This is a meditation called Finding Rest for Restlessness.
So I invite you to get comfortable wherever you are.
You may be in a seated position,
On a cushion,
On the floor,
In a chair.
You may be lying down or standing up,
Following the wisdom of your body,
What feels most responsive to you for this practice,
Allowing yourself to assume that position,
That position that feels most responsive.
Then drawing your attention to the feelings and sensations of your body making contact with whatever is beneath you.
So if you're lying down,
It may be all along the backside of your body,
You're noticing feelings and sensations of making contact with the floor or the bed or a cushion,
A yoga mat,
Whatever is beneath you.
Just noticing those feelings and sensations alongside your body.
And if you're in a seated position,
Noticing whatever parts of your body are making contact with the chair,
The floor,
The couch.
Just drawing your attention there with a gentleness and a lightness.
And if you're standing,
Drawing your attention to your feet,
Noticing the feelings and sensations of your feet,
Making contact with the ground.
And whatever position you're in,
See if there is a way in which you might even feel supported by whatever's beneath you.
You can close your eyes or cast them down if you're driving.
Please keep your eyes open.
But for everyone else,
Go ahead and close your eyes or cast them down,
Drawing your attention to the inner landscape.
Giving the visual landscape a pause.
Drawing your attention to your breath.
First,
Noticing the feelings and sensations of life-giving air moving in and out of your nose.
Just simply giving yourself the gift of coming home to the present moment by way of the breath.
And if you ever notice at any moment that the breath does not work for you,
Please go back to noticing the feelings and sensations of your body making contact with whatever is beneath you.
Just go back to that starting place.
It's all excellent training for the mind and the heart,
The soul,
The body to simply be present to an anchored place.
If the breath does work for you just fine,
Then allowing yourself to move your attention down into your chest.
See if you notice that slight rise and fall of your chest as life-giving air moves in and out.
And lowering your attention down further into your torso.
See if you can notice a slight expansion on the inhale and deflation on the exhale.
As this life-giving air moves in and out of your body,
Moving all the way down through your lungs,
Releasing anything that doesn't serve you on the exhale.
And if you notice that your mind wonders,
No worries,
It's just a mind being a mind.
Very compassionately notice,
Oh,
My mind is drifted,
It's noodling.
And then you can use it as an opportunity to very kindly,
Gently,
Firmly draw the attention back home.
Back home to the breath.
Or the feelings and sensations of making contact with whatever's beneath you.
Coming home to our bodies,
Our souls,
Our spirits,
Our heart is such a gift.
So we're simply working with the mind to come home over and over again,
Anchoring ourselves in our bodies.
Let's work on form for just a moment.
Take your attention to your hips,
If you will,
And draw through your hips,
Elongating your spine.
Nice long spine.
You don't want it to be rigid,
But you do want it to be relaxed and comfortable and long.
When we have a nice long back,
It signals to the brain,
I'm awake,
I'm alert,
I'm present,
I'm here.
You may want to take a couple shoulder rolls or shoulder shrugs.
If you're lying down,
The shrugs are easier in that position.
These can be as big or as little as you want them to be.
When it feels complete,
Leaving your shoulders in the back position,
Creating an opening through the chest.
So here we are,
Nice long spine,
Pulling through the hips and a slightly open chest.
Let's do a brief check in.
So first,
Noticing any stirring of your mind.
Noticing any way that your mind may be restless in this moment of meditation.
And maybe it's an awareness that your mind has been restless for hours or days or weeks or maybe your whole life.
But just give yourself the opportunity to very kindly,
Gently,
With compassion,
Notice,
Is there any restlessness in my mind?
And just breaking open space for it to simply let it be.
You don't have to deny it.
You don't have to make it something that it's not.
You don't have to wish it away.
You don't have to try to throw it out.
Just let it be.
Just give yourself the gift of noticing where does my mind want to keep taking me?
With compassion and sense of love,
Just notice,
Ah,
That's where my mind keeps trying to go.
Just be with it just as it is.
Dropping down into your heart space,
Noticing if there's any restlessness in your heart space.
It may be emotion that's stirring there.
It may be simply a presence of feelings and sensations in your heart.
Or the broader heart space of the fullness of your chest and your back.
And again,
Just notice what's there with compassion.
A sense of welcoming exactly what's here.
Not needing it to be any different.
Giving yourself the gift of being with that which is restless.
And then lowering down into more of that lower region of your torso,
Your gut.
Offering some sacred space to your gut.
There's something that your gut's been trying to tell you.
And rather than listening and offering compassion,
Simply allow yourself to be with.
Let that be whatever is right here.
Sense the goodness.
The goodness that comes from intuition and an awareness of a really healthy gut.
And broadening into an awareness of your soul which really takes into account your body and your spirit and your heart and your energy.
The totality,
The wholeness of your being.
Your soul encapsulating all of that in a really rich and welcoming way in which our souls can ground our whole beings.
Just noticing if there's any restlessness in your soul.
It could be the Holy Spirit herself trying to get your attention about something.
Whispering to you.
But when we allow a new message even from the divine to come into our soul,
There'll be turbulence,
An unsettledness,
A restlessness.
So just being with.
Allowing to be whatever is right there in your soul.
And what a gift.
What a gift to slow down.
To create sacred space through meditation.
To be present to.
What's moving through your soul.
What the spirit may be whispering to you.
But otherwise you would just completely miss.
So just breathing with whatever you find.
And if you don't find any restlessness,
That's perfectly good,
Too.
That's wonderful to know.
So St.
Augustine,
Many years ago,
Many years ago,
Said,
God,
Thou has made us for thyself.
And our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee.
God,
Thou has made us for thyself.
And our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee.
So as you breathe with any sense of restlessness that's within you.
Whether that's a restlessness in your mind.
Your heart space,
Your gut.
Your soul.
Your spirit,
Or maybe all of the above.
Allowing it to be.
Just letting it be exactly as it is.
See if there is a way in which there is also some coming home to the divine presence within you.
So as you connect with your breath,
You're connecting with the breath of God,
The Holy Spirit.
So there's a way in which the breath of the Spirit can breathe in and through us.
And connect with any sense of restlessness we have.
The Spirit can nurture and tend to and be present with whatever is restless within us.
The breath of the Spirit,
This kind of sense of alchemy,
Can transform that restlessness into a place of rest.
The very place where we're restless,
We can find rest.
Rest for our minds.
Rest for our hearts.
Rest for our gut,
Our spirit,
And our soul.
The very wholeness of our being can find rest when we come home and find our rest in God.
God,
Thou has made us for thyself,
And our hearts are restless until they find rest in thee.
So even if you're still feeling some sense of restlessness,
Wherever it may be,
Or all over the place,
See if there's a way in which the breath of the Spirit can also bring you home to a sense of rest in God.
That the breath of the Spirit can transform any and every piece of restlessness into an opportunity to find rest in God,
To come home to a loving God.
To find rest in thee,
A loving and gracious God.
And again,
If you notice that your mind wonders,
It's okay.
That's just a mind being a mind.
And use it as an opportunity to kindly,
Gently,
Firmly escort your attention back,
Back home to your body.
Back home to this life-giving breath,
Moving in and out of your body,
Tethered to the breath of God,
The Holy Spirit.
The breath of the Spirit that can transform any restlessness can reorient towards God so that we can find rest in a loving God.
Sometimes we can use meditation to escape the very real feelings and restlessness of our experience in life,
The restlessness of our mind and body and soul and spirit and heart.
And we can use meditation to come home to that which is here.
It creates an opening to allowing,
To letting be what is already within us so that we don't have to flee,
We don't have to deny,
We don't have to suppress or any other ways we try to escape any uncomfortableness in life,
Any pain.
We can simply allow it to be.
And the great beauty is that we come home to this the source of love in God so that we realize,
Oh,
Gosh,
This restlessness when touched by God is the very place I can find the deepest sense of rest.
So the only thing I would add to St.
Augustine,
God,
Thou has made us for thyself and our hearts,
Our minds,
Our souls,
Our spirits,
Our bodies,
Our energy is restless until we find our rest in thee.
So I invite you to open your eyes if you've had them closed and let's take some deep cleansing breaths to end this period of meditation.
You may even want to use your arms to go up over your head on the inhale and then releasing the arms to the side on the exhale.
And again,
Deep breath in and releasing out.
Last time in and releasing out.
Beautifully done.
You may want to congratulate yourself or offer some gratitude for creating some space to simply be with that,
That which is restless within you.
And I hope and pray that you found some peace,
Some rest in coming home to your own body and to a loving God.
Be well.
