Welcome everybody to this brief practice of body mindfulness.
So finding a posture that's going to be centering and helpful for you to feel balanced.
Having your back straight but not rigid.
Perhaps closing your eyes if that feels right or just lowering your gaze about 45 degrees and tuning in to the sensations of contact wherever your body is in contact with a surface like a cushion or chair.
Noticing sensations,
Pressure,
Temperature.
And now inviting your attention to find what we call an anchor,
A place to rest for a few moments.
So this could be the breath or could be another area in the body that feels more noticeable to you.
Perhaps like the palms of your hands or the bottoms of your feet or some area of contact.
And if you've chosen the breath letting that sort of rhythm of the breath or the sensations of breath draw your attention in.
Or if you're choosing some other area letting those sensations draw your attention in.
And so not so much forcing it or trying to breathe in a certain way or be in a certain way,
Rather finding the sensations.
You're already having them,
You're already breathing.
Just noticing where they're most noticeable.
Making this sort of like a home base,
A place to come back to as many times as you need whenever the mind wanders off in this practice.
And giving your mind a little permission to unplug from the world and unplug from past thoughts and future.
Allowing the sensations that you notice in this area to be a place where you can get curious and interested.
Not so much thinking about it but sensing it.
And so now just being with the sensations as best as you can and noticing if the mind is quite distracted or busy.
And when you notice it's quite busy or distracted,
Letting go and returning to the sensations and the anchor you've chosen and the breath or the other areas of the body.
Or if you notice that your mind is a little sleepy,
Letting go of that,
Letting go of that dullness and perhaps uplifting.
So perhaps opening your eyes just a little bit,
Letting some light in.
Or noticing the in-breath coming in cooler and sort of focusing a little more on that.
Any other way that feels right to you to uplift.
So we can alternately sort of tame the busy mind and awaken the dull mind to maintain this centered mind.
It's calm but aware.
So now inviting you to continue to gather this awareness into your center,
Into your core,
And sort of sit in this stillness and rest with your mind poised at that vital point where you sense the breath or the body just for a few moments.
And now inviting you to relax this centered focus,
Letting some of your clarity and calm ripple out from your core and gradually diffuse throughout the whole rest of your torso.
So expanding your attention,
Almost like the oxygen would expand throughout your blood,
Almost as if you're waking up in your body for the first time from the inside out.
So feeling your heart and your lungs,
Feeling your chest and shoulders,
Sensing into your diaphragm and abdomen and your hips,
Almost as if you could illuminate or awaken to this whole sense of torso.
Now with your next in-breath,
Rippling your attention out to your limbs,
So down your legs all the way down to your feet,
Awakening to this part of the body.
Now awakening to the shoulders and down your arms all the way to your fingertips.
And now up through the neck and jaw,
Your face,
The crown of your head,
Your ears.
And so now inviting this awareness of your whole form,
The whole body.
So as best as you can,
Sort of sensing the whole shape of your body here breathing,
But perhaps a little more light and fluid,
Sort of this person-shaped bubble of life,
Breathing,
Expanding and contracting.
And so the invitation is to sit together this way,
So with the awareness filling every tissue and every cell,
Just being with the whole living body and giving yourself this gift of sort of just being,
Savoring the sensations of being as best as you can.
Now when you're ready,
Inviting you to slowly expand your attention to the physical body,
Noticing the outer shell of your body,
Sensation of the cushion or chair on your skin.
And little by little,
At your own pace,
Opening your eyes and inviting an intention to bring body awareness into choice moments of your daily life.
