Welcome,
My name is Flo and this is a meditation for people who are tired and want to rest and refresh their bones.
Find a comfortable position with the body and that can be seated or even better lying down and if you would like the perfect pose to really allow the bones to slide down into or towards the ground,
Lie on the back with the soles of the feet wide and the knees resting together.
You can pause me for a moment until you're ready.
Now to begin we'll take three or so longer breaths,
Drawing the breath in through the nose and releasing the breath out through the mouth in a sigh or a kind of rush and wash of air.
Take a couple more like that.
With every exhale feel the jaw soften as if somebody is washing warm water over the sides of the face.
With your next exhale I'd like you to sense into the bones of the skull and as the breath leaves the body imagine those bones of the skull just sinking and pressing gently into the ground beneath them or softening into the space around them.
Coming to relative stillness if it's comfortable for you.
Begin to just sense into the physical body.
How does the physical body feel?
Are there nuances to the sensory feedback that you're getting from the body?
Maybe there's a kind of headline message and then some subtitles,
Some linked narratives or nuances.
And now how does the energetic body feel?
So the emotions and the thoughts,
Maybe if it chimes for you,
Your sense of spirit.
Again could you feel beyond the headline messages here?
Sense into what other details might be lying underneath in the energetic body.
Gently slide your attention to the top line of teeth.
Maybe you notice the lips on the teeth the temperature inside the mouth.
And as you next exhale maybe you let the bottom set of teeth slightly slide backwards or downwards making space behind the teeth.
Softening the big muscle of the jaw and relaxing the tongue in the mouth.
Softening the big muscle of the jaw and relaxing the tongue in the mouth.
Next inhale spreads across the collarbones and as you exhale feel a real softening in the bones of the arms and the shoulder space.
Next inhale spreads across the front of the ribcage and then the exhale kind of wraps around and behind the ribs and you can feel them softening and gently sinking into the space around them.
Find the front of the pelvis now,
The hip crests.
And then as you next exhale wrap your attention around the back of the pelvis and like somebody's washing warm water over the pelvis.
Everything softens.
Connective tissues around the hips.
Notice if there's any kind of gripping or tension in the back of the pelvis.
Notice if there's any kind of gripping or tension in the pelvic floor here.
Muscles between the pubic bone and the seat bones.
And if there could be more softness and maybe a sense of breathing flexibly.
And your inhale is going to wash all over the legs and the exhale is going to soften all the connective tissues around the bones of the legs.
Imagine the bones of the legs releasing,
Sinking towards the ground.
Now I'd like you to sense into the bones.
And this might mean for you but a visual image of the bones arranged however you are positioned with the body.
And it's possible to really sense into the bones because they are wrapped in layers of what's called fascia,
A kind of sensory rich tissue which sends messages to our autonomic nervous system,
Everything that happens unconsciously in the body,
About the body's position in space and the health of the body in general.
What can you feel here if you imagine that your bones had touch receptors?
And now having sensed into the bones,
You might take a breath practice.
This is very simple,
Just imagining that you're inhaling,
Breathing,
Filling the bone space.
And as you exhale,
The bones soften towards the ground,
All of the connective tissues allowing them to have more space,
A kind of sink here.
Inhale bringing a sense of levity,
Lightness into the bones and the exhale gravity,
Sinking.
Stay with this for a good few breaths now.
Noticing if the mind gets hooked away from your breath practice,
That's fine.
Just gently guiding the tension back.
Perhaps you imagine the breath is a little bit more relaxed.
Perhaps you imagine the breath spreading into the thinner,
Smaller bones of the fingers.
Notice with the exhale how the fingers are naturally curved towards the palms.
Same with the feet and the toes.
Ten more breaths here.
Stay with this restful practice for as long as you would like.
If you're ready to call in a little bit more expansion and move.
Just inhale,
You might imagine the breath spreading across the long fingers.
And you might begin to expand through the fingers.
Exhale might bring a little curl into the fingers.
Now the breaths might move through the hands like ripples.
Imagine dipping the fingertips into water and stirring the surface of the water.
Just allow this movement to grow in a way that feels natural for you,
So that might be turning the wrists.
Sometimes we quite naturally echo movement in the hands and fingers.
With movement in the toes and the feet.
Notice how the breath deepens and lengthens as you take a bit more motion in the body.
And here,
This might guide you into more expansive movement.
The arms spread over the head or around the body.
As you inhale,
Take a stretch or just enjoy that opening shape.
And as you exhale,
One big exhale out the mouth,
Soften.
Rest.
Notice how you feel now.
Stay in rest or enjoy a more refreshed sense of the bones in the body.
See you again soon.
