Gratitude For The Body & Sensations

So often when we thinking about our body, we focus on all that has gone wrong, how the body has failed us, and all the ways in which it is not "performing" as we desire. We take the body and our senses for granted, expecting them to be the dutiful servant to our every given whim. In this gratitude body scan, we open our hearts to gifts of the body and senses, and thank them for all the wonders they have given us over the years.

Transcript

So let's begin our practice today by landing here and to help us with that notice the sound of the bell calling you here bringing your senses here right now.

And finding that upright and comfortable posture,

Finding that comfortable posture so that we don't have to spend too much time focusing on the body.

And as we settle here let's take a moment to just feel this breath.

Feel the breath as it comes in and out.

And we're just starting here with the breath.

There's nothing we need to do.

You don't have to adjust this breath.

Just focusing on this one breath.

You might notice that one breath is longer than the other,

The other is a little bit shorter.

Maybe the next breath catches a little.

Maybe sometimes you just let the next breath out with a sigh.

Perhaps there's even times you struggle with this breath.

And I'm wondering if we could really drop our attention to the lungs,

Not necessarily to the belly or to the nose,

But feel into the lungs.

And are you able to take this very moment and thank them?

Send them some loving compassion.

Our lungs have allowed us to live,

They've allowed us to move,

To express.

So can you offer some gratitude to the lungs,

The lungs that allow you to connect with others,

To speak,

To sing.

As you feel this very next breath come in,

The very next breath go out.

Allow yourself to be present to the lungs and thank them.

We often take our lungs for granted.

We berate them,

Judge them,

Criticize them,

You know,

When they don't perform as expected as we would like them to be.

But just settle into feeling the breath from the vantage point of the lungs.

The air comes in and fills the lungs.

That's where all those exchanges of gases occur.

So just take another moment here to thank your lungs for all the ways they've allowed you to share yourself,

Connect with others.

I invite you to shift your attention now to that organ resting between the wings,

The lungs.

Shift it now to your heart and feel into your heart.

If you like you can always put a hand on the heart to feel it more clearly.

Perhaps you can feel your heart beat.

Now while we may take anywhere from six to 18,

20 breaths a minute on average,

Our heart beats so much faster than that.

Every moment of every day the heart continues to beat.

So let's take a moment to offer up some gratitude to the heart for allowing us to actually be here,

For regulating our nervous system.

Thanking the heart and the entire cardiovascular system for its subtle changes that we don't have to think about allow us to stand up,

To sit down,

To lie down,

To move.

Without you needing to tell your heart what to do,

It continues to beat.

So I invite you to take a moment to offer up some thanks and gratitude.

Now if you notice that you start to spiral out,

Start to get stuck in a loop of saying,

Well my heart,

My cardiovascular system is not doing as well as I would like,

Just note that.

I want you to think about all the ways your heart has allowed you to move and connect with others.

And when we thank our heart,

Let's also thank it for all the ways it's allowed us to love others.

All the times we have been able to open our heart to wonder,

To awe,

To beauty,

And connection.

So let's thank the heart for its repeated,

Consistent beats.

And let's move our attention now up the body until it rests in your ears.

Take a environmental scan and notice the sounds.

The sounds could be in the room,

They could be outside the room,

It could be in your own body.

And note that you really don't have to do anything to make the sound appears,

They just happen.

The waves land on your ears and your eardrum and we hear sounds.

And again can we offer up some gratitude to our ears and this gift of sound,

To the sense of sound.

Think of all the ways sound has enriched your life.

You might call to mind a beautiful symphony,

A favorite song,

Or the sound of your child's first words,

Or your purring cat.

And even your ability to hear this,

To listen to this guided meditation right now.

So thank your sense of sound and your ears,

Offering up some gratitude from your heart.

And let's just allow our attention,

Our intentional gaze if you will,

To move inward a little bit to the eyes.

And if your eyes are closed you can keep them closed.

If they're open just allow the gaze to be downward and soft.

And just rest in all the lights,

Shapes,

Colors,

And textures of the sense of sight.

Notice what appears,

It could be colors even behind those closed eyelids,

Shades of gray,

Or even swirling light.

And again I invite you to call to mind all the gifts that these eyes and sight have given you.

All the books you have read,

The movies you've seen,

The wonders of nature you were able to notice,

The people,

The places,

The ability to even navigate the interface to allow you to listen to this,

To join this meditation right now so that we can be listening to this together.

Now notice whenever you begin to critique or criticize your eyes or the sight you have now just note that,

That rumination,

That thinking,

That future tripping and come back to gratitude for all the gifts that the sight you have had have given you.

And let's just drop down just a little bit to the nose taking a breath in and breath out and notice what you smell right now.

The quality of that smell,

Sweet or sour or pungent or acrid.

And as we all know in these times the sense of smell is something we often take granted.

Even our ability to breathe in through the nose,

Even the act of breathing in through the nose versus the mouth is one way to regulate our nervous system.

So take a moment and offer up some appreciation for all the ways your nose and the gift of smell have enriched your life.

As I said just the ability to breathe in through the nose and out through the nose can impact your nervous system but you might call to mind some of your favorite smells and while they might not be here now having that gift of smell at one point allows you in this moment to conjure up that scent to shift your nervous system.

So remind yourself of the ways that smell and all of these senses have enriched your life.

I'm just moving your attention now down to the tongue the sense of taste and notice what's resting there right now.

What's showing up in this moment?

Could be salty or sour or bitter sweet.

You might notice where it is on the tongue and let's take a moment to thank the tongue the mouth but also the teeth all the things that the teeth have allowed us to bite into and taste the lips all the ways the mouth tongue teeth lips have allowed us to not only eat but also communicate with others.

How would our life be without this ability without these senses from our heart feeling that gratitude and sending it to our mouth our teeth our lips our tongue and moving now just a bit down to the neck feeling into your neck and your throat.

I haven't met anyone lately who hasn't had a stiff or sore neck just from using our devices for trying to connect with others for doing our work on computers and the wall the ways that we sit let's take a moment to thank our neck for holding up our head for being the bridge that connection between our head and our heart connecting our mind and our body as you move down feel into your shoulders and notice what's residing there today you might take a moment to consider all the things that you have shouldered in your life all the things you've carried thank your shoulders for all they've done for you all they've allowed you to do.

Streaming your attention down down to your arms the upper arms the elbows the forearms the hands and the fingers what gifts what gifts these arms and hands have been allow your mind to conjure up what your arms and hands have allowed you to create the ways in which they've allowed you to express yourself to feed yourself to write to type to create but also to hold others to feel the quality and texture of fabric of surfaces so offer up some gratitude to your arms your hands your fingers thank them for all the work they've done and just allow your attention now to drift to your back the back of your body allow your attention to wander down from your shoulders all the way down to the buttocks feel into your spine the muscles of the upper mid and low back the shoulder blades think of all the ways you've carried the weight all the ways you've put your back into things all the ways your spine has allowed you to move on let's have some thanks and gratitude for our spine our back for holding us up for supporting us and for allowing us to support others bring your attention to your belly and all the organs they're all the digestive organs organs of detoxification the processing organs all the food we've ingested all the things we put into our body and how often have we taken for granted that these organs will break it down and assimilated and allow us to use those nutrients to continue we have filled these organs with so many things we thought would give us pleasure but sometimes it might be hard to process so let's take a moment to thank the gut let's also thank our gut for all the insight and wisdom that has given us over the years all the times we've had that gut feeling about something your gut is talking to you have we been listening and as we've been going through the body up until this point and you've noticed that you offer up some gratitude remember that one physical way we can also demonstrate gratitude is to release tension so how are you holding your tension in your gut in your belly to take a moment to express this gratitude just soften the belly soften the gut and as we soften the gut we bring our attention down to our pelvis our groin our buttocks but also the thighs the hamstrings and as we settle into the buttocks the groin the thighs think of all the ways these areas have held us allowed us to have a stable sense of security of base to thank them moving your attention down from your hips to your legs to the knees to the lower legs the ankles and even the feet how much gratitude can we find for our legs and feet where of our legs feet hips taken us in life how have these improve the quality of our life now can we offer up some appreciation and gratitude and as if we are zooming out on a camera lens allow the attention to widen to include your entire body right now your entire physical body your energetic body your thinking body take a moment to offer thanks and yes thank our thoughts we are all challenged by our thoughts all of us usually challenged by our repeated negative thoughts our ruminations are catastrophizing but by recognizing it and realizing it it's the minds attempt to keep us safe let's take a moment to thank our mind thank our thinking body for all the ways it has done this just to keep us safe so to end our practice today I invite you to take just another moment here and think about moving through the remainder of your day as I said that maybe plans have come to mind the things you are thinking you're going to be doing that are on your schedule maybe you're already thinking about what you're going to do next and as you see yourself moving about the day take a moment to pause and reflect on all the ways your physical body is allowing you to do that all the senses you will use with probably without any thought or gratitude whatever work you may be doing next does it require sight sound thought analysis physical movement typing writing communicating let's take another moment here to really offer up some gratitude for our entire physical mental and thinking body and in a moment you'll hear the three bells calling you back into the room hear the bells and offer up a silent gratitude to sound and as the bells come to an end just take your time slowly coming out of this meditation and as you begin to move remember the gifts of this body you

Reviews

Thank you Dr. Brad for this lovely meditation. It was perfect for me today. Your meditation voice is calming and the focus is so beneficial.
Beautiful 🌺

Beautiful meditation reminding us of the miracle of our bodies. Thank you so very, very much.