This is a guided meditation to embody and connect to the senses.
The senses are the way through which we perceive the world.
The way our brain receives information about our external and our internal worlds.
Find a comfortable position either sitting or lying down.
Make sure that the spine is straight and take a few deep breaths into the belly out the nose to arrive into this space.
Bring the awareness into the nose.
Feel the air as it moves through the nostrils.
Notice the qualities of the air,
The temperature,
The feeling and then start to notice any smells.
Any smells from the room you're in,
The clothes you're wearing or any smells that are connected with memories that are coming up.
Our sense of smell is intimately connected with our memories which is why smelling certain foods can remind us of grandma's house.
So notice if any smells right now are bringing up any memories without trying to explain,
Change or fix them.
Just noticing.
Notice how your own body smells and what information that is giving you.
Inhale all the way into the belly and exhale out the mouth.
Bring the awareness now into the mouth.
Notice any sensations there.
Noticing what the mouth tastes like.
What these tastes are telling you.
Notice how the tongue is sitting in the mouth.
Is it relaxed?
Is it pressed up against the roof of the mouth?
And see if you can bring a little softness into the jaw.
A little more ease.
Certain tastes can make us feel certain ways.
See if you can find any connections between certain feeling states and tastes like craving chocolate when you're tired at 2 p.
M.
And then let go of any taste sensations.
Inhale into the belly,
Exhale out the mouth.
And then bring the awareness into the ears.
Notice how the ears feel connected to the jaw.
Is there any tension and can you invite some more softness?
The yogis say that hearing is the sense that goes directly to the heart which is why music can make us feel so much.
Bringing the awareness into the ears,
Noticing all the sounds you can hear around you,
In the room that you're in,
Outside the room that you're in.
Stretching this sense of hearing as far out as you can.
Noticing.
And then start to bring the sense back.
Listening to the sounds inside the room.
The sounds closest to you.
The sound of your own breath.
And any sounds from inside the body.
Yoga is about turning the senses inward so that we can better understand,
Navigate,
And manage our internal worlds.
Listening to any sounds in the body.
And then gently let that sense of hearing go.
Taking a breath into the belly,
Out the mouth.
Bring your awareness to all the points of contact between your body and whatever you're sitting or laying on.
Notice how it feels to touch the floor,
The pillows.
Bring your awareness now to your skin and how the clothes you're wearing feels on the skin.
Are there any parts of the skin that feel tight and tense?
And are there any parts of the skin that feel loose,
Relaxed?
Is there any part of the body that is calling out to be touched,
To be massaged?
You're welcome to do that.
Our skin is actually our biggest organ in the body.
It is our first sensory sensation of the outside world.
Notice how the air feels against your skin and how subtle the sense of touch can be.
Can you feel the temperature of the air?
And then taking a deep breath into the belly,
Out the mouth.
Bring your awareness into your eyeballs.
They can be closed or softly open.
Notice how they feel sitting in their sockets.
Can you invite a little more softness to all those tiny muscles around the eyes?
What is your relationship to your sight?
What do you look for in the world and what do you see?
Our attention is like an arrow that we aim at wherever we're going in life and our senses can work to support that arrow,
Moving us more quickly towards our direction.
And our senses can also work to distract us from our purpose.
Simply noticing what your relationship to your senses is today.
You're welcome to gently open the eyes if you haven't and gaze around the room.
Noticing what you see and noticing how you see.
What perspective are you looking from and how does that shape the world that you see?
I invite you to be aware of your senses,
How you use them and how they use you today.
Taking a few more deep breaths into the belly,
Out the mouth.
Shrugging the shoulders,
Making any movements that feel good as you prepare to go about the rest of your day with a new deeper embodiment of your senses.
