Somatic Body Scan For Self-Love And Body Appreciation

This somatic body scan is your companion on the journey to finding safety within your own body. Instead of judging or trying to "fix" our bodies, we have the choice to slow down and take a moment to love and appreciate them.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this week's meditation.

Today's meditation will be a somatic body scan and the invitation for this particular practice is to do this lying down in a place where you can be undisturbed even if it's just for the next 20 minutes or so.

If you're able to maybe placing an eye mask or something over the eyes to help you maybe drop a little bit deeper into the practice and so slowly beginning to make your way to that position now.

I'm maybe taking a moment to grab any extra layers of support that you might need lying down here on your back.

Maybe that's a pillow underneath the head,

Maybe a pillow behind the knees,

Maybe a fuzzy blanket to help you stay warm and comfortable whenever you have those additional layers and you feel ready.

Taking a moment here to simply let yourself land and to support you in doing that.

Perhaps you could start to bring your awareness to the parts of the body that are making contact with that physical support underneath you.

Maybe it's the floor,

Maybe a couch or your bed,

Whatever it is.

Just taking some time here and seeing if you can allow yourself to soften into these points of contact even if it's just one or two percent here to start.

As you start to become more acquainted with that physical support underneath you,

The invitation is to maybe allow this physical support to be a representation of the unseen support that lives within you.

There's greater intelligence that allows the grass to grow,

Allows the sun to pass through her,

The moon to pass through her different phases.

The same intelligence that allows our heart to beat,

Allows our lungs to breathe.

Maybe as you reflect on this,

There might be a specific additional layer of unseen support that you would like to invite here with you today.

Perhaps that's the support of Mother Earth,

Support of any ancestors,

Angels,

Or guides.

Whatever those layers are,

Taking a moment to maybe invite them into this practice with you today.

As you allow these additional layers of unseen support to begin to come through,

The next invitation is to maybe allow yourself to open up and truly receive all of the support that is here for you today.

So you have this very physical support that is underneath you.

You have this unseen support that is within you and all around you.

All of the support that is here holding you today,

That is here loving you today.

So that you may start to explore the deeper parts of the body.

I want to acknowledge that some of us don't always feel safe inside our bodies and the practice that we'll do here today is intended to support you in that journey of coming home to yourself,

Of coming back to feeling safe in the body.

One of the best ways we can do that is to start to become aware of the physical sensations of the body,

To welcome them,

To notice them,

To track them.

So that's a lot of what we'll be doing in today's practice.

Before we do that,

Just taking a moment here to connect with your breath,

Noticing how the breath is flowing in and flowing out.

And maybe you might notice that as soon as you start to bring your awareness to the breath,

That it already begins to slow down.

And if it hasn't yet,

That's okay,

That's perfect.

Whether it has or it hasn't,

Perhaps we could begin to extend the inhales and extend the exhales.

Really inviting everything to slow down here.

When we allow our breath to slow down,

We can maybe allow our minds to slow down,

Maybe even our heartbeats to slow down.

And it's in this slowing down that we can start to become aware of our physical sensations.

So as you feel ready,

I'll invite you to start to bring your awareness to your head.

Does the head feel small or large or maybe more of kind of medium size?

It's less about what size it actually is and more about what it is that you're sensing here.

Is the head feeling heavy today?

Is it feeling light today?

Maybe the head has a certain texture that you might sense.

Maybe the head's airy or maybe it's more dense.

Just taking a couple of slow,

Sweet,

Soft,

Full,

Deep breaths into the head.

Noticing what it is that you're noticing and seeing if you can stay with it for 30 seconds here.

As we scan through the body,

We will also take some time to love and appreciate the body.

And so before we move on,

Perhaps you could take a moment here to share a message of love with the head and more specifically maybe more with the brain.

Our brains work so hard to keep us alive,

To keep us safe.

So maybe there's a message of gratitude,

Of appreciation that you can share with the brain today.

Welcoming any noise,

Any thoughts,

Thanking the brain for all that it does for you.

As you feel ready,

Slowly starting to bring that awareness down into the shoulders and then bringing that awareness from the shoulders down into the heart,

The center of the chest.

Noticing what you're noticing in the chest,

Noticing what you're noticing in the heart.

Does the chest feel tight?

Does it feel heavy?

Maybe it feels really open and expansive.

Just taking a couple of slow,

Soft,

Sweet,

And full,

Deep breaths into the chest and into the heart.

Maybe there's a certain texture that you might sense in the heart or in the chest today.

Maybe there's a certain color that you might sense in the chest and in the heart today.

Whatever it is that you're noticing,

Maybe taking a moment here to take some sweet,

Soft,

Slow,

Full,

Deep breaths.

Whatever sensations you're noticing.

Before we move on,

Taking a moment here to share a message of love and appreciation,

Of gratitude with your lungs and with your heart.

Thanking them for all the work that they do,

All the nourishment that they provide for your vessel.

As you share these words of love,

Of gratitude,

Of appreciation,

Noticing what comes up for you and welcoming whatever comes up for you.

Maybe you notice some goosebumps or maybe there's some resistance.

Noticing where you might be carrying that resistance,

Where you might be holding that resistance.

Just sending a little love here.

Maybe using the words,

I see you,

I hear you,

I feel you,

And I'm right here with you.

As you feel ready,

Slowly bringing your awareness down into your hips,

Down into your pelvic bowl.

Right away,

Noticing what you're noticing here.

Noticing if there's any constriction,

Any tightness.

Maybe there's a certain shape that you might sense here in the hips and the pelvic bowl.

Maybe there's an emotion that comes up as you breathe and notice what you're storing and what you're sensing in the hips.

Noticing any temperature changes that might arise.

As we notice and breathe in this area,

Perhaps we could start to bring in the awareness of our bellies.

Maybe placing a hand or two onto the belly and watching the belly rise as you inhale.

Watching it fall as you exhale.

Maybe taking a moment here to share some words of love and appreciation for your hips,

For your pelvic bowl,

For your belly.

Then as you feel ready,

Very slowly beginning to bring all of your awareness down into the feet.

These feet that carry you through life.

Noticing if the feet feel tight.

Noticing if the feet feel really grounded.

Just taking a couple of breaths into the feet.

Noticing what you're noticing.

Perhaps you can take a moment here to thank your feet and share some words of love and appreciation with your feet.

Then as you feel ready,

Bring your awareness to the entire body.

Seeing if you can take three full,

Slow,

Sweet,

Soft,

Full deep breaths with your entire body.

Breathing into this connection.

Breathing into this love,

Into this appreciation.

Breathing into this greater intelligence that lives within you.

Taking a moment here to notice how you feel.

Noticing any shifts.

Then slowly as you feel ready,

Beginning to invite movement back into the body.

Wiggling the toes,

The fingertips.

Maybe taking a full body stretch if that feels good.

Maybe rolling off onto your favorite side.

Just taking one more moment here to thank yourself for carving out this time for you.

Thank your body for all that it does for you.

As you feel ready,

Slowly beginning to open the eyes if you haven't yet already.

Perhaps you could just take a moment to reorient yourself to your space.

Just looking around and noticing what you see.

Noticing what you might hear in the background.

I encourage you to support your integration.

Maybe spend a few minutes journaling about what you noticed as you were scanning the body.

If you find yourself on a journey of coming home to your body,

Of feeling safe in your body again,

The invitation is to come back to this practice anytime you feel like you need it.

Maybe that's once a week.

Maybe that's once every couple of weeks.

Maybe that's daily.

Sensing into what that frequency is for you or the season that you find yourself in.

I want to thank you for showing up for yourself today for making this time to slow down,

To meditate,

To breathe,

To be,

And to connect.

Coming home to our bodies is an act of revolution in this day and age.

It's an honor to be your guide in doing so.

Thank you again for being here.

I wish you a beautiful rest of your day,

Morning,

Afternoon,

Or evening.

I look forward to connecting with you soon.

Reviews

Such a lovely experience, I found your voice so soothing and appreciated there was no music. I felt safe with you, thank you 🙏🏻

Beautiful meditation, so nurturing. Gorgeous pace and very peaceful voice. Beautifully led. Thank you 🙏💗

This was very very healing for me. Thank you for this.

Deepened my awareness and appreciation of my body. Useful practice to feel my body is my safe, home base. Thank you. Your voice is strong and soothing.

This is a wonderful meditation! It can be great to use for calming down and preparing for rest, a good way to soothe the body and increase a sense of safety. I just listened midday, have been having increased body pain and a kidney infection and stone a few weeks ago has set my body into a cycle of fight or flight. It’s been quite a ride, but I found your meditation easy to enter into with most of my focus and your guidance was nicely paced and soothing. I will definitely return to it and share 🫶🏽🌎🌱✨

Beautiful start to the morning. Thank you so much🫶🏽🙏🏽