Tools for being with body sensations

In this practice,

We'll learn some basic tools for working with feeling and emotion in the body.

How to ground our awareness in the space of the body.

And how to have a sense of openness and spaciousness without grasping onto and holding onto emotions.

As well as noticing the distractions of the mind.

And using those distractions as a cue to bring our attention back to the emotional reaction of those distractions.

And so to begin,

Simply find a comfortable meditation posture,

Either sitting in a chair or sitting cross-legged on a cushion.

And allow your awareness to descend into your body.

Coming all the way down to the ground.

Feeling the place where you make contact with the earth.

And feeling a strong,

Stable,

And grounded base.

As you allow your spine to lengthen.

Let your shoulders reach back and slightly relax.

Lifting your head high.

And then with a couple deep breaths,

Keeping the spine straight.

Letting the skin soften.

Letting the muscles in the body soften.

Relaxing the face,

Relaxing the shoulders.

Intentionally releasing any tension.

Any tension,

Tightness,

Or resistance that we hold in the body.

Contributes to trapped emotion.

Contributes to the avoidance of feeling the body.

And getting caught up in loops of thought.

And so the more we're able to relax tension in the body,

The easier it is to have equanimity.

With whatever it is that we're feeling.

And then beginning to open up and explore the space of the body.

And recognizing that inside of the body there is a space of experience.

That there is a space of sensation where we feel emotion,

Where we feel physical sensation.

And so imagining here that your body is hollow.

That you know the boundary of your body,

Feeling the contact of your skin with the surroundings outside of you.

And then imagining that inside of that shell of your skin there is simply hollow space.

And inside that hollow space we feel different sensations.

With different emotional qualities.

And so just beginning to tune into that space and open up to sensation in the body.

You can bring your awareness into the center of your head.

And feel the space inside your skull.

Feeling your face,

The top of your head,

The back of your head.

And then feeling that space inside.

And then moving your awareness to the center of your throat.

And feeling the space inside your throat.

Moving down into your right shoulder and your right arm,

Your right hand.

And feeling a spaciousness inside the right arm.

Moving to the left shoulder and the left arm.

Noticing the space inside.

And then moving into the center of your chest.

Feeling the front of the chest,

The back,

The sides of the rib cage.

And notice what you feel in the space inside the chest.

Moving down into the mid-chest.

Feeling the mid-back,

The sides,

The front,

And the space inside.

Moving into the lower belly.

Feeling the bottom of the pelvis,

The lower back,

The sides.

And keeping the attention in the center of that space.

Noticing what's present there.

Moving into the right hip and the right leg,

The right foot.

And down into the left hip,

The left leg and the left foot.

And now zooming your awareness out to feel the whole body.

Holding your whole body as one unit and feeling the space inside your body.

Noticing the back of your body,

The front of your body,

The sides.

Noticing that there's a space inside where we feel different sensations.

And these sensations might take the flavor of simply physical sensation.

Hot,

Cold,

Tension,

Lightness.

They might,

To you,

Seem emotional in nature.

Have an emotional quality.

They might be flowing or changing.

With a sense of vibration,

A tingling,

An undulation.

Or it might be restful.

There might be a tangible sense of relaxation in the body.

Or there might be a complete absence of feeling.

Simply an open spaciousness.

Where nothing is felt,

But there's still an awareness that you don't feel anything.

And that awareness of feeling nothing is still something that you feel.

So no matter what you find in the body,

Your experience will fall into one of these categories.

And so feeling the whole body.

Checking in with your posture,

And that you're sitting with a tall spine.

With your head held high.

The body loose and relaxed.

Allow your attention to freely roam throughout the body.

And notice if there's any particular place in the body that is calling out to you right now.

Any sense of resistance,

Any sense of tension,

Any sense of tightness,

Of holding on.

And let your awareness go there.

Notice as you pay attention to that part of the body,

What is your breathing doing?

As you feel the sensation at that place in the body,

Allow yourself to slow down your breath.

In particular focusing on slowing down and deepening the exhale.

Letting it be smooth,

Consistent,

Relaxed.

And then allowing the inhale to happen naturally.

As you feel an emotionally charged experience in the body,

Allow yourself to notice its shape.

Does it have a size?

Does it have a boundary?

Does it have a quality?

Is it intense?

Is it light?

Is it changing or flowing?

Is it solid or stable?

Starting to become curious with your felt awareness.

So simply by feeling what it's like.

Investigating the experience.

Noticing if there's a tendency of your awareness to dive right into it.

To grasp onto the sensation.

If that's the case,

See if it's possible to allow your awareness to be a little bit larger than that sensation.

Holding some space around that feeling.

Noticing that as you zoom your awareness out in all directions around that sensation.

That there's a boundary or a space around it.

Where maybe there's a sense of relaxation.

Or maybe there's an absence of feeling.

So allow yourself to include that in your awareness.

So you're not only paying attention to the feeling,

But you're paying attention to the space around it.

That is also somewhat relaxed.

Continue to pay attention to your breath here.

As you take slow deep exhales.

Noticing that as you breathe,

That space around the sensation pulses.

And as you inhale,

The space grows just slightly larger.

And as you exhale,

The space contracts and relaxes.

And so linking your awareness of your breath with your awareness of the space around this sensation.

Simply being with that sensation for as long as it's there.

Holding the space around it.

Taking slow deep relaxing exhales.

Noticing if there are any stories,

Any mental talk,

Mental images,

Related to this sensation.

And so if you notice that your awareness gets drawn into those stories,

Into that mental talk or mental image.

Simply acknowledging that,

Finding a sense of ease and relaxation and then bringing your attention back to where you feel the reaction in your body.

And so the thought or the distraction,

Simply a trigger.

To notice if there is a sensation in the body that is either the cause or the result of this thought or image.

And then using that as a cue to bring your attention back to the felt sense of this experience.

And letting the mental talk and mental image simply be in the background.

Without pushing it away.

But coming back again and again to that location in the body where you feel the sensation and allow yourself to feel it fully.

Holding that spaciousness around it.

And finding that subtle pulse of the space.

As you intentionally slow down and deepen your exhale.

And then just naturally relax and open up to the inhale.

And maybe you stay with this sensation for a long time.

Or maybe it dissolves instantly.

And you notice that moment where it's gone.

And then there's just a sense of spaciousness and relaxation there.

You can take a moment to feel that and relax into that experience.

And then once again let your awareness freely roam throughout the body.

Until it notices some other sensation.

Or maybe thoughts will come.

And then as you notice those thoughts,

Notice if there's any sensation in the body that is connected to that thought.

And then allow your attention to go into the body.

It's important to notice the spatial aspect of this experience.

That there is spatial location inside the body where we feel these sensations.

And there's also a spatial quality of where we hear our mental talk and see our mental images.

And so typically if we're caught up in the story or the content,

We'll notice that our attention is physically located in the space around the head.

And we'll notice that the emotional reaction is physically located somewhere else inside the body.

Typically around the space of the chest or the heart or the solar plexus or the lower belly.

And so we spatially bring our attention to those locations.

And simply allow ourself to feel whatever we're feeling and giving that experience the space it needs to release itself.

Noticing if there's any sense of tension or resistance in our awareness to being with these sensations.

And then using the breath and the space around the sensation to relax and open up to it.

And so continue to practice here on your own for as long as you would like.

From time to time checking in with your posture,

Making sure that your body is relaxed.

Making sure that you're intentionally deepening and slowing down your exhale.

Opening up and letting the inhale be natural.

Staying with each sensation that you notice,

Giving it space and time.

Bringing equanimity,

Allowing acceptance,

Opening.

And then when each sensation dissolves,

Once again letting your attention be drawn somewhere else.

And if there's no particular strong emotion,

Letting your awareness just cover your entire body.

And simply rest in the sense of peacefulness and relaxation that's present there.

And then once again maybe the mind will become active and thoughts will come.

And then checking in the body.

Is there any reaction to those thoughts?

Where do we feel those reactions?

And paying attention to the spatial quality of our attention.

That when we're stuck in the stories and the mental patterning,

Our attention is physically located higher in the body towards the head.

And then when we come down into the body and feel the sensations,

That our attention is physically located lower in this space of the body.

So continue to be curious and explore.

Giving yourself full permission to experience and feel whatever is happening moment by moment with no expectation or intention.

And simply being with what is.

Noticing when we grasp too tightly to an experience and then opening up to relaxation and space around it.

And then noticing when we resist that experience and then get caught up in mental habits and loops.

And so releasing those mental habits and then coming back to allowing ourselves to feel what's happening inside the space of the body.

Continue to sit and explore.