Morning Meditation: Body Scan For Peace And Relaxation

So take a moment now and come into a comfortable seated position.

And if it's somewhere where your spine can be reasonably straight then that's great.

But your comfort is the most important thing.

Somewhere where you're going to be able to sit without too much effort for the next probably 20 minutes or so.

And take a moment now to just notice how you feel sitting in this position.

See if you can let go of the image that we have of our bodies,

Of ourselves as being people in our body.

And just notice the feelings and sensations of being here.

Areas where you might feel some tingling or other feelings,

Any areas of particular comfort or discomfort.

And just notice that you're here.

And right now you have nowhere to go,

Nowhere to be,

Nothing else to do.

Become gently aware of your breathing now and you don't have to do anything with the breath.

Just notice how the breath flows into your body.

And then the exhale.

See if you can relax on the out breath here.

And in fact let's take three breaths now breathing in quite deeply and see if you on the out breath you can relax anything that might already benefit from release,

Any tensions.

Breathing in deeply.

Breathing out and relaxing anything that can easily relax.

And one more.

Now see if you can bring your attention to the soles of your feet.

And notice the sensations of the bottom of the feet,

The tinglings,

Any energy,

Any sensations.

Notice their connection to the floor.

And can you imagine now that you're breathing in gently,

Very gently through the soles of your feet.

And that as you breathe through the soles of your feet,

The soles of your feet soften and relax.

And they release and open a little bit like petals of a flower.

And as you gently breathe into the soles of your feet,

Your feet open and gently relax.

And as we continue to breathe,

Being aware that these breaths are healing breaths.

Breathing first into the soles of the feet and the toes.

Noticing the sensations also paying attention to the bones and ligaments.

Breathing up through the sole of the feet to the top of the feet.

Very gently up into the ankle.

Breathing into the ankle and being aware of the bones and joints.

And also any sensations you feel.

Breathing softly and breathing softness up from the soles of your feet into the ankle.

Very gently moving up the lower leg.

Noticing the energy and feelings of the shin,

The calf.

As you gently follow with the breath up the lower leg towards the knee.

Breathing gently through the foot up toward the knee.

Letting yourself to notice all of the sensations that are happening with this healing breath.

Breathing in not just into the bones and muscles and joints of the lower leg and now the knee,

But also into that sensation,

That feeling.

And as you breathe up through the knees and coming into the thigh.

Breathing gently up the muscles,

The base of the hamstrings at the back of the leg,

The quad muscle at the front and the bones.

But being most aware of the sensations of being in this body as you breathe.

And can you imagine each breath as a healing breath,

Almost like a massage for the smallest particles,

The smallest molecules in your body.

As you move up the legs and into the hips.

Becoming aware of the sit bones,

The glute muscles coming up the front of the thigh into the hips and the sockets and the joints.

Being aware of the pelvic girdle,

The genitals.

This gentle soft breath coming up from the soles of the foot,

Which is still softening like petals of a flower traveling up into the hips.

And now into the belly.

Breathing into the belly and the intestines.

And up the lower back,

The base of the spine.

Breathing up through the organs,

The skin and to the navel area.

Breathing inside the navel area,

A couple of centimeters under the skin of the navel.

Gently breathing.

Soft exhalation.

Coming up the back,

Up the spine,

The areas of the kidneys.

These gentle breaths of awareness are where attention begins to be paid to ourselves and our body.

And as we pay attention to how we are and how we feel in the present,

We can begin to soften.

We can begin to relax and we can begin to heal.

Breathing up from the feet,

Through the legs,

The hips,

The lower belly.

Coming up now to the base of the ribs,

The solar plexus.

Breathing up one rib at a time,

Front and back.

Breathing up also through the lungs now.

Noticing how they feel and noticing how you can relax.

Relax on the out-breath.

Travelling up ribs and lungs.

Releasing on the exhalation.

As you come up the lungs,

Being aware of the heart.

Breathing softly all the way up the body into the area of the heart.

All of the chambers,

All of the veins.

Simply in this moment allow the body,

The heart,

To soften.

Coming up the ribs,

The chest,

The upper back to the shoulders.

Perhaps take a breath for the shoulder blades on the back.

Noticing any tension that we carry as we come up to the shoulders.

Softening through the shoulders.

Now can you become aware of your hands,

The fingers and the back of the hands.

And can you now breathe in through the palm of your hands.

Very gently being aware of all of the energy we carry in our hands.

Breathing from the palm through to the back of the hand,

The thumbs,

Fingers.

Breathing gently and releasing anything that shouldn't be there any tensions.

Breathing softly through the hands,

Coming into the wrists.

Up the lower arm toward the elbow.

This gentle breathing,

This gentle softening through the hands.

To the elbow and then coming up from the elbow to the shoulders.

Biceps and triceps.

Legaments,

Tendons and bones.

But most of all breathing into the feelings and sensations that you're experiencing now.

From the hands,

The arms,

The shoulders,

We come up through the throat now.

From the clavicle up the throat into the base of the jaw.

From the base of the neck extending up into the joint of the spine.

And coming up into the jaw,

The hinge of the jaw where the jaw meets the skull.

Legaments and tendons there.

Softening through that jaw.

Now gently breathing up through the face.

Mostly the mouth.

The sides of the mouth coming up to the cheeks.

Coming up the cheeks.

The level of the eyes and all of the small and micro muscles around the cheeks,

Around the eyes and the eyes themselves.

And now can we breathe in through the face.

As you include your forehead can you soften the face as much as you soften the feet and the hands.

And as you soften can you allow yourself to feel just the sensations.

Softening into the face and releasing.

Releasing up to the top of the head.

Releasing around the sides of the head through temples to the ears.

And around to the back of the skull.

And now gently allow yourself to breathe through the whole body.

The feet,

Legs,

Torso.

Hands and arms.

And the face.

And as you do be aware of your experience of yourself not as the image of the body that we carry around with us.

But as this experience of sensations.

Gently breathing in.

Gently softening into the sensations on your out breath.

Breathing in.

Allowing yourself to be fully here with the sensations and feelings of this body.

Breathing in,

Allowing yourself to feel this experience of yourself as pure sensation.

Breathing out taking a moment to further relax.

And maybe you can release anything else that shouldn't be there,

Any tensions.

With this gentle healing breathing all you have to remember is that in this moment the only thing you need to remember is that you have nowhere to go,

Nowhere to be and nothing to do.

And when you're ready you can very gently open your eyes very softly so that you're allowing the visual sensations and senses into your experience.

And take a moment or two now just to sit with the sensations so that there's no sense that meditation has ended.

And now being with this experience of your sensing feeling body you can now take this experience with you into the rest of your day.