To begin this guided practice I invite you to either lie down or find a comfortable seated position.
You can close your eyes if you'd like to or gently soften the gaze.
Today we're going to be doing a body scan practice.
In addition to the body scan,
We'll also set the intention to let go of tension in our bodies.
Open to calm,
Relaxation.
Begin by bringing our awareness to the breath,
The felt sense of the breath,
Breathing in and breathing out.
Sometimes it helps to access the breath by adding a very gentle mental cue.
As you breathe in,
You whisper,
Breathing in.
And as you breathe out,
Whisper,
Breathing out.
And settling into the felt sense of the breath.
Wherever you feel it,
The strongest in the nose,
The back of the throat,
Maybe the chest or the belly.
And gently resting your attention there.
Bringing your attention now to the top of the head.
And sensing into what it feels like.
Do you notice any temperature,
Sensations,
Or pressure or tension?
Maybe it feels open and relaxed.
And imagine really seeing any tension that's in the top of the head.
Almost like this tension is a sheet of thin ice and it's just melting.
And this melting sensation moves along to the forehead,
Around the eyes.
Noticing behind the eyes,
This softening,
Allowing the eyes to settle back into the sockets.
And drawing attention to the cheeks,
The mouth.
And allowing any tension to melt away.
Bringing calm and ease,
Softening.
And noticing the tongue and sensing that it too can relax and just rest.
Releasing any tension in the jaw may help to open the mouth ever so slightly so the teeth aren't touching.
And sensing into the ears and the ear canal,
Imagining it opening,
Releasing.
And sensing into your brain,
Creating space around the brain,
Releasing,
Relaxing.
Drawing your attention to your neck,
Your throat.
And imagine the melting away of any tension.
It might help to very gently do a soft shoulder roll,
Bringing the shoulders up towards the ears and dropping them down.
Letting the shoulders fall.
Relax.
Feeling down into the hands and the fingers.
And I invite you to make a fist just for a second,
Tightening up the fist,
Noticing the tension.
And then easily letting go,
Opening the hands back up,
Imagining letting go of any tension.
And sensing into what your hands and fingers feel like now.
Noticing the forearms and the elbows,
Upper arms.
Imagining the skin becoming softer,
The muscles becoming softer,
Ligaments and tendons softer.
And drawing your attention to the region of the chest,
The heart and the lungs,
The ribcage.
You may be able to feel the breath,
The rise and fall.
And imagining all of the muscles between your ribs relaxing,
Softening.
So the ribcage can flow fluidly.
The lungs can fully expand.
The heart beats with ease and fluidity.
Becoming aware of your belly.
Right underneath the diaphragm,
All the way down to the lower abdomen.
Allowing your belly to relax and soften and fall out.
You don't have to hold in your gut.
You don't have to appear thin or it's okay to just let the belly fall and relax.
Almost like a little baby running around,
Their belly sticking out.
Allowing the breath to fall into the belly,
The rise and fall.
Bringing the attention to the back,
Upper back,
Middle back,
Lower back.
Feeling in the center of the spine.
Imagining the spinal cord and the spinal column just opening ever so slightly.
There's fluidity,
Spaciousness.
The muscles along the spine are soft.
Bringing the attention to the area of the pelvis and the hips,
Sits bones.
Releasing any tension.
Allowing your bottom to make contact with the seat or the floor beneath you.
And releasing any tension in the muscles and the connective tissue.
Noticing the upper legs,
The thighs,
Allowing the muscles to soften and relax.
Feeling the knee joints.
Imagining a little bit of space opening up in the joints so it's not so compacted.
There's space,
There's fluid,
There's comfort and ease.
Bringing the attention to the lower leg,
The calfs and the shins.
Letting the muscles just hang on the bones,
Softening and relaxing.
Bringing your attention to the feet,
Where the feet make contact with the earth beneath.
Noticing each individual toe.
Allowing any tension to fall away.
Opening your awareness now to the entire body in this moment in time.
Nothing that you have to do,
Nothing that has to be changed or fixed in the body.
Inviting the whole body to soften and let go of any tension.
It's okay to rest for a moment.
And imagining now with each breath as you breathe in,
You're breathing in peace and calm.
And that breath comes into every cell of your body and brings this sense of calm and ease.
Breathing in peace and calm.
And breathing out peace and calm.
Bringing your awareness to the space around the heart.
Imagining now that you're drawing the breath in and out of the heart.
Bringing in peace and ease into your own life and breathing out peace and ease to all other lives.
Breathing in peace and ease into the heart.
Breathing out peace and ease for all beings everywhere.
Remembering that to bring peace to the world,
We must first bring peace to our own lives.
Peace and calm.
Breathing in peace and ease into the heart.
