Relax, Soften, Let Go

In this guided meditation we’ll shine a light inwards with a body scan to get in touch with ourselves and observe our emotions as they rise and subside. Distancing our emotions from ourselves allows us to pause and choose our responses rather than react on auto-pilot, all the while, inviting a softening.

Transcript

Welcome,

Thanks so much for being here.

Our practice today is a practice of the first pillar of mindfulness,

A meditation where we're going to focus our attention on the body.

Now I'd like to introduce this practice for you by talking about how mindfulness is all about relationship,

About how we are relating to what's arising in our experience moment by moment.

So in essence,

It's not about what's happening,

But how we are with regards to what's happening.

Now I had the pleasure months ago to take a couple of classes with the world-renowned Sharon Salzberg and she brought us her favorite definition of mindfulness,

Which I found incredibly relevant and funny.

So I want to share it with you.

She said that a long time ago,

She read an article in the New York Times about an early pilot program for mindfulness in American schools.

The journalist had gone to interview a fourth grade classroom in Oakland,

California.

And so that means that the kids were nine or 10 years old.

And so the journalist asked one of the kids,

What is mindfulness?

And the kid responded,

Mindfulness means not hitting someone in the mouth.

Not hitting someone in the mouth is what mindfulness is.

So what does that mean?

I guess that this kid was saying that mindfulness means being aware of what's arising,

Pausing before acting,

Pausing before reacting.

So what this means really is that we learn to notice how we're feeling.

And so we become able to notice when we're angry or frustrated before,

Not after we've sent an email,

Sent a text message or punched someone in the face.

And so with mindfulness,

We get to cultivate this practice of shining a light on what's happening.

This practice of shining a light inwards.

And by learning to be with the body's sensations,

Moment by moment,

We become much more intimate and in touch with ourselves.

So we get to feel these feelings from the beginning.

And I would say,

It's not just the bad stuff,

Right?

It's also a way of contacting joy and awe and love in a way that's going to be much more direct,

More recognizable.

Now,

What this also implies is that we will learn to get more balanced in relationship with anger,

Difficulty,

Sadness or frustration,

Because we no longer will identify with the feeling,

We'll notice the feeling,

But instead of being consumed by it,

We'll learn to take a little bit of a distance.

Now,

I want to add that our emotions are there to tell us something about our experience and they manifest in the body so we can learn to recognize them.

So I invite you to practice looking at what's going on without judgment,

Contacting this place of noticing what's going on,

Not identifying and discovering that space between noticing and reacting.

Eventually,

It will become between noticing and responding,

So finding the adequate response,

Depending on the stimuli.

Today,

As we learn to notice and be with,

I'm also going to invite you to soften,

Bring in a sense of release and relaxation anywhere you may come across tension as we scan down your body.

So relax,

Soften,

Notice,

Be with,

Without judgment.

Let's get started.

I invite you to take a comfortable seat,

Whether you're seated on a chair with your feet on the ground or if you're cross-legged,

You can also practice this standing up or if you feel energized and or need support,

You can choose to practice this meditation lying down.

So picking your posture and closing your eyes,

Let's take three intentional deep breaths in and out to refresh ourselves.

First,

Exhaling all of your air out,

Take a deep breath in through the nose and exhale a long sigh out through the mouth.

Take a deep inhale through the nose and release it out and one third deep,

Deep breath in all the way to the top of the lungs and release.

Now let's start this body scan at the crown of the head and imagine that your attention is like a sensory flashlight.

Wherever my voice guides you to,

Direct it to,

Don't visualize the body part but really feel and sense what is arising,

What is happening,

What can you feel in that area in this moment.

So starting at the crown of the head,

Feeling for aliveness,

Tingling,

Perhaps temperature,

Moving your attention down to the brow,

The eyebrows and notice what you come across.

Perhaps there's numbness,

Perhaps there is some sensation happening for you,

Either way you can silently say to yourself,

Soften.

Remember that we can hold a lot of tension in and around the forehead and the eyebrows and the eyes,

Moving your attention to the eyes and notice are you scrunching your eyelids and even if that sounds silly,

Imagine that you can soften all four corners of your eyes,

Moving your attention to the nose,

The nostrils.

What can you feel?

Can you feel the air as you breathe in?

How far can you stay with the flow of air as you inhale and what can you sense as the breath turns into the exhale?

Keeping your attention focused,

Sharp,

Noticing the quality of your breath as you examine this little tiny area,

What is it what can you sense and can you be with it?

Moving your attention down to the mouth,

The lips,

Perhaps parting your mouth ever so slightly,

Relaxing the jaw,

Soften,

Scanning for sensations,

Relaxing the tongue,

Relaxing the tongue all the way down to its root,

Feeling around the throat and again soften,

Moving your attention to the back of the head,

The neck and gliding it down to your shoulders.

Now notice if your mind feels settled and curious or if it's jumping around and remember that in mindfulness we want to recommit every time we notice that we've gone off somewhere without judgment,

With a sort of a caring attention,

The same way that we would lead a puppy back on the path.

So leaving whatever thoughts that,

So committing to examining the sensations in around the left shoulder,

The right shoulder,

The upper back and what can you feel?

Is there any sensation?

Perhaps the touch of your clothes against your skin but feeling from the inside out as well.

If you come across any area of tightness or difficulty,

Pain,

You can take a slightly deeper and longer breath and imagine that you can send that breath straight to the area in question.

Try it now and with the exhale again invite this sensation of softening and see did you just create a little bit more space or find a sensation of release and decompression in that area.

Moving our attention to the front of the body,

To the heart center,

The chest.

Can you bring your attention to scan for sensations,

Follow the movements of the breath?

What can you sense?

Again it could be touch,

It could be a sense of your heart beating,

It could be movement,

Just be with whatever is arising here and again you can scan while thinking soften.

Moving your attention down to the belly and inviting a deeper longer breath I'm going to ask you to let your belly balloon right out as you take this next in-breath and as you exhale soften,

Release,

Let go.

Again take a deep breath in and let your belly grow bigger,

Bigger,

Bigger and with the exhale just release and turn your attention,

Your sensory flashlight to feel from within this area of the body.

What can you feel?

What is there to sense?

And you don't need to name it,

Perhaps some sensations are difficult to describe so we don't want to narrate the experience to ourselves.

It's more about noticing,

There's something here and if anything becomes uncomfortable again take a longer slower deep breath into the area and with the exhale invite a softening.

Moving your attention to the pelvis area,

The groin,

What can you feel and can you soften from deep within?

Can you feel into the sit bones,

Your seat,

The thighs,

Noticing anything that's arising whether it's your mind wandering,

Sensations or perhaps even the absence of sensations which is absolutely okay.

That in itself is also a sensation.

Moving your attention to your knees,

The calves,

The ankles and finally into both of your feet.

Notice is there anything different here?

What is arising?

What can I feel?

And you can scan your feet from one toe to another,

Scan the sole of the feet,

The heel,

Upper part of the foot.

Be the curious explorer,

The scientist of your experience and now imagine that you can soften from deep within both of your feet.

After all they carry us through life,

Can we soften,

Let go and be with what is?

And now I'm going to invite you to widen your attention,

To take in your whole body breathing in this moment.

Notice what is arising,

Where your attention is being pulled as you scan from the top of your head right down to the tips of your toes.

Take it all in.

I will close this meditation with a quote from Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh,

Meditation is not evasion,

It is a serene encounter with reality.

Meditation is not evasion,

It is a serene encounter with reality.

Thank you so much.

Namaste.