Beginning with a gentle awareness of the position of your body,
The position of each of the different parts of your body,
And the togetherness of those parts.
Noticing the position you're currently in is determined by joint angles.
Those joint angles are determined by a combination of the support of whatever you're on,
And the support of the tissue around the joints,
Muscular and fascial tension,
Sometimes ligaments,
Limiting,
Going into a further range,
And feeling if there's anything,
Any part of your body,
Any adjustment that can be made to offer a little bit more support to your body,
A little more comfort,
A little more rightness.
And it's often the response of people when given an invitation,
Like noticing what your body might want for slightly more perfect support,
To say they're fine,
This is good enough,
To not actually take even a moment to really check.
Is there an adjustment your body wants?
And given that all we're doing here is resting,
That there's nothing else that we're about to get on to,
There's no step two,
Not resting so that we can begin,
We're just just resting here.
Then this is the context to be perfectly high maintenance,
To really care,
To tune in with sensitivity into what does your body want?
To feel supported,
To feel safe,
To feel like it can just rest here.
The doing mode,
And that includes the readiness to do,
Is antithetical to deep rest.
So just doing a quick check if your system has anticipation about what it can do to rest,
Or what it can do after the rest.
Sometimes this anticipation shows up as a sort of activity through our shoulders,
Our arms,
And our hands,
A sort of neurological preparedness.
So just noting that nothing will be needed from your hands,
Nothing will be needed to be moved.
Our hands are little connectors that connect to objects,
Allow us to do things with them.
And of course they're at the end of our arms and our shoulders,
And often some of that readiness begins to seep into our neck and our back.
Sometimes when that neurological or that energetic readiness is never let go,
Never diminished,
Then we end up getting very tight necks,
Very tight shoulders.
Sometimes we get nerve pain or numbness in our arms and our hands.
And so it can be nice to just check,
Is it okay if for the next 10 minutes or so,
Your arms aren't ready,
Your hands not prepared,
That there's nothing for them to do.
There's nothing for you to do.
And then the other major form of doing is moving,
Is locomoting.
And primarily that's done with our legs,
With our hips,
And our feet.
And so just taking a moment to check,
Do you need to go anywhere over the next few minutes?
Or is it okay to not only be where you are,
But give up a readiness to move,
To give up a looking to move of where else you might have to be or want to get to.
It can be so easy to always be looking for a position.
Where should I be?
Well,
Let's just try being where you happen to have landed for this.
Really give it a good shot.
And then including your pelvis in that.
Readiness in a pelvis can take a lot of different forms.
But rest and ease are quite simple to check for.
How easeful is your pelvis right now?
And there can be a temptation to reach for easefulness.
We can come at it from a slightly different angle.
And just allowing yourself to feel exactly how it feels to be your pelvis right now,
Regardless of ease or agitation.
How does it feel to be your pelvis right now?
How does it feel to be your legs and feet right now?
How does it feel to be your torso and spine right now?
Including your ribs,
All your ribs from your sides,
Down near your waist,
All the way up to under your shoulder blades,
Under your collarbones.
And how fluffy can the movement of your ribs be as you breathe?
And if we get even a little bit of the quality of fluffiness in the movement of our ribs,
The ribs begin to massage the spine with every breath.
Gentle,
Predictable waves that the spine can trust.
With only gravity,
The steadiness of gravity,
And the movement of your breath acting on your spine.
Allowing each breath and the movement of your ribs to love your spine.
And the movement can be so subtle.
It doesn't have to be a big movement for your spine to receive that tender love.
And noticing where else your breath can gently massage.
Maybe your pelvis,
Your hips,
Your tummy,
Your sternum,
Perhaps even your shoulders and some of your arms.
Just softening into the natural flow of the breath.
And as we begin to approach the end here,
Just once again noticing the position of your body,
Your whole body.
With a gentle,
Massaging,
Loving breath.
And just moving into the rest of your day with the softness of your breath at the center.
