Take a moment,
First,
To feel your weight settling down and grounding,
Becoming a little more heavy.
Feel as though the Earth is not just holding your weight,
But enjoying holding your weight.
As if the Earth itself is relieved that you're being present to this moment.
And you feel the Earth making space for you to nest in.
Let a little more weight from the bones and the muscles that support your joints melt and soften.
As you feel into the ground that supports you,
Take a moment to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land that you're on.
You may like to acknowledge your own ancestors and the pathway that they've taken to bring you here to this moment,
Remembering that all of us here are part of an unbroken chain of humanity.
And as we acknowledge everything that stretches back behind us,
Take a moment to feel into your feeling body and see how you feel.
Take a moment to acknowledge your emotional landscape,
Your energy levels.
And let all of this information rest.
You don't have to try to problem solve or disregard any of those emotions or feelings.
Just bringing gentle awareness to exactly how you are in this present moment.
Start to slow down the breath,
Breathing in and out the nose.
And then maybe on the next exhale,
Inviting it to fall out the mouth.
You may like to do that again,
Breathing in the nose and just letting the breath fall out the mouth.
It might be a sigh or it might be quiet.
And when you're ready,
Bringing the lips back to gently touch,
Softening the tongue,
Softening the jaw and allowing your breath to move in the nose and out the nose.
Feeling the breath slow down as your whole nervous system responds to the easefulness of the breath,
Your whole body responds to the invitation to soften and rest.
This autumn equinox marks the balance point of the sun and the moon of the daytime and of the nighttime.
Start to feel the whole top layer of your body basking in the warm glow of sunset.
Feeling the colors,
The last of the warmth of the sunny day,
All of the hairs on your arms,
Your legs,
All over your body responding and enlivened by your awareness.
You can feel that sunlight and that warmth on your cheeks,
On your neck and throat,
On the tops of your feet,
Across your belly and your chest,
Soaking up that warmth.
And then feeling now a little deeper towards the whole back line of your body and feeling that whole back line of your body resting in the coolness of the darkness of night,
Softening into the earth,
Letting the whole back line of your body now reorganize itself so that it starts to alchemize with the earth beneath it.
Feel a gentle intermingling of the back line of your body with the earth,
As if you were lying on grass and on fallen autumn leaves and you are watching in your mind's eyes if time was passing and you see and feel and experience those leaves rotting and disintegrating and alchemizing into the soil.
Feeling that support of the earth holding space for all of this to happen.
Feel that balance now across the top line of the body,
Basking in the warm glow of the sun and that underside of the body supported by the cool,
Moist,
Darkness of the earth.
Balance yourself across both experiences,
Dipping in and out and then seeing if you can hold space for both.
Holding space for the warmth and for the coolness.
Holding space for the darkness and for the light.
You may like to imagine now lying beneath a tree,
A tree with crisping leaves in browns and reds and oranges and yellows and as time passes,
You watch those leaves start to fall.
Some of those leaves we're going to let fall through us.
We're going to feel that leaf fall through our body and start to alchemize.
Maybe bringing your mind now to anything that you feel ready to let go of.
Open yourself to the idea of letting go of habits that are no longer serving you.
Letting go of relationships that are no longer feeling good in your body.
Letting go of even the way that you see yourself and you explain yourself and you are used to treating yourself.
Feeling all of these little leaves effortlessly letting go from the tree above you.
Letting the leaves fall through you.
Allowing them to compost on the other side of you.
Become aware now of your connection to this tree and how your fascia,
The mycelium,
The roots are deeply connected to that of the tree and that this is in fact your tree.
You are the tree as much as the tree moves its energy through your body.
You will notice on the tree that it is not bare.
The leaves are in different stages.
And some leaves will remain.
Some leaves are in the season of staying on that tree and that serves a purpose as well.
You may acknowledge that there are some aspects of your life that are changing but you are not ready to let go of and those leaves are not ready to let go.
And we don't have to think more about why or how or when.
We can just acknowledge those leaves and let them be.
Acknowledge them for the beautiful individually shaped leaves that they are and let them stay on the tree.
We're not going to shake the tree.
We're not going to pull down the leaves.
Take a moment to feel into that cyclical and circular connection between your body and the tree.
Your body growing down with the roots.
The roots connecting to the tree,
Pulling the energy up through the branches.
The branches growing the leaves that change and fall back down onto your body and the earth.
Feel that perfect balance point of energy moving through you,
Moving to you.
Allowing yourself to become a shared resource that you don't need to keep yourself from the tree or the earth.
Letting that energy move freely between you and this reciprocity that is respectful and nurturing.
As we move into our nidra body scan part of our practice,
Finding a deeper level of stillness.
Let your breath settle to a still point between the light of the top layer and the darkness of the bottom layer of your body.
So that your breathing moves in,
Towards and out,
Away from this still point.
Wherever you imagine this still point,
I invite you to see it as a half sun and a half moon.
Like a sphere with half dark and half light.
We're going to shift this sphere of balance around our body.
I invite you to begin with this sphere at your belly button.
Feeling this connection all the way through your tailbone as if it was rooted tidally and effortlessly to the ground beneath you.
Feel this spherical energy reaching up towards the sky above you as if all of the energy of the stars was realigning to support the balance of this sphere in your body.
Let your awareness move this energy point down to your left hip point,
Your left kneecap,
Left ankle,
Left big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
Little toe.
The sole of your foot,
Your heel,
Ankle,
Knee,
Hip,
Back to your belly button.
Letting that point of energy travel down the right hip point,
Right knee,
Ankle,
Big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
Little toe.
Sole of the foot,
Heel,
Ankle,
Knee,
Hip point,
Belly button,
Pubic bone.
Back out to both hip points and the belly button,
Creating a diamond.
Pubic bone,
Hip points,
And belly button.
Stretching up now to the left ribcage,
The throat center,
The right ribcage,
And the belly button.
Another diamond here,
The right ribcage,
Throat center,
Left ribcage,
Belly button.
Right up the middle through the heart center,
Across to the left shoulder,
Left elbow,
Left wrist,
Left thumb tip,
First finger,
Second finger,
Third finger,
And little finger.
Palm of the left hand,
Wrist,
Elbow,
Shoulder,
Heart center,
Right shoulder,
Right elbow,
Wrist,
Thumb tip,
First fingertip,
Second finger,
Third finger.
And little finger,
Palm of the right hand,
Wrist,
Elbow,
Shoulder,
Heart center,
Throat center,
Tip of the chin,
Bottom lip,
Upper lip.
Your tongue and the cave of your mouth,
The tip of your nose,
Bridge of your nose,
The left eyebrow,
The left eyeball.
Eyebrow center,
Your right eyebrow,
Your right eyeball,
And eyebrow center,
The topmost point of your head,
Cascading down the back of your skull,
The nape of your neck,
Across both shoulder blades.
Running that energy down both arms,
The side body,
Both legs,
Scooping up the feet,
And running all the way along the top line of the body.
Feeling that sphere of energy encompassing all of the points of your body,
Feeling that point of energy in all places at once and in each place just as it is.
Holding space for both the light and the dark across all of your body at once,
Feeling the aliveness and the capacity to change and compost in your body at once.
Feeling the regeneration and the degeneration interlacing and weaving together to make your body stronger,
Calmer,
More resilient,
And more aligned.
Feeling yourself completely attuned to the season and completely attuned to your being.
Allow yourself to make space in your mind now for a sankalpa to arise,
Maybe a simple phrase,
I am,
And allowing this nidra to be complete.
