Gratitude And Body Scan

Welcome.

My name is Katie and I'll be guiding you for the next 20 or so minutes on this journey into the body.

So I invite you to begin by settling into a comfortable posture.

Make sure your spine is nice and straight and that can be lying down or sitting in a chair or on a cushion.

Just keeping a nice straight spine and an erect body so that you're present.

You're not too tense.

You're not too sloppy in your posture.

And then when you find that posture that works for you,

Go ahead and find your arms by your sides.

Feel your feet planted and grounded either with the bed or on the floor.

And when you're ready,

You can go ahead and close down the eyes.

And just begin by inviting yourself into this present moment.

Recognizing that you're taking time out of your schedule and that you're here now.

Seeing if you can let go of everything that came before this moment.

See if you can hold off on everything that will come after this moment.

Letting go of your worrying and your planning,

Organizing and just settle into your posture.

In the room that you're in,

In this moment in time.

And we'll begin by doing a little body scan and just noticing how the body feels as we begin the practice.

So starting at the top of the head,

Just noticing any sensations that might be present.

You're not creating any sensations that aren't there.

You're not wishing it was different.

You're not pushing away any sensations that are ones you would rather weren't with you.

You're just observing what you have here in this moment in this body.

So at the top of the head,

You might feel pressure or tingling around the scalp,

Around the skull.

Just noticing the top of the head and then down the back of the head,

Down each of the sides of the head into the ear area.

And then following the sensations down the front of the head,

You'll notice the brow.

Notice if there's any straining or stress there in the furrowing of the brow and see if you can soften it there.

You might connect your breathing with your awareness of sensations.

So as you breathe in,

You notice.

And as you breathe out,

You soften.

Noticing the sensations around the eyes.

Breathing in,

Noticing.

And breathing out,

Softening.

Around the sides of the eyes.

Under the eyes.

Behind the eyes,

Just noticing the sensations,

Any stress or strain and exhaling and letting it go.

Remembering we're just here observing and witnessing what we bring to our cushion.

We're not pushing any negative feelings or sensations away.

But on that out breath,

If there's just one tiny little letting go that you can do and softening just a little bit,

It might ease the sensation some.

Noticing the nose and the sinuses,

The cheeks.

Breathing in.

And breathing out.

Breathing in once again and noticing any sensations around the mouth,

The jaw,

The tongue,

And the teeth.

Observing if you're clenching.

Or holding on to any tension in the jaw and then see if you can exhale and let some of that go.

Just becoming aware of it allows you to let go of just the tiniest bit of it.

And breathing and following your awareness down into your neck.

360 degrees,

Observe the neck,

The throat.

What sensations are present for you there?

Observing before moving on into the shoulders,

Notice are your shoulders scrunched up by your ears?

If they are,

Breathe in on the exhale,

Let go.

Drop the shoulders back and down.

Open up your heart space.

Breathing and observing the sensations in the chest.

In the rib cage.

In the back,

Upper back,

Down the spine into the lower back.

Breathe and soften.

Observing any tension.

Observing any pleasantries.

Not leaning towards anything in particular or pushing away from anything in particular.

Just observing and breathing.

Softening if you can.

Noticing the front of the body.

The heart space down into the belly.

Taking a peek with a curious eye into what's going on in the stomach.

Noticing the sides of the body from the armpits down to the hips.

Breathing,

Expanding.

Witnessing the moment that is your body.

And then bringing awareness down into the sitz bones and the hips.

Just taking in any sensations in this area.

Allowing them to be present.

Softening if you are able.

Noticing.

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Down each of the arms from the shoulders into the elbows and wrists into each of the hands and fingers.

Notice any tingling or warmth or coolness.

Throbbing anything you've got going on from the shoulders to the fingertips.

Breathing and softening.

And then following that awareness back down into each of the legs from the hips.

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The glutes down into the large muscles of the thighs,

The hamstrings,

Past the knees,

The shins and the calves.

And then bringing your awareness down into each of the ankles.

Bringing your awareness into each of the feet,

The tops of the feet.

Down into each of the toes one by one.

Down into the pads of the feet.

The arches of each foot.

Breathing and softening there.

So that concludes our first look at the body and how it is as we practice today,

As we sit in our posture.

And now we're going to take a peek at our body with a new eye.

One that is full of gratitude.

So we'll switch gears here and go back to the top of the head and with a new eye.

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We'll observe the body and feel grateful for all that it does for us,

All of its working parts.

Of course,

Each of us comes to our posture with some pain,

Some parts of the body that don't work quite as well as we hope or wish they would.

And it's easy to get caught up in the negative and to fixate and bring our awareness to the pain where that pain is really pulling us out of our everyday breath work and our everyday gratitude.

So let's spend the next few moments,

Once again,

Body scan through the different parts of the body with a sense of gratitude.

If I get to a part of the body that is causing you pain,

See if you can find a way to flip that and look for some goodness.

And if that doesn't work for you,

Just skip over the part of the body that is painful for you and focus on another part.

But beginning at the top of the head.

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Noticing the sensations at the top of the head and the brain and just feeling a sense of gratitude,

Leaning into this sense of gratefulness for all that our brain controls,

Works effortlessly and endlessly for us without us doing anything at all.

Connecting to all of our body systems,

Getting messages for digestion and respiration and all of the body systems that work without our doing anything at all.

The brain,

Such a powerful,

Powerful muscle in our body.

So showing a little gratitude for our ability to remember things,

Feel things,

For our ability to balance and walk and think.

And then breathing and allowing our awareness to fall into the forehead and the eyes.

Sensing into that feeling of gratitude for our sight and all of the things we see on a daily basis.

Colors and shapes and loved ones.

Beauty all around in nature.

Letting the gratitude come into our sense of smell and our nose.

Feeling into all the smells that bring us back to a memory in time.

Back to a place long ago when we smell something that brings us back to a memory of a grandparent or a childhood home.

The smell of cut grass,

Flowers,

Home cooked meal.

And letting the awareness move into our sense of taste into our mouth.

A beautiful taste of a home cooked meal or a cup of coffee or tea.

Gratitude for the mouth and the ability to talk and kiss,

Sing.

And then allowing that gratitude to flow throughout the rest of the body into the ears and our sense of hearing.

Being able to hear a loved one's voice.

Music.

Once again,

Allowing the breath and the awareness to travel into the throat and neck.

Down the spine,

Throughout the back of the body from the shoulders into the hips.

Grateful for the back.

An area that we may not pay too much attention to until it is no longer working as well as we'd like it to.

So grateful for a day when the back is strong.

Grateful for the front of the body from the shoulders down into the heart space.

Opening up that heart space and feeling that that whole center of your body,

Feeling the sense of love in the heart.

Feeling all those systems hard at work,

Sending breath there.

Your systems of respiration,

Metabolizing food and digestion,

Your reproductive organs.

Grateful for all the parts of the body that work so effortlessly for us,

Kidneys,

Lungs,

Spleen,

Gallbladder,

Intestines,

Everything going on in the whole midsection of the body,

Just breathing and softening and appreciating.

Just for this moment,

Everything working inside your body.

Grateful from the shoulders to the fingertips,

All the way down the arms,

Grateful for each of the muscles and the bones and the tissues that allow us to pick up,

To hug,

To hold.

Overlooking the pain just for this moment if you're feeling it,

Seeing if you can find something to be grateful for.

Observing the hips and the groin and the sits bones.

Noticing this region,

Noticing sensations.

And then breathing and softening down each of the legs.

Pass the knees into the shins and the calves once again,

Tops of the feet,

Toes,

Pads,

Arches and heels.

Breathing and softening and feeling the sense of gratitude for the ability to walk,

To run,

To squat,

To bend,

Thinking of all the places our legs take us.

Just feeling into the sense of gratitude and perhaps there are parts of the body,

Like I said before,

That aren't working as well.

Maybe not at all.

But right here,

Right now,

Let's lean away from that and just lean into what is working just for this moment.

Breathe in and exhale and soften.

Just for these 20 minutes,

I invite you to tune into the body,

Tune into that body scan and all the sensations that we began the practice with.

And then sitting at the end of these 20 moments together,

Thinking of all that our body can do,

Feeling that gratitude,

Feeling into all the positive things that our body does for us day in and day out.

Breathing in,

Observing,

Breathing out,

Softening.

Thank you for joining me today.

I invite you to come back into your room,

Into your present moment as slowly as you'd like to,

Moving the ankles and the wrists and the neck side to side before ever so slowly opening your eyes and coming back into your present moment,

Into the rest of your day.

Once again,

My name is Katie and I thank you for allowing me the pleasure of guiding you for these 20 minutes.