Meditate with Urmila: Meditating on the body

Sit in meditation. Gently bring focus to your breath, calm your body and mind by calming the breath, exhaling deeply and in a relaxed manner. Bring your consciousness to the top of the head and imagine watching your body from top of the head to the bottom of your toes. (‘I can see my body from my crown to the toes’, ‘I can see my posture’, ‘I am aware of my body sitting on the floor/ chair’).

Watch yourself like this for a while.

Now rotate your attention to different parts of the body, starting from right hand fingers, up to the right armpit, down to the right waist, to the right leg, to the toes. Feel going inside your body with feather-like gentleness. Now move your attention to the left side of the body and repeat the process, moving attention from left-hand fingers to the toes.

Gently move your consciousness now to the back of the body and watch the back, the whole back, the spinal cord, connect to the cord by focusing on it. Breathe gently in and out of the cord. It will relax. Thank your spinal column and bless it (‘I thank you for supporting me’).

Now bring your attention from the back, up to the back of the head, then to the top of the head, down to the forehead and now the whole face, watch your whole face. Keep up the smile.

Move down to the neck. Then to the right chest and to the left chest, the upper and then lower abdomen region. Continue to feel your presence inside the body; feel or visualise the organs, to the bones.

Bless the organs of your body, the fluids, tissues, cells. Feel connected to every single cell of your body.

Feel the outpouring of love coming from divine bright light above the crown of your head and entering into the centre of your heart as a golden ray of light and spreading to your whole body, inside and out.

As you are drenched in this cosmic golden healing light, feel how the body has held you through thick and thin of times, how it has endured pain and joy with you, how it has functioned non-stop every single day, how it sleeps and wakes up with you, ready for the day, how it enjoys your attention and nourishment, how it heals with your love and attention.

You connect to the body with your intention and sustain the attention with focus. Be present. Be aware.

Connection to the body opens up doors to your multiple consciousness. There is whole ‘body’ of information stored in the body to which you can have access to.

When you feel ‘done’ in meditation, bring your focus back to the breath and gently open your eyes. Continue to sit for few more seconds just feeling the peaceful environment you have created in and around you through your presence, blessing and opening of the heart. Allow it to all get integrated.

For a shorter version of meditation, you can watch the whole body, settle your consciousness at the heart Centre, breathe in and breathe out calmly sending healing golden light to the whole body.

The body holds individual, ancestral and collective memories. It holds beliefs, programmes, emotions, wisdom gained from the past. ‘In every cell of your body you can recognise the presence of your human ancestors … ‘Your body contains all the information of the history of the cosmos … (Thich Nhat Hanh).

All is available to be remembered if one continues to practice connecting spiritually with the body. To make the spiritual/self-connection, it is important to keep the body’s five elements (panchbhuta) in balance. The tangible body, made of gross matter, is forged from five primordial elements- earth, water, fire, air and ether. These elements; and all aspects of them- physical, emotional and mental — need to be cleansed for a balanced life.

Disclaimer: Urmila Rao is an emotional healer and a forgiveness teacher. All the ideas expressed herein are her own, and not professional advice or medical prescription. Her website is: www.karmicwellness.in Email: hellokarmicwellness@gmail.com