Welcome to meditation on restful sensations in the body.
Instead of meditating on existing,
Activated,
Attention-grabbing sensations in the body,
We are going to look for and tune into parts of the body that are relaxed,
Calm,
Restful,
Thinned out,
Where not much is happening,
Where things feel absent or blank,
Or simply parts of the body that feel less activated than the other parts around them.
You may be able to notice relaxed,
Chill,
Or thinned out sensations that already exist in your body.
Tuning into parts of the body that are already rested,
Calm,
Easeful,
And settled.
Perhaps a relaxed face,
Arms hanging limp and loose,
Feet and legs that have fully surrendered to gravity.
Maybe your attention can find itself inside of the way that your muscles relax and settle in as you take a balanced and still posture.
Once you can detect or create a restful body sensation,
I invite you to make contact with it,
Deeply feel it,
Be with it and open up to it,
And fully allow it.
Absorbing your attention fully into restful sensations in your body,
Deeply knowing their details and their subtle texture.
Bringing your full attention to one particular chilled out,
Tranquil sensation,
Letting your entire world be simplified down to just one part of the body that feels more relaxed and at ease.
Sink your awareness down into the serenity,
Deeply rest into the peacefulness.
Your awareness may become stable and grounded inside a part of your body with fewer nerve endings.
You may find tranquility in your scalp,
The back of your torso,
Your triceps,
The back of your thighs,
The tops of your feet,
Or any other part of your body that just naturally feels more blank.
Every time you breathe out,
Your core muscles,
Your ribcage,
And your diaphragm automatically relax into gravity,
Allowing your attention to gently connect with the letting go and release of each exhalation.
As you notice each restful or relaxed part of your body,
Giving your full attention to it in a spacious,
Patient,
And accepting way,
Letting your awareness deeply soak into each tranquil body sensation as you encounter it,
You may possibly notice a wave of sleepiness arising as deep bodily relaxation.
If so,
I invite you to locate the body sensations that are part of that wave of drowsiness,
And then rest and relax into that peacefulness.
Sometimes when you sit perfectly still,
You can have the illusion that some part of your body has disappeared.
There's a complete absence of sensation.
This experience can feel spacious and tranquil if we just let it be and relax into it.
You may also notice emotional calm,
Tranquility,
Peace,
And neutrality.
You may notice the absence of emotion in your body,
Like when you're just fine with things as they are.
In the places where you sometimes encounter emotional activation,
You may instead notice a soft heart,
A relaxed face,
A soft comfortable belly,
And general emotional peace.
Restfulness in your body does not need to be deep,
Everywhere,
And total.
It can be relatively shallow,
Local,
And partial.
We should be able to detect some sort of restfulness somewhere in the body.
I invite you to make the choice to move towards relaxation as best you can.
This often involves letting go of our automatic tendency to focus on what is most intense and grabs our attention,
And instead to choose to bring our focus to something that is more subtle,
Restful,
And serene.
Letting your attention simply find itself inside of relaxation,
Inside of calm.
If your attention is drawn to anything that is not a restful part of the body,
For example,
If you start to notice an act of emotion,
Other active body sensations,
Verbal thoughts,
Visual thoughts,
External sounds besides my voice,
External visuals,
Tastes,
Or smells,
See if you can just let all that drop into the background,
Making the choice again and again to patiently bring your attention back to parts of the body that are relatively relaxed and calm,
Letting tranquility and peace fill your entire awareness.
We're aiming to develop continuity of contact with restful parts of our body.
Your attention may wander away again and again,
But the more we bring our attention back in a spacious and patient way,
The more our awareness will eventually rest in a stable,
Steady,
And grounded way in the more serene and still parts of our body.
Physical stillness has a timelessness to it,
But I invite you to continuously return to the right now,
Bringing present moment awareness to both the tranquility of your body and to anything that distracts you from it.
If this technique feels challenging,
That's great.
You're deepening your ability to detect and rest into tranquility.
If this technique feels easeful,
Pleasant,
And soothing,
That's great also.
It's okay to simply sink into a deeper relaxation,
To rest into calm,
And to enjoy serenity.
You can also,
If you would like,
Intentionally create some relaxation in your body.
You can stretch up a little taller,
Elongate your neck and spine,
And then let the soft parts of your body,
Your muscles and ligaments,
Hang off of your strong,
Upright spine in a limp,
Loose,
Relaxed,
And restful way.
If you truly have an upright,
Extended,
And balanced spine,
With your head balanced on your neck,
That should allow the muscles of your core,
Back,
And neck to deeply let go.
You can also intentionally relax individual body parts.
For example,
Tuning into a part of the body where you have been holding tension and inviting it to soften,
Release,
And relax.
With each exhalation,
Feeling your face soften and let go,
Your jaw soften and release,
Dropping your shoulders,
Finding ease in your heart and chest,
Letting your arms fall limp and loose,
And softening your belly,
Simply resting in serenity,
Finding your attention inside of tranquility.
You may want to elongate the exhalations of your breath,
Breathing out as slowly and patiently as you can to deepen the letting go and release,
Allowing a wave of relaxation and restfulness to wash over you,
Opening up,
Softening,
Letting it all go.
If you notice any emotions arising in your body,
You may be able to breathe into the sensations of that feeling,
Allowing them to deeply release and find comfortable calm.
Again,
This is a concentration technique.
We are being intentional with how we direct our awareness.
We're making the choice to absorb our attention into parts of the body that feel relaxed and at ease,
And to let go of everything else.
We're making a minimal effort.
When we bring our attention back from wandering,
We do it in a gentle way,
Peaceful,
Spacious,
And patient,
Just a light feather touch.
Any body sensations that are intense or strong,
We just let them drop into the background,
And gently,
In an open and accepting way,
Bring our attention back to relaxation.
It's fine for your attention to stay in one part of the body.
It's also fine for your attention to travel around.
Keep staying tuned into the most chilled out body sensations that you can find.
If you're tuned into some part of the body that feels settled and calm,
And then it starts to seem activated,
You can find or create another restful sensation and move your attention there.
As always,
When practicing meditation on body sensations,
Be aware of possibly visualizing that part of the body as you feel it,
Of having a slight ghostly image of how that body part looks as you bring your full attention to it.
It's all perfectly fine,
Perfectly normal,
But see if you can disentangle visualization from simply feeling your body as best you can.
Let your entire world be simplified down to just feeling the soothing,
Restful parts of your body,
Taking refuge in your body's restful sensations,
Finding shelter in your body's tranquility,
Taking a vacation in your body's ease,
Putting your trust in the serene parts of your body,
Trusting that simply feeling relaxation is enough for now.
Whatever your mind may believe it needs to think about,
Simply letting that go for now,
And resting in relaxation,
Chill,
And peace,
Merging your awareness and sense of being with restfulness,
Knowing yourself as peaceful,
Physical calm.
This can take some slowing down,
Sensitizing.
As you become aware of each rest state,
You may feel a sense of opening,
Soothing,
Equanimity,
Spaciousness,
Relaxation,
Refreshment,
Serenity,
Rejuvenation,
And enjoyment.
This may happen from simply opening up to and allowing whatever rest state sensations you can find or create,
Just relaxing into easeful good feelings.
I invite you to enjoy relaxation,
Enjoy soothing restfulness,
Simply enjoy serenity and tranquility,
Just letting relaxation and ease happen.
Thank you for participating in this meditation on restful sensations in the body.
