As you feel ready, allowing the eyes to close or the gaze to soften, letting the arms lie alongside your body, palms facing upward, and allowing the feet to fall away from each other, becoming aware of the places where the body makes contact with the floor, or bed, or mart, aware of the entire body from head to feet, settling in, nothing to do, nowhere to be. When you're ready, slowly bringing attention to the breath, not controlling the breath in any way, just experiencing the sensations as air moves in and out of your body, you're noticing the rising and falling of the abdomen, feeling sensations as breath comes into your body and your belly gently expands, and noticing it deflate as the breath leaves the body. Following the rhythmic movement of each breath, the rising of the belly on the in-breath, and on each out-breath, letting go, bringing full attention to all the sensations of the breath. On this next exhale, allowing attention to shift from the breath and bringing awareness to the bottoms of both feet. Expanding awareness to include all of the feet, letting attention rest in the felt sense. Both feet, noticing contact with the ground or the touch of a sock. Noticing life and aliveness inside both feet. Then coming into the ankles, noticing the place where the feet and the legs connect. Sensing into the lower legs and the knees. Bringing awareness to sensations that are always present. Coming into your upper legs, bringing attention to the bones, flesh, muscles of this region of the body. Letting any tightness or tension that you may be holding to just flow out of you. Then coming into the pelvic region, allowing attention to settle here around the hips and glutes. Noticing points of contact with floor beneath you. Bringing gentle awareness to the lower torso. Seeing if you can receive this next breath in a softening belly. Feel the relaxation all throughout the body. Continuing the scan and bringing attention up the torso to the area of the heart and lungs. Allowing for and making space for whatever is here. Allowing attention to settle on the shoulders. Seeing if you can let the shoulders soften. Feeling any tension that might be present, begin to release and dissolve. Feel the full length of both arms. Bringing awareness to the hands. Inviting the hands to soften, and checking in to see what this does to the body. Letting relaxation travel up the arms. Simply being present from moment to moment and as much as possible. Focusing on the body was a curious attention. Moving attention to the neck and throat. Feeling sensations in the throat as you swallow. Noticing tension in the neck. Seeing if you can breathe into this space. Bringing awareness upwards to the jaw and face. Noticing if the jaw is clenched or relaxed. Noticing how the 10 feels in this moment. Noticing sensations of the lips around the mouth. Bringing attention to the eyes, to the entire region around the eyes and eyelids. Noticing shadows of dark and light. Noticing the forehead. Sensing into lines of tension, this region or muscles that can be relaxed. Just noticing what's here now. Now becoming aware of your ears, the inner and outer ear, possibly noticing sound and the impact of sound on the ear. Letting the entire face rest in stillness. Letting things be just as they are. Bringing attention to the back of the head. If you're lying down, you might notice how it feels where your head makes contact with the floor and supported by whatever your resting on. Bringing attention to the top of the head, the crown and scalp, and now the entirety of the head. Now bringing the whole of your body into awareness from the crown of your head to the soles of your feet, the whole body lying here, taking in the whole of your body lying here, breathing here, being here, being present for each moment, for each breath. Not trying to do anything, not trying to get any place, simply being with your whole self. As the meditation comes to an end, taking a moment to acknowledge your ability to attend consciously to the moment, to moment experience of this body, this mind, and this heart.
