Let's close our eyes.
As we close our eyes,
Thoughts and images of the most recent experience,
Recent experiences will probably start bombarding us.
Much of all our focus might be consumed in our thoughts and by our thoughts.
So let's take a conscious step behind where we become aware of our body.
Sitting on a chair or the floor.
It won't be a bad idea to do little body scanning exercise where in order to familiarize ourselves on how it feels to notice our body or to feel our body,
We'll do a quick scan.
Starting from the top of the head,
Back of the head,
Our face,
Neck and throat.
Don't visualize your body.
Feel what these parts feel like as an experience.
Feel what your shoulders feel like.
Gently scan your left arm from your shoulder to your elbow to your palm.
Shoulder,
Elbow and palm.
Gently scan the backside of your back from top to your mid-back to your lower back,
Upper chest,
Belly,
Hips and pelvis region,
Thigh,
Mid-thigh,
Left knee,
Left shin and calf and your left ankle,
Right thigh,
Mid-thigh,
Your right knee,
Calf and shin,
Your right ankle.
Now on your own for the next few moments,
Become familiar with this process,
The process of feeling our body as it is.
With our eyes closed,
We can only feel,
We cannot see.
And whatever we imagine as images is only imagination,
Not the feeling of our body.
So feel your body from top to bottom,
From bottom to top.
Now on your own for the next few moments,
Become familiar with this process,
The process of feeling our body as it is.
So when our mind starts wandering,
Or we are too much in our heads,
This is a great exercise to bring ourselves here and now.
And and separating the feeling of the body as the body and visualizing our body as separate parts,
Like I just narrated,
Back,
Left arm,
Right arm.
It's only for communication purposes.
But when we are feeling our body,
You cannot have a left arm separate from your body.
The whole body is the body.
So separating out the feeling part of the body from the visualizing part may help us understand if the body is trying to say something to us.
But because we are lost in our heads or our thoughts,
We might not be able to understand this innate communication.
So this is a good way to pause to feel the body.
Nothing in particular in the body,
But everything in general of the body.
Thank you.
As our minds drift into thinking again.
Come back here.
Feel your body.
Consciously feel your body.
Maybe you are a little tired.
Maybe there are small pains in the body here and there.
Maybe you are feeling restless.
Maybe your jaw is tensed.
Maybe your toes or your fingers are clenched.
Tighten the shoulders.
This is an exercise to become familiar with our body.
Which means,
Becoming familiar with what it feels to be relaxed,
What it feels to be tensed.
This is an exercise to become familiar with our body.
This is an exercise to become familiar with our body.
This is an exercise to become familiar with our body.
This is an exercise to become familiar with our body.
The reason this is important,
That is to become familiar with how we feel our body,
Is because the body is in the now.
As we venture into past and future in our minds,
The body is here.
It does not go with you.
However,
It suffers the fate of whatever you are experiencing in the past or in the future.
When we are dreaming,
Or rather when we are having a nightmare,
The body isn't there in your dream.
The body is asleep on the bed.
But when we are afraid in the nightmare,
The body still sweats,
The heart is still racing.
So it suffers the fate of what we are dreaming.
Same is true in the waking state.
If we are going back in the past,
Probably for regret,
Or anger,
The body is experiencing its fate right now.
Clenched fists,
Tightened hips,
Tightened hamstrings,
Frown on our face.
But we don't experience this consciously.
We are busy being in the past,
Or maybe in the future,
Where we are afraid or anxious,
Disappointed,
Or excited.
But the tightness,
The clenchedness of the body is still here.
It does not understand between real danger,
Real fear,
Or this that we are going through in our minds.
So the reason this exercise becomes crucial is because if we can become familiar with what a relaxed state of the body feels like,
When we do venture out in the past and future,
And we do tighten up,
That memory of relaxed body will trigger us to come back and relax.
You cannot be anxious and have a relaxed body.
You cannot be angry and have a relaxed body.
You cannot be excited and have a relaxed body.
But the felt sense of the body is an important link.
Because our eyes are always open,
We think the felt sense of our hand is the same as the visual sense of our hand.
But that's not the case.
If your hand is hurting,
If let's say your right hand is hurting,
Visually it's very different,
It's very similar to what it was before the pain.
But feeling is different.
That's just nature's way of bringing you back when there is this ease in the body.
But this exercise is a conscious training of feeling the body,
Feeling the body as is.
Thank you.
