Body Awareness Beginner Meditation

Join me as I guide you through a simple but powerful grounding practice through a complete body scan. We will learn how to settle into the present moment by focusing our attention to different areas of the body.

Transcript

Hello everybody, Welcome to meditation. My name is Stacey. I'm a yoga teacher and mindfulness coach and today's meditation is going to be a simple body awareness. When we practice body awareness, We become incredibly grounded and anytime that we're going through our daily life and we just feel super scattered, A grounding meditation body awareness practice can be just the trick for pulling us back into the present moment and really helping us to feel that we're safe, We're secure, We're in control of our thoughts, Our emotions, And how we respond or react to things. So this is only going to be about eight minutes long, So get comfortable. I would love for you to begin in a seated or lying down position. You can take a few moments to get yourself settled in and we'll begin. Start to get just the little wiggles out. Anytime that we are intentional about being still, We can immediately be inundated with thoughts and to-do lists and things that are going on in our life. So take just a couple breaths to allow all of that to bubble up to the surface. Notice any little twitches in the body and then when you're ready, Let's take a deep breath in through the nose and a big exhale through an open mouth. Do that again. Big breath in through the nose. Open mouth exhale. We'll do one more. You might even make it really audible. Breathe in. Bring your awareness to the bottoms of your feet. Just take your attention there. You might have some cognitive thoughts. The bottoms of your feet are dry or cold. Just bring your awareness there. Notice any sensations, Any temperature, Any little tiny twitches or tickles. Bring your attention to your toes. Maybe even wiggle them a little bit. What does that feel like as you curl the toes and lengthen the toes? Travel up to your ankles. Rotate them outward, Inward, A pointing of the toe, A flexing of the foot. Notice sensations in the ankles, Any tension, Any temperature, Any tickles. And gradually move your awareness to your shinbone and your calves. By pushing through the heel, You might feel a little stretch through the calf muscle. By pointing the toe, You might feel lengthening along the shinbone, Your hips, Your pelvis. Same thing. Sensations, Tension, Temperature, Tickles. Moving up into your belly. Feel just a natural breath moving in and out. Watch as the belly expands on the inhale, Contracts on the exhale. And maybe you notice your belly is hungry. It's rumbling a bit, Or perhaps it's full. You just ate. Feel the sensations, The tensions, The tickles, And the temperature. Come up to your chest with your awareness. Notice the skin along your chest. Just feel as you tug your shoulders back and down and lift your heart just a little bit. And notice the skin along your chest changes. There's a sensation when the heart pushes forward. The tops of your shoulders where your tension is often most present. Roll your shoulders a little bit. See if you can change that tension and that sensation in the top of your shoulders. Travel your attention down to your biceps, Your triceps, Your upper arms, Your elbows, Your forearms, Your wrists, The palms of your hands, Your fingers. Notice sensation, Tension, Temperature, And tickles. Let's travel back up with our awareness to our neck, Our jawline. Maybe tuck your chin to your chest to feel the back of your neck. Get a nice stretch and then lift your chin up towards the ceiling and notice the front of the throat. Getting an opening. Bring your chin back to neutral and simply gaze over your right shoulder. Eyes can be closed though. Feel that rotation of the cervical spine. To the left we go. Sensation, Tension, Temperature, And tickles. Bring your chin back to neutral. Notice your face, Your lips, Your nose, Your ears, Your cheekbones, The space between your eyes where your eyebrows are, Where we often frown and furrow and create even a wrinkle and a crease between the eyebrows. See if you can imagine smoothing out that space, Feeling sensation, Temperature, Tension, And tickles. Bring your awareness to your forehead, To the top of your head, Your hair, And then we'll take our awareness down the backside of the body, Back of the head, Back of the neck, Back of the shoulders, Upper spine. Pull your shoulders forward and feel the shoulder blades separate and then bring the shoulders back to neutral. Travel down to your lumbar spine. Maybe even pull the belly in and round forward. This body awareness lets us know where the pleasure points are, Where the soft parts are, Where the tension is. Travel down to the space that is sitting on the chair. The backs of your legs, Backs of your ankles, And I return to the bottoms of your feet. Notice sensation, Notice tension, Notice temperature and tickles. Take a breath. On your exhale, Feel your body breathe downward as if you're trying to hunker into the chair that your body is sitting on. Take another breath in. Feel the chest elevate and rise. And on your exhale, Imagine breathing down your body, Through the lungs, Through the belly, Through the sitting bones, Through the legs, Through the feet. We'll do two more like that. Breathing in, Letting the breath move up through the body. And on your exhale, Find yourself becoming grounded, Safe, Secure, Still. One more, Just like that. Breathing down your body. Take a moment here to be so grateful for your beautiful form, Your physical body, And all of its sensations, Tensions, Temperatures, And tickles. Have a beautiful rest of your day, And I'll chat with you soon. Take care.