Resting into your body,
Welcoming yourself home to your body.
Allow yourself to lay down on your back,
Make yourself absolutely comfortable for this short guided relaxation into your own body.
If you need to have a small cushion under your head or some cushions under your knees,
If you feel to have a blanket over top of you so you can feel warm,
Secure and safe.
And once you've found this comfortable position,
Check in and see,
Can I be any more comfortable?
Even if that's the case,
Make any small adjustments to be even a little bit more comfortable,
A little bit more supported.
And then once you find that space of comfort and support,
Let yourself rest into the support of the earth below you.
Let yourself rest into the support of the earth below you.
And you may feel that earth with cushions or mattress or floor,
But feel deep in the foundation of that which is below you is mother earth.
Rest into mother earth just as much as feels safe for you now.
And as the body starts to settle,
Notice that you're breathing.
Breath coming in.
Breath going out.
Breath coming in and breath going out.
A constant rhythm of exchange.
A constant relating between your perceived inner body and perceived outer world.
The most natural,
Deeply sacred flux and flow of life playing out right here in your own body.
Let your awareness rest on where you can feel your breath the most in your own body.
No need to change the breath or try to breathe,
Just notice where it touches as the breath comes in.
Let go as the breath goes out.
Notice where it touches as the breath comes in.
And then let it go as the breath goes out.
So really soft noticing.
A sense of openness,
Of feeling the magic of life moving through you in the form of breath.
Rest into this.
Let your lips part about a centimeter or two.
And imagine the joint at your jaw becoming softer.
As if your whole jaw bone could melt back towards the base of the skull a little bit.
Some spaciousness in the mouth.
Breath still through the nose if it comes naturally that way.
And always remembering that if you feel that there is some residual tiredness or an emotion or some energy that feels like it needs some space around it,
Just let yourself have a breath out the mouth.
Just to give some space around what you might be experiencing in the form of tension,
Tightness or contraction.
Notice the rings of muscles around your eyes.
They're a bit like the aperture of a lens on a camera.
Imagine the muscles and the tissue around your eyes un-gripping a little bit.
The aperture becoming softly wider.
And with this perhaps you can feel the weight of your eyeballs sink back and down towards the soft tissue of your brain.
Let your eyeballs rest back in the sockets.
Let this be a symbolic gesture of letting your vision turn inward.
Of letting go of the need to acquire,
To analyze,
To understand.
And letting inner vision open in a space of simple observation and reflection.
Notice the weight of your brain.
And sometimes it helps to turn your head really slowly,
A little bit to the left or a little bit to the right.
And let your awareness rest on the inner surface,
This smooth,
White,
Bony inner surface of your cranium.
And imagine the weight of your brain,
Brain tissue,
Fluid,
Sliding softly across the inner surface of your cranium.
Imagine that your frontal brain,
The part behind your forehead,
Took a break and relaxed back.
And whole brain relaxed back towards the back of the skull.
Brain takes a break.
Allow a breath in through your nose and out the mouth.
And rest into the weighty sensation of brain resting into the back of your skull.
Jaw and lips are soft.
Rings of muscles around the eyes,
Unripping.
Brain tissue relaxing.
Cheekbones floating.
As you notice once again your own breath,
Perhaps you can sense the current of your breath underneath your cheekbones.
And it gives your cheekbones a quality of floatingness,
Like a wise old elder,
An indigenous wise person with high cheekbones,
Clear relaxed eyes who gazes out over the vista,
Simply to receive in the panoramic view of life before her or him.
Allow your inner vision to become more panoramic.
Notice the vast dark space in front of your closed eyes.
And notice that you're breathing.
As the breath continues and your body settles into earth.
Allow your mental energy in the form of attention and let your attention slide down to notice the space around your belly,
Around your navel,
A little bit above your navel,
A little bit below your navel,
A little bit to the left of your navel,
A little bit to the right of your navel.
And then all of this space around the navel,
And notice how it responds as your breath comes in and the breath goes out.
If it helps you to perceive the belly a little bit more,
You could even rest a hand on the low belly below the navel.
And as the breath comes in,
Feel this area radiating from all directions from navel.
Feel it expand a bit and swell as the breath comes in.
And feel it soften back towards center body as the breath goes out.
Nothing to force or try to do a breath.
Just notice the natural quality of the rise and the fall of your own belly.
As the breath comes in and the breath goes out.
Perhaps you can feel this area growing as your attention rests there.
Perhaps it spreads out a bit to include even more of the space around your navel and underneath your navel towards the inner body and towards the pelvic floor.
Low,
Deep belly below your navel.
As the breath comes in,
Let it filter in like autumn sunshine through golden leaves,
Softly touching the forest floor,
The deep floor of your belly.
And as the breath goes out,
Just letting it expand a bit.
Let your breath have a touchingness,
A soft contact with the deeper belly.
And if you notice any part of you trying to do the breath,
Trying to get the breath there,
Pull back a little bit.
Let the breath do its own thing.
Just rest your attention on where you would like to feel the breath make contact.
Feel the space in deep belly expanding gently.
Breath coming in,
Breath going out.
Life coming in,
Meeting life.
Life going out,
Meeting life.
Delicate,
Powerful,
Absolutely natural contact with life through your very own breath here in your belly,
Here in your own body.
Allow a breath to come in through your nose and out the mouth once again.
If it feels authentic for you,
Let one hand remain on your belly and your other hand rest near your heart center.
Oh,
Letting breath now also meet the heart.
Let your mental attention gather to rest in the heart and feeling the sensation around the heart.
Invocation of the clear heart into your heart center and even your very physical beating heart.
Write in appreciation,
Gratitude,
Thankfulness,
Tenderness,
Wonder.
If it helps to bring a visual to the abstraction of those feelings,
You could imagine holding a baby bird in your hands or the face of a small animal or a place in nature that makes your heart sing and you feel totally at home and at peace or the memory of your child's face.
Any image that evokes tenderness,
Wonder of life,
Thankfulness for this moment.
Feel how the simple invoking of these sensations into the heart create a chain of positive biological response throughout your entire body.
Maybe a tingling or a warmth,
A certain feeling of heart resonance that every human being can recognize when they feel it.
Let yourself be bathed in this positive biological response of the resonance of the heart.
Nothing you need to do.
Just be bathed by it.
Just into it.
Give thanks.
If there's another person in your life right now who could benefit from also being bathed in this heart resonance,
Just invite them in to this circulation,
This growing and expansive resonance of the heart and let them too be bathed in this energy.
Nothing you have to do personally.
Just let them be there with you.
Surprised them there with you in this healing energy of the heart.
You might even imagine simply holding their hand in a friendly way as you both imbibe and are nourished by the resonant field of the heart.
And simply give thanks.
Allow a breath to come in through the nose and a soft sigh out the mouth.
Simply notice that you're breathing.
And let your mental energy in the form of attention slowly slide down to become aware of the sensations at your feet.
Feel your own feet.
When you can feel your feet,
Begin to have little movements of the toes,
Of the bones of the feet,
Really subtle movements inviting you to perceive the space around you by moving your feet through the space slowly.
And then the movement might get a bit bigger.
You might feel the invitation to begin to milk your ankles,
Create movements of your ankles that feel like bringing fluid balance and flow back into them.
Slowly let this movement of the toes and the feet and the ankles bring a gentle awakening of movement back to your own body until you feel the opportunity to slowly bend one knee and then the other knee so that the soles of your feet come in contact with the earth,
Let the feet be soft,
Receptive,
Yet also supportive.
Feel this slight change in your relationship with gravity,
With earth itself.
And then give a little movement to hands,
Wrists,
Arms,
Even maybe a soft and gentle movement of the arms over and behind your head,
Giving a really tender stretch from hips to shoulders,
Through the arms to the fingertips.
Let a breath come in through the nose and go out the mouth.
And then either simply let yourself be here with knees bent and soles of the feet on the earth for a little while,
Or gently let yourself roll over to rest on your side and allow that to be some moments of integration.
And when you feel to,
Gently come back to seated and enjoy a minute or so simply sitting in your own energy,
Letting life in,
Enjoying life in a quiet way.
Just allowing yourself your own pace and time to transition back to your daily life,
Or if you're listening to this recording before bed,
To slide into sleep.
Just giving yourself time.
A tender touch to your head or your heart or your belly.
Giving thanks.
Thank you for practicing today.
