From Stress To Sleep ~ An Empathic Body Scan

Welcome to this compassionate body scan,

An even more compassionate body scan for deep rest and sleep.

So first off,

I would love you to get as comfortable as possible and take care of what your body needs right now.

So it's pleasant not to have your head tilt back too much.

So if your head tends to tilt back when you're laying on the floor in your bed,

Put a pillow underneath your head.

And if your lower back is hurting,

It can also be very nice to put a pillow or a bolster or a rolled blanket under your knees.

And you can also use your hands to grab your buttocks and stretch them a little bit away from your lower back.

So in that way you can also extend your lower back a bit.

It's always good to take a bit of extra care for that.

And if you're going for non-sleep practice,

Actually in both cases,

Whatever you're doing right now.

If you're wearing glasses,

I would warmly recommend to take them off.

It can feel much lighter and your face is able to relax more when you don't have any glasses on.

And so do anything right now to make you feel even more comfortable.

It can also help to pull your shoulder blades intentionally a little bit more down.

So your shoulder blades can go more towards your hips and this way you can also expand your chest a bit more.

You can also roll out your upper arms,

So from inside out,

To open your chest a bit more.

And this allows for easier breathing.

And what you can do if you want.

Everything I'm going to suggest is merely that,

A suggestion and of course feel completely free to do something else if you feel called to and just take my suggestions as an invitation.

So you could take maybe some deeper breaths in and out.

And preferably if you can,

Breathe through your nose throughout the whole session.

So enjoy a deeper inhalation without forcing it,

Just expanding your lungs a bit more.

And then when you exhale,

Release as much as you can,

So you can really allow gravity to hold your body and relax more and more into a pleasant laying position.

And so gently at your own pace and well within your limits,

You can inhale a bit deeper,

Enjoy the expansion of your chest and slowly exhale and let anything that can relax,

Relax.

And then I would like to gently guide you through a compassionate body scan.

And what I would like you to do is to just meet your body.

So as we're scanning the body,

Have a certain kind curiosity of what you're finding in terms of sensations,

Feelings,

Emotions,

Even thoughts that can arise.

So whatever you find,

There will be a few very simple,

Let's say,

Practices that we're going to do here.

And with every step I really want to invite you to be as kind as you can with anything that you find.

And even if you maybe find there could be annoyance or irritation or pain,

Itchiness,

Repetitive,

Intrusive thoughts,

And I really would invite you to receive it as if you're receiving a child that needs care.

You know,

Maybe the child comes crying,

Maybe the child comes with pain.

So whatever you find,

Have this kind of intention to hold it with this level of compassion as if it was a child coming to you,

Wanting care and wanting attention and wanting love.

Anything that you find in this body scan is your body,

And your body loves your attention.

Your body really enjoys the acceptance of what it's going through.

So in this body scan,

Let's start with the head.

And if you want to take a different route through your body,

Then take a different route.

And I'm just going to start with the head.

So notice any sensations on your scalp,

Anything that you find around your ears.

What is your face doing right now?

Your cheeks?

So taking the head as a whole,

Scan in your own way and make sure you also do the inside.

So what's happening in your brain right now?

It might be impossible to feel that,

But have a certain intention to also give that attention.

So just take a few moments to scan your head,

Your face,

And anything you find pleasant or unpleasant,

Meet it as a friend,

As a loving parent.

And then moving down to the throat,

The neck,

What's happening there?

Maybe not a lot is happening.

And then just be with that relative stillness or silence.

Maybe another body part is really distracting you while you're doing the body scan,

Then allow for that as well.

What I would invite you to do in that case is to just reserve some space for that while you're still doing the body scan at the place that we're at right now.

To just allow any distractions to be those,

To be distraction,

While the main practice is steadily,

Calmly,

Gently going on.

And if my pace is too fast for you,

Then you can stay.

There's plenty of time in this whole session.

So moving down now to the chest area.

In it scan the skin,

The deeper tissue,

The lungs,

The heart,

And also the shoulders.

And don't forget the back of your chest,

What's alive in your chest right now.

So take your own route to your chest and shoulder area.

And what you can also do as you move through your body is you can imaginarily breathe there.

So of course physiologically the breathing only happens in the lungs,

But with our intention and awareness we can also breathe in specific places.

And working in this way we can actually send our awareness to specific places in our body by breathing there intentionally.

In many ancient languages there is no difference between the word for mind and the word for breath.

This is for instance the case in,

I believe it's Aramaic,

Or I think it's Hebrew,

One of those.

It's also the case for the ancient Greek,

Where the word Psyche means breath as well as mind.

And so you can really use the power of your breathing to send your mind,

Your awareness to the places that you visit.

And then moving from the chest to the arms,

Your upper arms,

Your biceps,

Your triceps,

Your deltoids.

If those words mean nothing to you,

Just be with your upper arms.

You know your upper arms without the fancy words.

Then going through the elbows to the lower arms.

What is alive in your lower arms right now?

And what do you notice in your wrists,

In your palms,

And the back of your hands,

And all the little digits of your fingers?

Can you feel the vibrancy there?

Maybe there's pain there right now.

Can you be with what you find?

Maybe you can sense the arms as a whole.

Maybe first the left one,

The whole left arm,

The whole right arm.

Maybe both arms together completely.

What is it like to live in those arms right now?

And then going from the arms back to the torso and let's go down into the belly.

And also include your lower back in this next part of the scan.

So the lower part of your torso,

Your belly,

Your abdomen,

Your lower belly,

The lower part of your flanks,

The lower back.

What is happening there?

How does the skin feel?

And can you sense into the organs?

And again,

Accept anything that you find.

Like holding a child that wants your love and attention and care.

And sometimes our children come with pain.

And sometimes they come with joy.

And sometimes we don't have space mentally or emotionally for what our children come with.

And can you be compassionate with yourself at your limit?

As I like to say,

Yoga begins where your flexibility ends.

And what we're doing now is the yoga of love,

Of compassion.

And compassionate union of body and awareness.

And then going down into the area of the hips,

The sex organs,

The buttocks.

These are places of potentially high emotion.

So how is it to be there right now?

Can you accept,

Perhaps even celebrate,

Whatever's going on in that middle region?

That so important region of the body that joins the legs with the upper body,

Where so much is happening every day.

And then slowly making the way down to the upper legs,

The front of the thighs,

The back of the thighs,

The inner thighs,

And the outer part of the legs.

Those big muscles that we have.

Transcends into not just the skin,

But also the muscles,

The living tissue.

Can you even get a sense of the bones in your thighs,

Those super strong femurs?

And whatever you find,

Or even what you don't find,

Can have this acceptance,

If available,

And if not,

The acceptance of non-acceptance.

According to Iyengar,

The yoga that I did the teacher training of,

The joints are super important conduits of energy.

So it's very important to keep them healthy,

These joints,

Because they are the junctions at which energy passes through,

In this case,

The upper legs,

Through to the lower legs.

The knees are such a complex,

Beautiful joint.

What can you notice there?

The knee joint,

The kneecap,

The inner knee,

All the ligaments.

Is there tension?

Is there relaxation?

Everywhere we go,

We have this kind curiosity.

Then if you're ready,

You can move on to the lower legs,

The calves,

The shins,

The skin,

The muscles.

Be with your awareness in your lower legs,

Don't only think about being there,

But actually be there.

As my yoga teacher,

Delilah,

Would say,

Put your brain in your lower legs,

Breathe there as you go there.

And then these other sets of joints,

The ankles,

All the bones there,

The ligaments.

Spend some time,

When is the last time that you actually spent some time in your ankles?

Spend some time there.

What do you notice,

What do you feel,

What do you sense in your ankles?

Breathe into it,

Inhale into your ankles,

Exhale out of your ankles.

And then finally,

Go to your feet for this first round of this practice.

Feet are so important,

Our contact with the earth,

Our only contact with the planet since we became bipedal,

For most of the time anyway.

So really sense into your feet,

The soles,

The toes,

The skin,

The top of your feet,

The sidewalls of your feet.

Being there for a few moments.

And then if you want to,

Can you now expand your scan and include the entire body in one sort of image in your awareness.

One image not made of visual material,

But of felt material,

Sort of sense image.

So be with your entire body now.

Breathe in your entire body,

So you can also breathe in your entire body and breathe out your entire body.

Gently but deeply for a few cycles.

Have this sense of completeness,

Of wholeness in your entire body.

Pulsating in and out,

Breathing in and out.

And then what I'd love for you to do is to find the place that is most pleasant for you right now,

Your entire body.

So take a moment to really allow yourself to find a place that is just super enjoyable.

Maybe it's those ankles that you perhaps didn't visit for a while.

It doesn't have to be this classical place of the heart or the belly.

But really do an honest investigation in your body as you feel it,

Not as you think about it,

But as you sense into it and feel why you really enjoy being right now in your body.

So take a moment for that.

It can also be different from day to day.

Maybe yesterday that would have been your ankle,

Maybe now it's your right hand or maybe it's your collarbone area.

Where is it the most pleasant right now?

The back of your head,

Your third eye position.

And in that place that you have identified as very pleasant,

I hope you found it by now,

Allow yourself to be there.

So again,

Focus your breathing gently on that area right now.

So breathe there in and out,

Wherever it might be.

And then I invite you to express gratitude for what you're feeling there.

Express gratitude to that part of your body.

In whatever words or however it comes to you,

To express gratitude there.

And then see how it reacts to that expression of gratitude.

So take a moment to do that right now.

And then what I would invite you to do is,

You could do either of two things,

Or both.

But I would invite you to this beautiful,

Joyful,

Pleasant feeling that you're feeling right now,

I invite you to find a place in your body where it was a little bit more difficult for you to be with.

And then send this joyful,

Pleasant energy to that more difficult part in your body.

So I've changed my mind,

I'm going to do it sequentially.

So just do this first.

So this joyful,

Pleasant feeling with your breath or imaginatively send it to that more difficult place.

Maybe there are several places.

So just allow this pleasant feeling to be distributed to those more difficult areas.

And I don't want you to have an expectation of now all of a sudden feeling better everywhere,

But just having this intention of sharing this pleasant feeling,

This maybe joyful or this gratitude feeling to those more difficult places,

Or places that you maybe don't love so much about your body.

So do that for a moment.

If you choose not to do this,

Then of course you can just enjoy being in this pleasant relaxation,

But if you're doing it,

Keep doing it for a few more cycles of breath.

Sending the warmth,

The joy,

The gratitude from that one pleasant place to places that are maybe in pain or that are a bit more in need of love.

And then I invite you to,

With again this pleasant feeling from that pleasant place that you chose,

To now include the entire body.

So send it out in a more general pulse of energy,

Breath and awareness.

And spread it out,

Share it with your entire body.

You can also share it with your mind.

So have this sense of expanding this pleasant,

Warm place of gratitude to your entire body.

You can again use your breath to do that,

To distribute it.

And notice if that feels any different for you right now,

Than when you started this body scan.

And then for the last few minutes,

I want to invite you to,

If you like it where you are,

Just stay here for a few more minutes.

And what you can also do is to expand even farther out.

So if you want,

You can imagine spreading this loving,

Gentle,

Pleasant energy,

Not only to your entire body,

But to the entire planet.

And have it touch all the beings on this planet.

So sharing this gratitude,

This compassion with all the living beings on this planet and maybe even beyond,

As you wish.

So either staying where you are and otherwise sharing it with the entire planet or beyond.

For a few more minutes,

My guidance ends here.

And just for a few more,

Hopefully beautiful minutes,

Enjoy this,

This presence,

This practice.