Take some time to make yourself comfortable,
Allowing the body and all its parts,
Its energy,
To settle into a place of comfort and ease.
Your arms are by your side,
Palms facing up.
Your legs may be apart,
Feet flopping out to the sides.
Bring everything into your awareness,
The way you're feeling right now,
Any physical sensations,
Emotions,
Thoughts.
The way you are breathing.
The weight of your eyes in their sockets.
The texture of the fabric of the clothing you wear as it touches any part of your body.
Become completely aware of the experience of being you.
And notice if you're holding any tension in the body.
And if you are,
Let the breath become a little slower,
A little deeper.
And imagine that tightness becoming inundated with healing,
Liberating breath as you inhale.
And as you exhale,
This discomfort releases from your body and falls to the ground below you.
And you can do this throughout your whole body.
Swamp the area of your body with breath in and release any tension as you breathe out.
You may find that the body is feeling more relaxed now,
Heavier maybe,
But also buoyant,
Supported by the earth below.
Gentle breathing now,
In and out of the nostrils.
I invite you to make a conscious decision to let yourself be open,
To open yourself up to receiving,
Dropping any particular expectation of a specific outcome to this practice.
But instead,
Just welcome the practice to you.
You are a body with all your emotions,
Your experiences,
Your history,
Your choices,
A human being that is on its journey.
And you let this meditation and all that it is come to you.
And all you do is surrender to it.
And all you do is be open to this experience.
And this may be your attitude towards discovering your sankalpa for this practice.
If you have a sankalpa,
An intention,
A heartfelt wish that you are already working with,
Please bring this forward now and repeat it in your mind or in your heart with trust and faith.
Otherwise,
I suggest you fully embrace this openness to receive a message.
This may come from your heart.
You may just feel it as a sensation to start.
It might not be fully clear,
But sit with whatever you are feeling when you just let yourself be open.
Maybe it's an image.
Maybe it's a sound or a word or a simple statement.
What comes up when you ask yourself,
What is it that you want to bring into your life?
A sankalpa can inspire,
Motivate,
And create determination to bring this heartfelt wish into your life,
Into your reality.
And now take a breath in and slowly exhale out,
Letting that intention go.
As we prepare now to take a journey around the body,
Moving the awareness to the different body parts as you hear me say them.
You may find it easier to imagine a beam of light shining down onto each part that I mention.
Start by bringing your awareness into your feet.
Feel the weight of both your feet in the heels where they touch the surface you lie upon.
Let your awareness flood down into the feet,
Feeling the soles of the feet and all the toes,
The top of the foot and the whole foot,
Right and left.
Move up into the ankles,
Again feeling the weight of this joint.
Let your awareness now travel into the calf muscle and the shin.
And you arrive at the knees,
Feel the whole knee,
The space around it,
The space inside the knee.
It is heavy and you feel as if it were unraveling.
Bring more space within the knee.
Now come into the thighs,
The front and the back.
These large muscles are now completely relaxed.
All the way up into the glutes.
Awareness to the points of contact with the floor.
Intensify the sensation of touch and surrender here.
And throughout the whole of the legs,
Heaviness and release in the right leg,
In the right foot.
Heaviness and release in the left leg,
In the left foot.
Come to the pelvis,
Awareness to the pelvis,
The structure and the space inside the pelvic cavity.
And send your breath into the space.
You can imagine the breath like water.
It flows into the body and pools down into the pelvis,
Which is now like a bowl containing your breath.
And come now to the space in between the pelvis and the belly button.
And imagine here the color orange.
You may see it as a pulsing glow or a swirling light.
And maybe when you look at it closely,
You realize it is coming from a small pool of water.
Warm,
Calm waters.
With a glowing orange flare.
This is your Svadhisthana chakra.
The center of pleasure and joy.
Of emotions.
Of self-expression.
Creativity.
And now imagine that from this little pool of glowing orange waters,
Ripples start to form.
And as they become bigger,
They start to flow from here to other parts of the body.
Initially just the areas surrounding the belly,
The pelvis.
And gradually the waters become waves.
And the waves wash over your whole body.
Taking in more and more.
Letting this healing,
Warm,
Glowing water to flow through you.
And you let it completely surrendering to its healing powers.
As you're doing this,
I want you to bring to your mind the taste of something you really enjoy eating.
It might be something sweet.
Maybe a fruit or some home-baked treats.
Just really allow yourself to remember how that tastes.
And let the waters flow away now.
And come back to visualizing an orange light just below the belly button.
Breathe here.
Let it glow as you move your awareness now into the belly.
And the chest.
The back of the rib cage touching the floor.
The shoulder blades.
And the heart space.
Let your awareness dwell here.
And feel the space within the rib cage.
And you are breathing into the space.
And you feel it expanding.
Keep breathing here.
Really feeling the inflation of the lungs.
The ballooning of this area.
And imagine now the space becoming even bigger than the constraints of your rib cage.
The limitations of your skin.
Your breathing allows the space to go below the surface of the ground.
And above and beyond your body.
It grows and expands.
And you keep breathing.
And it becomes bigger and wider.
And you feel more air and more energy here.
As if you had more space than the physical body allows.
And this space,
This new space you have created.
Within it there is a blue sky.
There are clouds.
Maybe you see some birds flying past,
Singing.
The space is infinite.
And it is within us.
As we move beyond our illusions of boundaries and limitations in every sense of the word.
Bring to your mind the feeling of touch.
Mentally let yourself feel the experience of touching something that brings you pleasure.
It might be soft silk.
Your pet's fur.
Or brushing your hand over fresh grass.
The feeling of a warm blanket being draped over your shoulders.
Bring back now to the heart.
Feel your heart beating in the center of the chest.
And visualize it glowing of an emerald green color.
Bring in gratitude for being here.
For being alive.
Feeling whatever you feel.
Because you are both human and divine together.
Bring in forgiveness to someone who has hurt you.
And bring in freedom to let that hurt go.
And in its place,
Breathe in love.
Pick up your awareness again.
And let it flow now into the shoulders.
The collarbones.
Into the arms.
The elbows.
The lower arms.
Now feel the wrists.
The sensation of heaviness here.
Awareness into the back of the hands that are touching the floor.
See if you can feel the weight of the whole hand.
Feel the weight of the fingers.
And feel the palms of the hands.
Feel the energy in the palms of your hands.
And now come back to the collarbones.
And let your awareness flow into the back of the neck.
And the front of the neck.
And let it sit here in the throat.
Let your awareness flood the whole area of the throat with a color blue.
This is the center of communication and purification.
Where you reconnect with your true nature.
And feel safe to express who you are.
What you want.
What you feel.
With truth and integrity.
But also where you listen without judgment to the truth you are receiving.
I want you to really awaken your sense of hearing now.
And listen to a sound around you or in your mind.
That sound may be of a voice.
It may be your own or the voice of someone you love.
It may be laughter.
Or a song.
Of a human voice or of an animal.
Let the sound or the memory of a sound come to you.
And now imagine yourself saying something that you have not had the courage to say.
Or maybe it is saying no to something that you do not want to do.
With grace and gratitude let your voice be spoken in your mind.
Bring back your sankalpa now.
If it was a word or a statement hear yourself say it in your mind.
If it was a feeling or an image let it come to you.
And take a couple of mindful breaths here as you stay with your sankalpa.
And then take a big breath in through the nose.
And with a slow exhale out.
You let the sankalpa go into the ether.
With faith and trust that the universe has already started to bring this into your reality.
Into your life.
We come now to the end of our practice.
Slowly start to notice any sounds that you hear around you.
Picking up on sounds and then moving onto another one.
And then another one.
Deepen the breath as you bring energy and life into your body.
Slowly transitioning to a more conscious state of being.
Start to move the tongue around your mouth.
Touching the roof of your mouth,
Your teeth,
Your gums.
The inside of your cheeks.
And deepen the breath,
Start to bring gentle movements into your fingers and your toes.
Feeling yourself coming more and more into the space you're in.
Without opening your eyes.
You see the room you're in.
You feel your body lying on the floor.
The points of contact.
Eventually reaching the arms above the head.
Give yourself a full body stretch.
As you arrive to complete awareness.
And the end of our practice.
