Welcome.
Prepare yourself for this meditation by lying in a comfortable position,
Closing your eyes,
Allowing your feet to fall open if your legs are extended,
Or your knees to rest against one another if they are bent.
Take your time here to restfully settle into the body and into your pose of rest.
Become aware of your body and make an intention to give yourself permission to rest.
Nature is full of cycles.
Seasons change.
Waves on the ocean flow in and out again.
The earth is in constant motion.
The sun rises and sets.
Even in what seems to be stillness,
There is movement.
The body too is full of cycles,
Our focus being on the cycle of breath.
This cycle gives us life.
Begin to shift your attention to your breath cycle.
Allow each breath to peacefully roll in and roll out.
Soft inhale in,
Smooth exhale out.
Sense if you are holding any tension in the lungs and restricting your breath.
When you explore the chest and do find tension,
Make an effort to let go of it,
Allowing for fuller,
Expansive inhales and exhales.
Observe yourself drawing the breath into the belly,
Filling the lungs completely.
Feel the breath expand the lower ribs.
Notice the lift under the collarbones and in the upper ribs.
The breath generates many subtle movements in the body with each breath.
Your only job is to notice and observe those movements.
Allow each exhale to bring you deeper into stillness.
With each exhale,
Find more and more relaxation.
Enjoy the refreshed feeling the exhale brings.
Notice how the breath leaves the body with each exhale,
Making room for the next in-breath.
Sense the contraction of the ribs,
The chest,
The sides of the waist that comes from each exhale.
Soak in each inhale,
Let go of each exhale.
More stillness,
Though just for a moment.
Become aware of that space in between the inhale and exhale.
It is in that stillness that we begin again,
That we discover where there is promise.
Allow the hands to be heavy,
Fully resting.
Allow the fingers to naturally curl inward.
Get a sense of the surface supporting your body beneath you.
Notice which points of the body are being supported directly by that surface.
Let the head become heavier,
The weight of the head sinking ever closer to the earth.
See if you can let go a bit more and release tension in the muscles of the forehead.
Let the skin of the forehead relax.
With the calming of the mind,
Are you able to notice even more physical sensations?
Perhaps you can feel or get a sense of the air from your exhale caressing your upper lip or the eyes softening and growing heavy in their sockets.
Maybe you notice a new feeling in the body and then it passes just like a passing thought.
With each cycle of breath comes more calmness,
More peace,
More grounding.
With relaxation of the body comes awareness of the mind and the realization that you are here and now.
Namaste.
