Grounding Body Scan

Read slowly and spaciously. 1-2 breaths after each line or comma, 2-3 breaths of pause between each paragraph.

Grounding Body Scan

For this meditation we can sit upright or lie down….
In either shape, the spine is neutral and long.
With eyes open or closed, begin by feeling into any body parts that are touching ground.
Notice that connection, between your body and the earth.
And allow your body, to rest further down. Down towards earth.
Equally, feel into a sensation, real or imagined, of the earth rising up to meet you, meeting your relaxing, downward energy with a lift.

And then notice your toes.
Not necessarily seeking sensation, but a simple awareness, a noticing, witnessing the toes.
Both right and left side body.
You may feel something, or nothing at all.
But stay with awareness of toes.

And then awareness of the feet. Right and left foot.
The inner arches, the tops and bottoms.
Awareness of ankles and heels.

Notice the shins. The calves.
The knees and the back of the knees.

Inviting in all sensation, or none, with equality.
Treating all that arises equally.
Spaciously.
Open to whatever arises, just noticing.

Notice the thighs. Notice the hamstrings. Front and back side of the upper legs.
Notice the hips, exploring sensation in the pelvis, the glutes, the front, back and sides.
All 360 degrees of the hips.

Draw awareness up to the belly. Aware of belly movement with the breath.
Aware of the low back, and aware of the kidneys.
Whether or not this awareness of internal organs is real or imagined.

And then notice the chest.
Can you feel or hear your own heart beating.
Not only through the front of the chest, but the back.

From the chest, aware of the shoulders.
Ease in the shoulders as you explore right and left, front and back.

Follow the felt energy of the shoulders down into the arms.
Upper arms. Elbows, the front and the back. Forearms.
Notice the space in the palms of the hands.
With the mind’s eye, feel the thumbs, and each of the fingers.
Notice the back side of the hands.

Then awareness arrives at the throat. The neck. The very back of your head. The chin.
Relax and release your jaw.
Notice the tongue and the inside of the mouth.

Aware of your ears. Your nose. Your eyes.
Aware of ease in your forehead, and the space behind your eyes.

Notice the sensation along the underside of the top of your head.
And then the outside too.
Crown of the head.

Feel a sense of open spaciousness at the very top of your head.

And then rest in the sensation of the whole body.
Aware of the full body.
Complete. Connected. Whole.

Remembering again, the connection between this body and the earth, before you slowly open your eyes.