Let us begin with a few deep breaths.
With each breath noticing how the air enters your nostrils and then feeling the breath entering deeply into your chest and down to your belly.
Noticing your shoulders relaxing and rolling back,
Settling into being here and repositioning your body so that you feel most supported by either the ground or the bed or the earth below you,
However you are positioned.
Slowly notice your breath return to a consistent rhythm.
Let us begin today's practice with a body scan.
Starting today with our feet,
Becoming present to any sensations in the toes,
Perhaps wiggling your toes,
Shifting the weight from one foot to the other.
You can imagine drawing energy from the ground,
From the place where your feet meet the surface of either the floor or any structure that you're sitting on or lying on.
You can visualize energy entering your feet and notice the sensations as you draw that energy up into your calves.
As that energy enters your calves,
Your right leg and then your left leg,
Become present to the muscles and the tissues and the sensations that are your body,
Remembering to continue breathing as you now draw your awareness from your calves to your knees and your thighs,
Perhaps placing your hands if they are already on your lap or just noticing the feeling of your hands on your legs.
Now drawing the energy from the ground through your feet,
Your calves and thighs to your pelvis.
If you're seated,
Becoming present by shifting the weight from one side of what we call our sit bones or our pelvis and our muscles along our lower back.
And if you're lying down,
You might just be present to the energy again flowing from your legs up to your pelvis,
Which is your root chakra,
Just noticing the energy that you hold in your pelvis.
Our body scan begins with the feet up through our calves and to our thighs.
Now we're sitting centrally in our pelvis,
Noticing how our breath maintains that awareness in our root chakra,
In this area that holds us,
Whether we're seated or standing or lying down.
It's a place of balance,
So let's breathe into this central area that's the beginning of a channel that we'll then take upwards.
Open your belly,
Notice your breath entering your belly.
Draw the energy further upward.
Now into your chest,
Noticing the rise and fall of the chest and becoming present to the heart space.
Here I'd like to reside for a few minutes in silence.
As you notice both the rise and fall of your chest and the beating of your heart.
To feel your heart,
Consider placing your hand on your chest,
Allowing that to ground you to the central area of your chest.
Now draw the energy even further upward from your chest up into your throat,
Noticing any tension that you might be holding around the space of your neck and your shoulders,
Your throat and your jaw.
Noticing these areas as you again draw energy from the ground all the way up your legs and your thighs through your pelvis and chest into this upper region of your body.
I envision the energy going upwards as a flow and then the breath coming downwards and the two of them meeting,
Meeting either in your chest or now in your throat,
Wherever you choose to focus your awareness.
Relaxing into the breath now as we enter the face,
Noticing the space underneath your nostrils where the air is entering and exiting.
Relaxing your cheeks and your cheekbones,
Your eyes and your eyebrows and the space between your eyebrows.
Now ending by noticing the energy that you've drawn upward coming to the top of your head and then dissipating outward into the area around you.
I intentionally invite you to explore how this energy appears to you without my labeling it,
With you noticing how it manifests in your mind.
Is it the breath?
Is it some form of imagery,
Light or sound?
Perhaps you have the image of a tree with roots from the ground and then the energy flowing upward.
Perhaps you see it as light that as it enters from your feet,
It relaxes all of the muscles in your body,
Releasing any tension you're holding from the night as it travels upward through your body and then exits to surround you.
Breathe into those areas that you notice are calling your attention.
Notice as thoughts arise and as they do,
Return to the felt sensations of the body with each breath becoming more attuned to any areas in your body that are calling out to you.
Breathing into those areas.
For the next few minutes,
Become present to an intention that you would like to set for your weekend.
How do you want to show up for the world and who are you being for yourself?
In what way will you share your light and energy and how will this light and energy replenish yourself?
Notice what's arising for you and breathe into these thoughts.
With this,
I offer some gratitude and I invite you to offer some gratitude for showing up for practice and for being here together in this community of practice.
When you hear the bell,
Take a moment to breathe before returning.
