Bringing your kind and curious attention to your body can be extremely helpful, especially when you’re feeling overwhelmed by intense emotions or experiencing an Unkind Mind attack. Paying attention to your body in this way can help you be in the moment, right here, right now, and not be stuck in your thinking about tomorrow or yesterday. Again, the easiest way to do this practice (at least in the beginning) is to download the audio from http://www.newharbinger.com/33766. Otherwise, you may want to read through the entire practice and then give it a try, or alternatively, you can read and follow the suggestions a couple of paragraphs at a time.
So let’s bring some kind attention to the body. Sit or lie in a comfortable position. If you feel comfortable, allow your eyes to close, or if not, then focus on a spot in front of you.
Allow your arms to rest by your sides, and if your legs are crossed, uncross them.
On the next in-breath, feel your back lengthen and straighten. On the next out-breath, allow your muscles to soften. And bring your attention to the familiar expansion and release of the breath in the belly.
Let your attention rest on the rhythm of the breath. To help yourself pay attention to the breath, you may want to place one hand on your belly and the other on your chest…feeling the rhythm of the breath and maybe noticing how your body, mind, and heart respond to this simple touch…
When you are ready, let your hands rest in your lap or at your sides, and breathe your kind and curious attention into your feet. Notice the sensations in your feet—the feel of your socks, your shoes, or, if you are barefoot, the air.
Perhaps you can be aware of the spaces between your toes? Perhaps you can feel the sensations in the muscles and bones of your feet?
Now, allow the breath and the attention to move up into the ankles and lower legs. Noting the sensations in the ankles, and feeling the curve of the calf muscles and straightness of the shinbones…
When you are ready, breathe your attention into the knees. Feeling the muscles and tendons that move and support the knees, and then feeling into the knee joints…
Breathing and noticing—the sensations in the knees—and perhaps noticing any thoughts or feelings that happen to be here, now—restlessness, peace, sleepiness, irritation… Letting it all be, just as it is.
And in your own time, breathing the attention into the backs of your thighs and buttocks, feeling the places where your legs make contact with the chair, the floor, or the bed, and the places where they don’t. Allowing the attention to circle around the outer thighs, over the tops of the thighs, and across the inner thighs. Perhaps you can feel the weight of your clothing and the specific sensations in the different areas of the thighs.
And now, breathing your attention into the bowl of your pelvis, the area where your legs connect with your body. Perhaps you can feel the breath expanding and releasing in the bowl of your pelvis.
Now again focus your attention on the familiar rising and falling of the breath in your belly. Resting deeply in the stillness and quietness between the in-breaths and the out-breaths.
Allowing the breath and attention to sink through the belly into the lower back. Seeing if you can feel the breath expanding and releasing in the lower back. Experiment with simply noticing what is happening in your body—sensations of tension, comfort, or perhaps neutrality, which is a kind of nothingness.
Now, letting the breath and the attention move upward into the mid and upper back, exploring the region between the shoulder blades.
When your attention is pulled by a thought or feeling, gently, kindly, return your attention to the instructions.
When you are ready, allow the breath and attention to move around and through the rib cage into the chest. Again feeling the movement and sensations of the breath in the chest.
Now, letting the breath and attention drift up into the shoulders, and down along the length of your arms into your hands. Noting any sensations of ache, strength, and comfort in the arms. Exploring the sensations in the palms of the hands and the back of the hands, and the fingers and thumbs.
And now moving the breath and attention into the neck, feeling along the back of the neck, the sides of the neck, the front of the neck. Perhaps even feeling the movement of the breath in the throat.
Now, allow the breath and the attention to move up into your face, feeling the position of your jaw, the curve of your lips, and your facial expression.
Perhaps you can feel the breath moving in and out at the tip of your nose, and the touch of your hair, or the air on your forehead?
Let the breath and attention circle along the sides of the head, to the back of the head, up to the top of the head, and into the brain… Again, just noting the sensations as you breathe kind attention into your face, head, and brain.
Now let breath and attention fill your entire body—brain, head, face, neck, arms, chest, back, belly, pelvis, legs, and feet.
Feeling the breath filling you and emptying you.
Appreciating the stillness and quietness and aliveness inside of you.
Perhaps taking a moment to be grateful for this body, this one that is here right now, exactly as it is…
And as this session comes to an end, it can be helpful to remember that bringing kind and curious attention to the body can help us, especially during difficult times. Anytime you find yourself stuck in thinking or upset by feelings, you can bring your attention to the body in very short, simple, secret ways. You can notice the sensations of breathing, the feeling of your feet on the floor, the weight of your backpack on your shoulders, or the shape of the pencil in your hand. Often, choosing to drop your attention out of your head and into your belly or your feet can interrupt repetitive patterns of negative thoughts and feelings and decrease their intensity.
Being mindful of the body is one way to drop into the Still Quiet Place.