Hello,
This is Jennifer Meek from Oakland,
California.
I hope you enjoy today's meditation.
This is one that can be helpful for chronic pain issues or discomfort that you might be feeling in your body.
So carve out a little space and time and make yourself comfortable.
You could do this meditation sitting in a chair,
On the floor,
On a cushion.
You could also lie down if that would be more relaxing.
Once you're comfortable,
Let's take a moment to notice the sounds in the room.
And if you're outside,
Notice the sounds outside around you.
Notice anything that your ear can pick up.
Notice if you can hear the sounds of your own body,
Maybe your breathing or digestion.
And then start to shift your attention to noticing sensations in your body.
Notice the sensations of the areas that touch the floor or touch your chair or cushion.
Notice the areas that aren't touching anything.
Notice the sensation of your clothing touching the skin.
Notice the sensation of the air on the skin.
Notice if you can feel different temperatures throughout the body.
Some areas might feel warm,
Some might feel cool,
Maybe some feel neutral.
Starting to develop our interoception,
Our awareness of our internal physiological states.
And then take a scan of your body and see if there's a particular area that seems to call your attention first.
So it could be the area that feels like it has the loudest sensation.
Notice where it is.
If you can,
Give a sort of description to the sensation you feel there.
Notice if you're adding any stories to it.
As best you can,
Keep the thoughts around it pretty neutral.
And then let that go.
Scan your body again.
This time we're going to look for an area where it almost feels like there's no sensation at all.
Maybe it's the quietest sensation that you could find.
Oftentimes for myself that ends up being my fingernails or ears,
Maybe eyelids.
Notice where it is for you.
And then we'll scan the body one more time.
This time we're looking to see if there's a place that already feels comfortable or relaxed,
At ease.
Maybe it's a neutral feeling.
Once you've found it,
Shift most of your attention to it and imagine that you could send your breath right into that location.
A gentle,
Relaxing breath rhythm.
Then using that relaxing breath rhythm and using your mind,
Notice if you can start to spread that feeling of comfort out.
So it takes up more and more space in your body.
So as an example,
If your ears were feeling comfortable and relaxed,
As you're breathing into them,
Eventually more of the head starts to fill up with that comfortable,
Relaxed feeling.
Eventually the neck,
The tops of the shoulders,
Etc.
And take your time with it.
It should feel almost like there's no effort in doing it,
It's more of allowing that comfortable feeling to spread.
And if you like the use of imagery,
You might like to give a color to that comfortable feeling and visualize that color spreading out throughout your body.
Notice if there's a certain temperature that comes with this feeling.
Sometimes as you're going through this,
You might notice that you hit some roadblocks,
Some areas that are resistant to that comfortable feeling.
And you can choose on any given day whether you want to stay there and see if it's possible to fill it up with a little more ease.
And some days you might choose to go past that roadblock and just continue on.
Remember,
If you want to do it and're looking for the most comfortable place,
The best place for it is right next to something.
Eventually,
It might feel like your entire body is full of this comfortable sensation,
Full of that color if you chose to use one.
You might feel like you're breathing into every cell of your body,
Like you're one complete unit and there's no separate parts.
You can continue as long as time allows for you today.
And as you're finishing your meditation,
Remember to acknowledge yourself for the time that you took to do something good for yourself today and enjoy the rest of your day or evening.
Namaste.
