21 Days Of Meditation: Day 17

Welcome to Day 17's meditation.

Give yourself this moment to set yourself up.

Once you've made any adjustments that you need,

Check that you have symmetry in your body and that your left and your right sides are even.

Check that your head is completely centered.

If your eyes are still open,

Go ahead and close your eyes.

If there's any residual expression that your face is still making,

See if you can let it go,

Relaxing every single muscle in your face.

Relax your tongue,

Letting your lips peel apart.

Feel your jaw start to soften.

Feel the muscles around your eyes beginning to relax.

As you bring your awareness to the very top of your head,

Try to notice any blood flow into the crown of your head,

Maybe noticing a subtle tingle.

If you don't feel anything in the crown of your head,

That's okay,

Just keep focusing your attention here.

Now bring your focus to the area of your forehead.

See if you can notice blood flowing into the skin of your forehead,

Noticing a subtle tingle.

Now focus on your throat.

First relax your throat.

Notice what you feel on the front of your throat.

Start to feel the back of your neck.

Now feel the front of your throat and the back of your neck at the same time.

Now bring your awareness to the area of your heart and chest.

Notice what you feel here.

Without forcing your breath in any way,

Start to notice the movement your breath creates around your chest and heart.

Try not to rush your breath,

Let it be as slow as it wants to be into the chest and heart.

Start to feel your sternum,

The central bone that connects both sides of your chest.

Now feel the back of your chest.

Start to feel your sternum,

The central bone that connects both sides of your chest.

Feel the space between your shoulder blades.

Now feel the front of your chest and the space between your shoulder blades at the same time.

Keep feeling your breath coming into the area of your chest.

Now feel your upper belly just below your ribcage.

Now feel the movement that your natural breath creates in your upper belly.

Release any control you might be putting on your breath,

The more you can just let it happen naturally,

The better.

Release any control you might be putting on your breath,

The more you can just let it happen naturally,

The better.

Now start to feel your hips.

Feel your outer hips.

Now feel the whole area of your pelvis.

Feel your tailbone.

Feel your buttocks.

Feel the weight of your body pressing down into whatever you're sitting on.

Now keep feeling the weight of your body making contact to the support beneath you.

At the same time notice your breath come and go freely.

Without controlling or changing your breath in any way,

Keep feeling where your body makes contact to the support beneath you.

Let one more breath come and go freely.

Whenever your body takes its next exhale,

Lengthen your exhale until you're all the way empty.

Whenever you're empty,

Pause and hold your breath.

Start to inhale as slowly as you can through your nose for four,

Three,

Slowing down your inhale,

Two,

One,

Pause and hold your breath.

Inhale just a little bit more.

Now exhale as slowly as you can through your nose,

Four,

Three,

Slowing down your exhale,

Two,

One,

Pause and hold your breath.

Try to exhale just a little bit more.

Start to inhale as slowly as you can,

Four,

Three,

Slowing down your inhale,

Two,

One,

Hold your breath.

Sip in just a little bit more breath.

Start to exhale as slowly as you can for four,

Three,

Sipping your breath out of your nose,

Two,

One,

Hold.

Exhale just a little bit more.

Start to sip your breath in slowly for four,

Three,

Slow down your inhale,

Two,

One,

Hold your breath.

Inhale just a tiny bit more.

Exhale for four,

Three,

Sip your breath as slowly as you can,

Two,

One,

Hold.

Exhale a little bit more.

Start to inhale this time for five,

Nice and slow,

Four,

Sipping breath,

Three,

Two,

One,

Pause and hold.

Inhale just a tiny bit more.

Exhale as slowly as you can,

Five,

Four,

Slow down your exhale,

Three,

Two,

One,

Hold your breath.

Exhale a tiny bit more.

Start to sip your breath in for five,

Four,

Slow down your inhale,

Three,

Two,

One,

Hold your breath.

Sip in a little bit more if you can.

Start to exhale slowly,

Five,

Four,

Sip your breath,

Three,

Two,

One,

Hold.

Exhale a tiny bit more,

Sipping breath in five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One,

Hold your breath.

Sip in a little bit more,

Exhale for five,

Pause and hold.

Exhale a tiny bit more.

Inhale,

Sipping your breath in for a count of five,

Slowing down your inhale,

Pause and hold.

Sipping a little bit more breath,

Start to exhale slowly for five,

Slow down your exhale,

Pause and hold your breath.

Start to sip your breath in for five,

Pause and hold.

Release your hold,

Let your breath come back to its own natural rhythm.

And as you're allowing your breath to flow effortlessly,

Keep feeling your legs and your feet.

Do your best to keep the connection you have to your breath.

At the same time,

Notice every little sensation in both your legs and both your feet.

Now as you stay aware of your breath,

Feel the tops of your feet,

Feel your toes,

Feel the soles of your feet,

Feel your ankles,

Feel your shins,

Feel the insides of your shins,

Feel the outsides of your shins.

Feel your calf muscles,

Feel the backs of your knees.

Come back to your breath without forcing it.

Staying aware of your breath,

Feel the fronts of your knees,

Feel your thighs,

Feel the insides of your thighs,

Feel the outsides of your thighs.

Now come back to noticing your breath.

Let's sweep our awareness through the legs really quickly this time.

Feel the tops of your feet,

Your toes,

Soles of your feet,

Your ankles,

Feel your shins,

Calf muscles,

Fronts of your knees,

Backs of your knees.

Feel your thighs,

Inner thighs,

Hamstrings,

Outer thighs.

Now feel the fronts of your thighs and your hamstrings at the same time.

Feel the fronts and backs of your knees.

Feel your shins and calf muscles.

Feel the fronts and backs of your ankles.

Feel the tops and bottoms of your feet.

Feel your toes.

Now feel both your legs and both your feet at the same time.

As you notice the energy moving through both legs and both feet,

Try to stay mindful of your natural breath at the same time.

If you catch your mind drift or wander,

Bring your attention back to the energy moving through your legs and feet while noticing your breath.

Start to feel the movement your breath creates in your belly.

Feel your breath pressing into your lower back.

Without controlling your breath in any way,

Feel it in the front and back side of your rib cage.

Feel your chest.

Feel the fronts of your shoulders.

Feel the sides of your shoulders.

Feel your shoulder blades.

Feel the blood flow and tingle in your fingers.

Notice any sensations arising in the palms of your hands.

Now keep feeling the palms of your hands and at the same time feel the soles of your feet.

Feel the insides of your forearms.

Feel the outsides of your forearms.

Feel your inner elbows,

Outer elbows.

Feel your triceps.

Feel your biceps.

Feel your collarbones.

Feel your trap muscles.

Feel the back of your neck.

Feel the front of your throat.

Feel your jaw.

Feel your cheeks.

Feel your upper lip.

Lower lip.

Feel your tongue.

Feel the roof of your mouth.

Feel your nose.

Feel your eyelids.

Feel your forehead.

Feel your ears.

Feel the back of your head.

Feel the crown of your head.

Now feel the crown of your head and the soles of your feet at the same time.

Now start to reach your awareness into your entire body.

The tingle and subtle vibration that you feel in your fingertips,

See if you can feel that same vibration in every single cell of your body.

And as you feel that subtle vibration,

Feel your breath coming and going at the same time.

One of the hardest lessons to learn in life is that we can never be responsible for another person's happiness.

But a lesson that's even harder to learn is that we are responsible for our own happiness.

And so one of the most important things you can do is check in and ask yourself this question.

If there was just one thing that you could give yourself that would contribute to your happiness,

What would that one thing be?

And whenever you're ready,

You can open your eyes.