Lying down on your back,
Becoming as comfortable as you possibly can,
You might want to use a pillow to rest your head on,
Maybe raising your legs onto a cushion or a chair,
Or just putting something underneath your knees,
Just to give your back a little more stability.
Or obviously you could just let the legs lay out long in savasana,
In the shape of a V,
With the feet splayed out to the sides.
The arms rest off the sides of the body,
If you like,
With the palms up,
Leaving a little space for the armpits,
The arms are a bit open,
Shoulders relaxed,
Down and loose.
Bring your attention to the breath.
First,
Let's just feel the breath in the body,
Maybe feeling the rise and fall of the lower abdomen,
Rising with the inhale,
Falling with the exhale.
Not controlling or manipulating,
Just feeling.
Now feeling the breath at the nose,
Feeling the entrance and exit point of our breath.
Maybe noticing a slight change in the temperature on the inhale compared to the exhale,
As it just goes in and out of the nostrils.
Bring your awareness to the rhythm of the breath.
The pace,
Is it slow,
Or even if it's fast,
Does the pace change,
The rhythm change on the inhale compared to the exhale?
Once again,
We're simply noting,
There's no right way or wrong way to do this.
Now bring your awareness to the top of the inhale,
As you finish your inhale,
Bring your awareness to the body,
How does the body feel?
Is there a pause,
Or are you just letting it go and it moves very smoothly into the exhale?
Once again,
Just noting,
Being with the body and mind at the top of the inhale.
Now bring your attention to the bottom of the exhale,
So as you exhale fully out,
Feel into the body.
Note any emotional or psychological states.
And with the exhale now,
Connect with the feeling of just letting go.
Bringing the body and mind into a relaxed state.
So as you inhale,
Feel,
Feeling the body,
The rhythm.
And as you exhale,
A feeling of just letting go.
As if you're just softening the body and mind with every breath out.
Now as we move through this rotation of awareness,
Scanning through the body,
We're going to use a powerful visualization technique.
The feeling of our awareness being like a spotlight.
So as I name a part of the body,
Preferably practicing this with your eyes closed,
It's as if that one part of the body lights up,
As if there's a powerful spotlight just on that part of the body,
While the rest of the body remains dark.
So for example,
As we move from the hip,
Which is very bright and the rest of the body dark,
And we move down to the upper leg,
It's like the light goes away from the hip and all of a sudden it's very bright on the upper leg.
So using this visualization,
The spotlight practice,
We're going to rotate our awareness through the body.
Nothing to do but follow the instructions.
Remembering that if the mind wanders,
There's no need to judge.
Doesn't mean you're doing the practice wrong.
The practice is just as much about noting the mind wandering as it is about keeping the awareness on the body parts.
So bring your awareness to the lower back.
A lot of us have chronic issues here.
Tightness,
Ache,
Pain.
So just a spotlight on the lower back.
And just feeling.
And as you exhale,
A feeling of surrender.
Truly sinking and melting into your surface.
Slowly drop that awareness to the right hip bone.
So once again,
The spotlight moves away from the lower back and there's this bright spotlight on the right hip.
Just feeling being with the right hip.
Bring that attention to the right groin.
Bring your attention to the right buttocks.
Now as the spotlight turns off at the pelvic region and it turns its attention to the upper right leg.
First in the front,
The thigh.
And then the back,
To the hamstrings,
Up to the psoas.
Now the spotlight moves on to the knee.
The whole knee area,
Not just the kneecap.
Front and back and sides.
Bring that spotlight,
That attention now down to the lower leg.
Feel it in the front.
In the back.
And now the spotlight comes to the right foot.
The heel and ankle.
The sole of the right foot.
The arch of the right foot.
The top and outside.
And all five toes.
And now feeling this light,
Not necessarily so bright as if it diffuses a bit.
And now it's all the way from the right hip bone,
The right pelvic region down through the toes.
So bringing your awareness all the way from the tips of the toes to the right hip bone.
And release.
Bringing your attention to the left hip bone.
Feeling that light as if the rest of the body is in darkness.
The only thing lit up is this left hip bone and all your attention is right there.
Now that spotlight moves over just a little bit,
Over to the left groin.
And moving to the left buttocks.
Now the spotlight moves away from the pelvic region and shines onto the upper left leg.
The thigh in front.
The back of the upper left leg to the hamstrings.
Now spotlight moving down to the knees.
Just all your awareness with the light on the knees.
Bringing your attention now to the lower leg as the light shines on the shin bone in front and the calf muscle in back.
Now the spotlight moves to the left foot.
The ankle and heel.
Inside arch and outside and all five toes.
Now bringing that awareness and that spotlight onto the right shoulder.
So all your attention now feeling all sensations in the right shoulder.
The upper right arm.
The right elbow.
Bringing that spotlight onto the lower right arm,
The forearm and the wrist.
And then finally the right hand and all five fingers.
Bringing your attention now to the left shoulder as if the light is only on the left shoulder now.
And then the spotlight moves over to the right,
Sorry,
The left bicep and tricep.
Spotlight on the left elbow.
The attention moves to the lower left arm,
The forearm and left wrist.
The left hand,
The palm of the hand,
Back of the hand and all five fingers.
Now letting the light be more diffuse,
Not as bright and let it be over a larger part of the body.
So we're going to bring the attention to the left side.
As if the light is on the left arm from the shoulder to the fingertips as well as from the left pelvic region to the left toes.
So just feeling the left arm and left leg.
Now bringing that awareness to the right side.
The right shoulder to the right fingertips and the right pelvic region to the right toes.
The whole right side lightens up.
Now bring your awareness to the arms,
Shoulders to fingers of the left,
Shoulders and fingers to the right.
Feel a slight heaviness as you breathe in and a feeling of lightness as you breathe out.
Bring your attention now to the lower body.
Left hip bone,
Left buttocks,
Groin down through the left legs to the left toes and the right pelvic region.
Running down the leg to the right toes,
Just feeling through the legs.
Once again a slight heaviness,
Don't force it and a feeling of lightness and letting go with the out breath.
Bring your awareness now to the torso,
The lower belly and the lower back.
As you breathe in,
The spotlight is on the belly rising.
As you breathe out,
Let that spotlight go to the lower back.
Feel that feeling of surrender and sink in.
Inhale with the belly.
Exhale with the lower back.
Coming up the torso,
Feeling the ribs,
The sternum and solar plexus,
The whole mid back area.
Lighting up.
Bringing that attention now to the upper chest and the same thing we did with the lower abdomen.
As you breathe in,
The spotlight is on the chest.
Slight feeling of heaviness.
As you breathe out,
The feeling of the upper back surrendering,
Sinking,
Letting go.
Let that spotlight now come to the throat and the neck.
Being with the breath as it moves through the windpipe.
Releasing through the neck.
Now letting the whole body go dark and the light is on the whole face and head.
First feeling the jaw and chin.
Opening the mouth slightly,
Relaxing.
The cheeks.
Relaxing through the forehead.
The ears.
The eyes.
Bring your awareness now to the whole head,
The skull.
Now bring in the attention to the whole body.
From the tips of the toes through the crown of the head.
The light has become diffuse,
Not so bright,
But the whole body is lit up very subtly.
This feeling as if the pores have all opened up in your body.
As you breathe in,
You're breathing in through the whole body,
Through the pores.
As you exhale,
A feeling of sinking,
Melting,
Just a gentle surrender.
Inhale,
Feel the breathing body.
Exhale,
Sink and surrender.
Just melt.
And as the practice comes to a close,
Taking this calm,
Relaxed,
Yet mindful state with you into the next part of your day or evening.
