So as we start our meditation practice together,
I invite you to find a comfortable posture,
Seated or lying down.
And as the body finds its natural,
Pleasant posture,
Closing the eyes if that feels comfortable,
Otherwise just softening the gaze.
Now for the invitation to take a few slow intentional breaths.
Drawing the breath in to the lungs,
Into the belly,
All the way into the pelvis.
And as we exhale,
Fully letting go.
And in your own time,
Allowing the breath to come back into its natural rhythm.
Beginning to invite in this quality of mindful attention.
Remembering that mindfulness is present.
It's in the here and now.
And we're letting go of any judgment of how we think things should be.
Opening with kindness and curiosity.
To what's actually here.
Bringing this mindful attention to our next breath.
And simply noticing where we feel the breath naturally.
It might be in the nose,
The throat,
The chest,
Or the belly.
And for a few breaths,
Following the breath in and out.
Mindfully with kind attention.
Allowing our next inhale to bring us more fully into the body.
As we bring this kind attention down to our feet.
And as we scan the body,
We might begin to intentionally pay attention to any part of the body that feels pleasant.
Without discounting the unpleasant.
Anytime we notice this is pleasant.
Give it a little more of our attention.
So we'll start at the feet.
Scanning the feet,
The bottoms,
The tops,
Into the toes.
Noticing up into the ankles and the lower legs.
The knees up into the upper thighs.
If there's any quality of presence that might feel like a warm place,
Softness.
Maybe a relaxation.
Noticing up into the hips,
The pelvic floor.
Becoming aware of the lower belly and the low back.
Scanning up through the abdomen and the mid back.
Drawing attention to the chest,
The upper back.
And allowing this light of awareness to move down to each individual finger.
Noticing sensations.
Noticing if there's anything pleasant,
Even if it's one finger.
Or one part of a finger.
Allowing this gentle attention to move up through the arms.
The forearms,
The elbows,
Upper arms.
Shoulders Noticing the neck and the throat.
Allowing awareness to move up through the face.
Around the mouth the nose.
Around the eyes.
Noticing sensation around the ears.
Moving into the ear canal.
And scanning the crown of the head down to the back of the head.
Beginning to rest attention.
On a pleasant sensation.
And if there's nothing in the body,
That's pleasant.
You might recall a pleasant memory.
A peaceful scene in the mind.
Inviting in something that's pleasant.
Peaceful Loving.
And taking a moment to recognize what that is.
And we can give ourselves permission to feel or experience this pleasantness so allowing it to be there And allowing it to be whatever size it wants to be in our experience.
If it wants to be small,
We can allow it to be small.
If it wants to be really big in our experience,
We can allow it to expand.
Giving space for pleasantness.
And we might become curious about what this experience is like.
What does it feel like to have a pleasant experience?
Does it feel somewhere in the body?
Is there a feeling tone?
Where in the body does this pleasantness live?
Is there any mental activity that accompanies it?
You Just taking a few moments to get to know this pleasantness.
And as we're connecting more intimately with pleasantness.
We might allow ourselves to really nurture this experience.
Could be through a mantra.
I give myself permission to experience something pleasant.
Or we could place a hand on the heart or wherever we're feeling this pleasantness in the body.
And really take it in.
We might connect with this worthiness that we deserve to feel pleasantness.
We're worthy of these pleasant experiences.
We'll take a couple of minutes to nurture whatever it is that we're experiencing that feels good right now.
Taking another moment to receive this experience.
Allowing it to soak into the DNA of our cells.
Offering a reminder that this is part of our reality too.
You beginning to gently let go of this part of the practice and remembering that we can return to it in any moment of our day.
And closing the practice with a couple of deep breaths.
Just breathing in compassionate energy.
And as we exhale,
We can share this with each other.
Breathing in compassion.
Breathing out,
Sharing it with each other and all beings everywhere.
And allowing the breath to return to a natural rhythm.
May this practice support you on your healing path.
And may it serve to reduce the suffering of all beings everywhere.
Whenever you're ready you can open your eyes if your eyes were closed and just take your time.
Thank you
