Hello my highly sensitive friends,
This is Tanya,
And welcome to your Highly Sensitive Healing Body Scan meditation.
In this practice,
We'll explore different sensations in our body,
And instead of thinking about our body as separate from our mind and spirit,
We'll focus on feeling and experiencing ourselves as a whole and complete being.
We'll be patient with ourselves,
Not placing any judgments on any thoughts or feelings that arise for us,
Just noticing and being aware without placing any labels or criticisms on ourselves.
For this practice,
It's recommended that we lie down comfortably,
But we can always experience any practice sitting down in a chair or on the floor,
Sometimes even standing with our back to a wall for stability if that's what's best for us,
And if at any time we feel uncomfortable or unsafe,
Please pause or end the practice.
Remember that we make the rules and decide what is best for us.
If we're lying down,
Maybe find a cushion or a pillow to support our head and a blanket to cover ourselves if we feel we may get a chill.
Let's begin.
Lie down on the floor with our legs uncrossed,
Feet falling out to the side.
Our arms can be by our sides,
Palms facing up,
Or if we're more comfortable,
Our hands can be relaxed lightly on our bellies.
Just observing the rise and fall of our breath.
Take a few moments to settle in and make any adjustments.
Begin to let go of any noises around us.
Shift our attention from the outside to the inside.
If we're distracted by sounds in the room,
Simply notice this and bring our focus back to our breathing.
Begin to disengage the mind from busy thoughts and ideas,
Allowing our eyes to close if that's comfortable for us,
Or to remain open with a soft gaze,
And begin to bring our awareness to our body.
How does it feel right now?
Which areas of our body feel comfortable?
Which parts of our bodies feel tense?
Which areas are we experiencing tension,
Tightness,
Or discomfort?
See if we can notice these areas without any judgment.
No feeling is right or wrong.
Simply noticing what we feel as we scan our body.
Begin to notice our breath now.
Breathe in and out through our nose.
Take several long,
Slow,
Deep breaths,
Breathing in fully and exhaling slowly.
Breathe in through our nose and out through our nose,
Or our mouth if that's more comfortable.
Feeling our bellies expand on an inhale,
And release and let go as we exhale.
As we move through these various parts of our body,
Remembering to bring a gentle and kind awareness as we simply observe all the thoughts and sensations that visit us as highly sensitive people.
These can be overwhelming,
So let's be gentle and patient with ourselves during our time together.
If our mind begins to wander,
And it will,
That's perfectly normal,
When we notice it,
We'll just gently come back.
Observe how all the sensitivity,
All the sensations travel through us,
And we'll do our best to simply rise and fall with the waves of it.
How these feelings and emotions can shift and change from moment to moment.
And notice how no sensation or feeling is permanent within us.
They all pass by in their own time.
And as they visit us,
We'll just do our best to greet them as they pass by,
Allowing them to go on their way when they're ready,
As we keep our focus here in the present moment.
Together,
Here and now,
We're only practicing kindness,
Only love in our thoughts,
In our energy,
And in our gratitude for what the universe has given us,
Allowing this compassion to flow through our physical body.
Becoming more aware of all our highly sensitive sensations,
The sights and sounds,
And finding our own individual ways to embrace them and greet them as friends instead of foes.
Bringing our attention now to our feet and toes,
Allow our feet to become heavy,
Releasing them more into the floor with each exhalation.
Noticing any sensations now in your toes,
The soles of your feet,
Heels,
Tops of our feet,
Any tingling,
Any heat,
Whatever we may feel.
Continuing to breathe nice and slow.
Bring our awareness to our legs now.
Notice our calves,
Our knees,
Our thighs,
And all the muscles in our legs.
As we inhale,
Imagine our breath moving down into our legs,
With each exhalation,
Allowing our legs to release and dissolve into the floor.
Noticing our hips now is not uncommon for tension and tightness to settle into our hips.
So let's breathe into this space around our hips,
Softening and releasing as we breathe in and out into our lower back and pelvis.
Now bring our awareness into our belly.
Begin to deepen the breath into our abdomen,
Breathing in through our nose,
And if our hands are resting gently on our belly,
Feel it rise as we breathe in deeply.
And when we exhale,
Feel the belly soften and release.
As we breathe into this space,
Allowing our belly and organs to expand,
Then rest and releasing to the floor.
Let's spend a few breaths here,
Allowing the belly to rise and fill as we inhale,
And release as we exhale.
Inhaling,
Expand,
And exhaling,
Release.
Slowly moving our attention up into our back now,
Bring our mind to the top of our spine,
And just noticing and recognizing any area of tension that may have built up.
Let's place our mind and our thoughts,
Our focus on these areas of tension,
And allowing the knots to unravel as we focus on them.
Allowing the tension to dissolve down into our spine,
Out through the soles of our feet,
And into the ground.
Bring awareness to our chest now,
Noticing how our heart and lungs feel inside of our bodies.
Begin to deepen our breath into the heart center,
Being aware of any tightness and restriction we may feel.
As we exhale,
Feel the heart and lungs soften.
Just becoming aware now of our heartbeat,
Can we feel it?
When we're highly sensitive,
Often we feel our heartbeat when we are overwhelmed and stressed.
It can beat fast and hard inside our chest.
But now let's just notice if we are able to connect with our heartbeat in this relaxed state.
We may not feel it this time,
But as we practice,
We will become more and more aware of our heartbeat when we are calm and peaceful.
Just noticing now,
Continuing our breath as we don't place any expectations or judgments on what we may or may not be feeling.
Spend a few breaths here,
Just experiencing the art of listening and hearing our heartbeat.
Inhale to expand,
And exhale to release.
Moving now to our fingertips.
There are thousands of nerve endings in our fingers,
Noticing any sensations we might feel.
Again,
There is no right,
There is no wrong.
Some of us may not notice anything,
And that's perfectly fine.
Over time and with practice,
We may begin to be aware of tingling or other sensations in our body as we practice focusing and awareness.
The only idea here is to be present and aware,
To be mindful of our experience.
Notice our hands and our wrists now,
Our forearms,
Letting go of any tension as we continue to breathe.
In deeply through our nose,
And exhaling.
Bringing our attention to our elbows and our upper arms now.
As we inhale,
Imagine our breath moving down our arms and into our fingertips.
As we exhale,
Allow our arms to become heavy and release into the floor.
Moving to our shoulders and our neck.
This is an area where nearly all of us carry tension and stress.
Let's breathe deeply into this space,
This space in our shoulders and our neck,
Allowing any tension or weight that we're carrying here to melt away.
Saying quietly to ourselves,
My neck,
My shoulders are now comfortable.
My neck and shoulders are now calm.
Breathe into our throat now.
Notice how when we inhale through our nose,
The air is cool.
As it settles into our throat,
The air begins to warm.
Expanding our breath in this space is so important for us,
Allowing us to use our voices when we need to speak our highly sensitive truth.
Breathing into this space,
Inhaling and exhaling slowly,
Just allowing our throat to open.
Bringing awareness to our jaw now.
Is it tightened or maybe a bit tense?
Lightly place our tongue against the back of the top of our front teeth,
Or onto the roof of our mouth.
This will automatically release our jaw,
Allowing it to relax and open.
And now allowing our tongue to rest softly in our mouth.
Breathing deeper now as we move into the muscles of our face,
Noticing our mouth,
Our nose,
Our eyes,
Allowing them to soften.
Soften our forehead and temples,
Imagining any tension or headache or pain dissolving away.
Watch as these tensions and sensations drain from our forehead,
Down through our body and into the ground.
Continuing to breathe as we move now through the crown of our head,
Noticing any changes in our thoughts and our focus from when we began.
How our physical body feels now compared to when we started.
Spend a few moments now scanning our body one last time,
Bringing attention to any areas of tightness that we may be holding on to.
And now releasing and softening just a little bit more,
Allowing our body,
Mind and spirit the rest and moment of peace we so deserve.
Simply watching any thoughts that are not serving us in this restful state,
Allowing them to pass by us as if on a cloud,
And we'll wave to them kindly as they float up and away.
And if some thoughts don't float away,
Maybe we're working through something that needs our attention,
And that's okay too.
Just knowing that we are giving ourselves this space,
Allowing ourselves the time and to build our strength that we need to get through whatever it may be.
Using this time to focus our attention on the breath,
Speaking to ourselves with compassion,
Saying,
Breathing in,
I feel calm.
Breathing out,
I let go.
Repeating this quietly to ourselves,
And not just repeating it,
Feeling it.
Feeling these words fill our thoughts,
Fill our bodies,
Fill our hearts.
Breathing in,
I feel calm.
Breathing out,
I let go.
Breathing in,
I feel calm.
Breathing out,
I let go.
Now slowly begin to deepen our breath.
And as we exhale,
Continue to let our body release more deeply.
Releasing into the floor.
As we take a few moments here to be still,
To be quiet,
And just observe.
Let's begin now to move our fingers and our toes just a little bit.
Gently and slowly bringing our awareness back.
Stretch our arms overhead,
Or in any way that feels good to our body.
Just being mindful of the space around us.
Moving gently and slowly until we begin to open our eyes.
When we're ready,
If we're laying down,
We'll roll over onto our side.
And just bring our knees in close to our chest.
Allowing our head to rest on our arm or on our cushion.
Just pause for a moment here and notice how our bodies feel.
Our mind,
Our hearts.
Taking our time,
Slowly coming back to a seated position.
Cross our legs gently.
Just allow our hands to fall lightly into our laps or onto our knees.
Just spend a moment here noticing.
Just noticing how our body feels.
How our mind feels from when we began.
Breathing in and breathing out.
Doing our best to carry this feeling of peace with us throughout the rest of our day.
If you enjoyed this meditation,
Please reach out and let me know.
I love hearing from all of you.
Thank you so much for practicing with me.
And remember,
We were given this highly sensitive life because we are strong enough to live it.
Thank you.
