Hello and welcome to this bedtime attuned to awareness practice.
I'm Buffy Owens and I'll be your movement guide.
This is a very simple practice and it can be lovely to do the last thing at night just before you doze off or the first thing in the morning.
Now you'll want to remove the pillow from your bed and use a folded towel if you need support.
So please go ahead and gather your props,
Reach your space,
And we'll begin.
Come to rest on your back.
Make yourself comfortable by having your legs long or your knees bent.
You could place your arms down by your side or if you'd rather rest the hands on your abdomen or chest you can do that.
However you're organized see if you can do it in such a way where you're more or less symmetrical.
Take a moment to set yourself resting here.
See if you can tune into the way that you're settling into gravity and yielding the support.
With each out breath let yourself settle just a little bit more.
Maybe you could even take one or two settling sighs.
If your legs are long please bend your knees so that the soles of your feet are taking support from the surface beneath you and you're stacking your bones so that the bones of the lower legs are supported by the feet and the thigh bones are supported by your pelvis.
Now if in this position you feel as though you have to effort or work at any level to keep the legs standing then I invite you to place a couple of pillows beneath your knees so that your knees are a bit higher than your hips but there's very little to no muscular effort.
In this position observe the curve of your neck.
Notice the space in your throat and feel the position of your chin in space so you can use your chin to determine if your face is parallel to the ceiling or to notice if you're organized in such a way that your chin is a little towards your chest and your forehead's a little closer to the ceiling or if your chin is a little closer to the ceiling and your forehead a little further away.
See if you can experiment with these three options all the while checking in with the curve of your neck.
So go ahead and bring your chin just a little bit closer to the ceiling and feel feel what happens in the curve of your neck and then slowly slowly start to move your chin in the direction of your chest and feel what happens in the curve of your neck and so you can go back and forth like this as if you're gently nodding yes and move at such a pace that you can almost feel the tiniest tiniest shift in the weight in the back of your head and the tiny change in the curve of your neck and the next time that your chin is directed just slightly in the direction of the ceiling where the curve of the neck is just a little bit accentuated from this space and place start to roll your head a little bit from side to side doesn't need to be a big movement instead roll your head with the intention of feeling what's happening in the neck to determine if you feel that connection all the way through the spine or does it reside or acutely in the neck and what do you feel in your throat now pause with that and start to slowly slowly bring your chin towards your chest so that your neck is starting to flatten just a little bit doesn't need to be a big movement but that you're really clear that your chin is directed a little bit towards your chest and your foreheads a little closer towards the ceiling and again it doesn't have to be a lot we're working in a very small range here and in this position observe the space in your throat feel the curve of your neck maybe you can feel that in this position there's more space in your neck much much less space in your throat and begin to very slowly and softly roll your head from side to side what do you feel down through your spine what do you notice in your breath now make that movement smaller and smaller until you come to rest somewhere in the center and once you reach the center see if you can organize yourself so that the chin and the forehead are on the same plane where your face is parallel to the ceiling and your head is neither tipped back or forward feel the spaciousness in your throat the curve of your neck and very softly start to roll your head from side to side and observe what you sense and feel down through your spine keep these movements small very small and begin to explore taking your chin a little bit away from your chest as you roll your head and move in the tiniest increments possible could you move so that the weight is shifting on the back of your head maybe the width of two or three hairs and then you come back to what feels like a neutral position where you've balanced the spaciousness in the front and in the back and then you can bring your chin a little closer to your chest again just enough to shift the weight on the back of your head two to three hairs and you can continue to experiment like this moving a few hairs at a time each time finding your way back to that neutral place where the sense of spaciousness is balanced between the front and the back and maybe where you can start to have a feel for more of yourself your spine your ribs your pelvis make the movement smaller and smaller until you come to rest in the center in that place of equal spaciousness
