But to start off with just let your spine be long and allow your chin to tuck in slightly So that the back of your neck is in line with your spine Take a nice deep inhale and allow your breath to feel normal Just following the natural pattern of your inhales and exhales paying attention to the sensation of the natural breath Noticing how it moves your body How it feels?
Coming in and out of your nose or your mouth Noticing how it sounds And just studying the breath and only the breath for the next few inhales and exhales Allowing it to relax you And just giving it your curiosity and attention Knowing there's no right or wrong way to breathe in this moment And even if your breath might feel a little labored right now Celebrating that you can breathe and letting each breath fill you with a deep sensation of gratitude and well-being Celebrating this evidence that you are alive and celebrating the fact that you're taking a few moments to nurture yourself to ground into your body to follow your inhales and your exhales as an opportunity to Step away from the racing thinking mind for just a few moments.
If the thinking mind tries to pull you back in that's okay bringing that same neutral curiosity to the insistence of your thoughts Noticing that that has happened and then re-anchoring with the breath breathing in and breathing out expanding and contracting Feeling your chest rise and fall Letting the breath relax you Let's turn our attention to the soles of your feet Feeling the connection between all ten toes the balls of your feet the heels of your feet Maybe even visualize your footprint inside your shoes pressing into the floor Whatever is touching your feet right now,
Whether it's shoes or socks or if your feet are bare,
Whatever you're resting on How does it feel?
What kind of material or fabric is it?
What's the nature of that sensation?
Maybe even feeling one toe at a time Just experimenting to see if you can allow your mind to isolate a Single toe and the sensations that you find there and then moving to the next one and the next Until you've checked in with all ten of your toes and sliding your awareness up your foot Around your heel into your ankles and seeing if you can isolate the sensation That exists in your ankles right now,
Maybe your skin maybe your tendons maybe your bones If there's any air moving in your environment,
Can you feel the air?
Then sliding that awareness up around your right shin and calf Almost like a ring that's scanning all the way around your leg Little by little moving slowly up up up from your ankle to your knee Noticing whatever you feel there maybe you can even notice a heartbeat feel your blood moving through your body and Then shift over to the other side and do the same sliding up from the left ankle Moving that ring of awareness up your calf and your shin up to the right knee and then moving back to the other leg scanning up your hamstring and your quadricep Visualizing that long femur bone And all the skin and fascial tissue that holds it all together Even that awareness up into your hip socket and then shifting back to the other side Scanning up the thigh slowly deliberately millimeter by millimeter paying attention To parts of ourselves that we very very rarely focus on and now centering your attention on your hips and your pelvis Being along the curves of those bones checking in with the pelvic floor Feeling into each glute the right and then the left and then moving up from the base of the spine Up into your lower back your abdomen into the lower ribs checking in with the organs this visualizing stomach your liver your pancreas Intestines Feeling them all work together in harmony Taking care of you from the inside out and then moving further up the ribcage Once again taking the opportunity to check in with that breath envisioning the lungs expanding and contracting pink and healthy the engine of our lives and Then right in the middle of the heart Really the fire that fuels the engine Feeling into the heart Visualizing it pumping working so hard for us and then moving into the upper back upper chest and shoulders Allowing that awareness to slide down the right arm from the shoulder to the elbow the right elbow to the right wrist feeling the front and the back of your hand and each of your fingers one by one and Then doing the same on the left side starting at the shoulder Traveling down to the elbow and then moving that awareness down your forearm into your wrist Feeling the back of the hand the palm of the hand and Then each of the five fingers on your left hand and now bringing your awareness into your throat noticing any sensations in your esophagus Your jaw your forehead And now moving around to the back of the body where the top of your spine meets your neck traveling up vertebrae of the neck noticing any sensations in your ears back of your head and Then finally the crown of your head now having traveled through your whole body I want you to take just a few moments of silence and breathe in Every millimeter of your body as you breathe just imagine that breath Traveling from the tips of your toes to the tips of your fingers to the top of your head and everywhere in between let your whole body breathe And now just let your awareness go.
You don't have to try to do anything special Mind wander let your breath do what it wants Relax your body Relax your eyes your hands your feet your jaw Just give yourself permission to melt a little bit And then finally,
I want you to repeat after me either out loud or silently in your mind My body is a miracle Even when I'm not feeling my best.
I know my body is working hard to take care of me I am amazed by what my body can do and then just place one hand on your heart The other on your belly just breathe into your hands for a moment Feeling that connection feeling that warmth And once again,
Thank yourself for taking this time To nurture and care not only your body your mind and your spirit And when you're ready,
You can drop your hands you can raise them overhead and just give yourself a stretch some energy and some warmth back into your limbs and whenever you feel like you've moved in the way that Feels intuitive for you and you're ready.
You can open your eyes and bring yourself back into the room
