Notice when you've become distracted by your thoughts,
How quickly they come in and pull your attention away.
That's okay.
Just noticing where your attention has gone and bringing it back to the sensations in the body and to this way of watching things with effortlessness and ease.
Allowing your thoughts to be there,
Not fighting with them or trying to get rid of them.
They don't need to disappear in order for you to do somatic tracking.
Just allowing them to be there in the background like a radio.
Bringing your attention back to the body each time.
Now see if there's anything that you can notice in your body which feels nice or easy.
An area of comfort anywhere.
What words would you use to describe that part?
See if you can attend to that sensation in a nice easy way.
Just noticing that sensation,
Sitting back and watching the show.
Wherever these sensations are.
Just labelling a variety of experiences you are having.
Without judging them to be good or bad,
Just naming them and acknowledging that they are there.
We don't care what actually happens to the sensations.
If it changes,
Intensifies,
Moves around,
That's okay.
We're just following it.
You don't need to steer it or be in control.
You are just a passenger in the car.
It's a very passive observation.
And as you practice watching these sensations with detached curiosity in this way,
You are training your brain to do this automatically.
Think of practicing somatic tracking as an investment in your future.
Every time you practice relating to sensations in your body in this way,
Just following them,
Observing them,
Not caring what happens,
Getting off the treadmill of having to problem solve them,
The more permission your brain gets to reinforce that the sensations that you are experiencing are not hurting you.
It can be hard to do this when you are by yourself and when you are actively scared.
But you can come back to this recording and do this again whenever you want.
A reminder of how we are trying to relate to the sensations and how we are trying to talk to your body.
When you are ready,
Come back into the room.
