To begin this felling rest exploration today,
Please start walking around the space a little bit,
Connecting to your body,
Your sensations,
Your breathing.
And here and there,
Stop.
Place your feet on the ground and just sense your body from the feet up to the top of your head.
And notice if there's any big difference on the right side or the left side that comes to your attention,
Maybe tightness or more fluidity on one hip or one knee,
Maybe a little complaint from your body,
Maybe an obvious sense of reliability or support.
And then here and there,
Continue walking and sensing and then stopping and sensing.
We're going to do this maybe two or three times total before you lie down.
Now the next time you stop,
Find a place where you have room to the left and to the right and just gently lift your arms along the sides and hold them there for a moment and sense yourself in this configuration.
Maintain your breathing free and your teeth soft and just observe what comes to you when your arms are to the sides and your feet are planted on the ground.
If there's an image,
The position of your palms,
Your wrists,
And then let that go and take a few other steps.
You can walk backwards,
You can walk sideways.
Just break the habit of being yourself for a moment and just be awareness.
And let this awareness take you somewhere and you stop,
You close your eyes,
Find your grounding,
Sense your body from the feet to the top of your head and lift your eyes and lift your palms up towards the sky.
And it's a gesture of receiving and just sense this throughout yourself.
And how easy is or not for you to receive and stay grounded,
To not lose your feet because your arms are up.
Beautiful.
So now let it go and now stay where you are but begin to do it very very slowly in a way that you can bring your arms even through the front of your body and sensing as you pick up the arms there's this weight of gravity you're pushing against.
And then at some point maybe through the chest or your your breast it begins to be lighter,
Right?
A little lighter,
Lighter,
Lighter,
Not so heavy anymore.
And then you come to the highest point almost above your head and then you can let the arms drop.
So you're working with two different forces,
The force of gravity as you rise up from the ground and then the force of levity which allows you to be light and fly.
And where is that place in between?
And can you maintain your connection to levity as your feet are grounded?
Or do you need to lock your knees and tighten your bellies?
So a couple times just so you notice for each of you maybe a different place where gravity turns into levity,
Where that weight of you lifting is suddenly canceled out and then the arms get really light and from up there there's no more sense of weight and it's just lightness and then as you come down with the arms you feel that at some point there's weight again.
There's a field all around you and you are working with it.
A field bigger than your physical body.
So now one more time just leave this and walk around and stand somewhere where you can look at something that you enjoy seeing.
So not the wall,
Not nothingness,
But just something.
We have a few windows here,
A few objects to look at.
So stand with an intent of looking out and then from that place just ground your feet and lift your arms up to the sky and all of this is there.
The weight,
The gravity,
Levity,
Receiving,
Connecting to the up and to the down.
And notice if your attention is not so much in the discomfort,
The limitation,
The pain,
But there's something alive in your inner life,
In your inner experience that is clicked in this only maybe five minutes that we've been practicing.
Bigger than the trauma,
Bigger than the story.
Now think about how many cultures have done this,
Right?
Culturally and religiously and spiritually this gesture that you guys are doing right now,
This lifting of the arms and either asking or praying or just receiving from above.
And how connected are we with that as a society today?
Yeah,
It's so much easier to give,
To do,
To offer than to stand in a strong place of receiving.
So let's see if we can work on the floor a little bit,
Soften our joints,
Integrate the whole body and then this will be even easier.
So find the place on the floor now please and lie down and make yourself really comfortable.
And connect to the support that you are receiving from the ground as if the ground was a big being.
Not a flat surface,
Not cement,
Not hardwood,
But a being that is also alive and is also interested in your well-being.
Curse about you.
And maybe that's an easier way to surrender your weight to it.
Just breathing and letting it support you.
And you trace your shape,
Your lines,
Your weight.
Collect information from the floor.
Where are you longer?
Where are you flatter?
Is there a difference between the right and the left sides of your body?
What is the direction of your arms?
The position of your palms?
If you just sense without changing anything.
And if you were to imagine getting up,
Don't do it,
But just think of turning to the side and getting up.
Would it be easier for you to go in one direction?
And you already know that.
Your whole body is ready to move away from the left or away from the right.
And it's just simple and easy thing to imagine for you.
Now place your feet on the ground and your knees bent,
Just for the comfort of your back.
Keep your feet shoulder-width apart,
More or less.
And now place both hands on your ribs somewhere,
Palms down on your chest,
The lower ribs.
And now begin to very,
Very slowly at the pace of your own breathing,
Lift the right elbow of the floor,
Keeping the palm in contact with your chest,
So your hands are resting and your wrist will bend.
You're just lifting the elbow and placing the elbow on the ground.
And see that if you leave the palm resting,
The hands are on the lower ribs,
Just resting.
If you leave the palms resting,
You create a little more contact with the palm on your ribs as your elbow lifts.
And maybe you sense a little more weight or pressure on the ribs.
Maybe you sense your shoulders moving.
Let's do just the right arm to start.
Now for some of you it's interesting,
It's not easy to bend your wrist and when you lift your elbow,
The whole palm comes away from your rib.
Yeah?
So what if I tell you that there's one rule and the rule is your hand is glued to the ribs so the palm will stay,
But there's no rule about what you can or cannot move other than the palm.
That means you can move your ribs,
That means you can move your shoulders.
So see how freeing that is that suddenly you got permission to move.
That's nicer.
Now I see more heads moving,
More ribs moving.
Good.
And you can,
If it's easier for you,
Leave the left arm to your side if it's not easy,
If some of you have this comfort keeping it up.
That's it.
And make a small movement.
What if your ribs could yield under the hand and give to some of this movement and change shape?
What if the ribs were a basket and not a cage?
Ah,
That's looking different.
Does it feel different?
Okay,
Leave it,
Rest,
Expand on the floor again and sense any difference that is meaningful to you,
Something that you notice.
And now let your head move a little bit so you see that going to the left and going to the right at this point in the class are two different stories.
Go slow enough.
You will find the difference between one direction and the other.
Once you go,
Say,
10,
15 miles an hour versus 70,
80.
Nice,
Beautiful.
Now leave the head quiet somewhere in the middle,
Bend your legs and place now the left palm on the lower ribs.
You can leave the right arm long and allowing yourself to move wherever you feel moving.
Keep your left palm connected to the ribs and knowing that the wrist is a joint,
The right leg can bend too,
Both legs can bend for support.
That's right.
And you just let your elbow lift,
The left elbow,
And this hand,
The left hand connected to the ribs so it might move them a little bit to the right.
Now what if you were to invite your head to move a little?
In which direction would it go?
And you go once and you return,
You make a little pause.
So you're not repeating the movement several times without a break.
You give each movement a little comma and a breath,
And a little comma and a breath.
So your brain is listening and your whole nervous system is listening to this conversation.
You need a period,
Take a period,
Lengthen the legs,
Rest,
Next paragraph.
It's a dialogue,
It's a conversation,
It's not just so much information so fast that it's hard to understand.
How is this side easier for some of you?
More organized,
Ready to integrate the movement of the arm as if there was not a difference between this and what you do all day,
And on the other side for some of you it was really hard to do.
Now if you turn to the right more easily,
If you sleep on the right side of the bed only,
If you are more driver,
Passenger,
Doer,
Depending on what your body is used to doing all the time,
Your spine is used to turn in one direction.
And if this is the direction,
This will be so much easier no matter who begins the movement,
Your elbow,
Your nose,
Your shoulder.
If you're wired to turn to the right,
You know exactly how to do that.
Now just for fun,
Turn the head to the left a couple times,
Create a little contradiction,
A little differentiation between what your spine is doing up to your your thoracic,
Up to the upper ribs,
And then from the neck up you go away from the direction of the movement.
And just notice,
Go slow enough,
That sense of go,
Go,
Go,
Spilling over to the right,
What happens to it?
The moment your eyes,
Your face is moving away from it.
Can you allow that contradiction to exist without pushing through it?
Neither of them is right or wrong,
There are just two possibilities,
Two choices.
And now go it with with the head and everything to the right and just notice if anything is a little easier.
And you maintain lifting the elbow and bending your wrist and taking your ribs to the right.
Beautiful.
Leave it,
Rest,
Stretch out on the floor and notice what is changed in these few minutes that you were moving,
Paying attention to yourself.
And maybe move the head a little,
Integrate the movement of the head to your sensing and feeling the differences.
And slow down enough that you may notice your ribs,
Your shoulders coming along,
Just slightly following your nose left and right.
Very good.
And even,
Breathe,
Just stay with the experience.
Bend your legs,
Stand your feet,
Roll to the right and lie on your right side for a moment and put your arms in front of you so that the right arm is in front,
The left arm is on top of the right,
Your knees are bent.
And now let the left arm slide forward away from the contact of the right arm and come further and further away from you and your ribs are rolling on the floor and your arms are lengthening and then you're coming back,
Your knees are bent,
That's right,
Your legs are comfortable and you're just reaching forward and rolling and coming back a number of times very slowly,
Letting your head rest on the floor.
If your head needs some support,
You can roll your mat so you can grab a little towel,
Pillow.
We won't be here too long so unless it's extremely uncomfortable,
If you can be with it for a moment and let your neck change along with it,
It could be something nice for your cervical spine.
Now notice where do the ribs want to go and see if you can let them.
If you can let the ribs roll on the floor uninterruptedly,
Unobstructed.
Where does your hip begin to move to maintain the flow,
The fluidity of the movement?
What does your left leg need to do?
And as you return,
Where would it be the place where you want to stop with your arms?
You come back and you find your place of rest and it's not necessarily the dead middle.
If you follow your comfort,
If you follow your pleasure,
For some of you may be a little past the middle so you're leaning back,
And your shoulder,
Your right shoulder gets a little more space.
I hear this a lot when people sleep and they said,
Oh I have pain,
Sleeping on my side because my weight is over my shoulder joint of course,
But what if you were to go a little past the point where there's so much weight and you go a little back behind.
Isn't that a more comfortable place to rest?
Uh-huh.
So as you explore the rolling forward and the reaching with the arm,
You're also listening to yourself.
It's more important than the movement.
You're also noticing what makes you feel good in your own body.
That's it.
And when you find the resting place,
You take a breath and then you go all the way onto your back and take a long rest because since it's not really about the movement,
It doesn't matter if you do the movement three times,
It's enough.
You already learned something,
Didn't you?
Good.
So sense and feel.
If maybe one side of your chest is getting lower,
A little wider,
A little longer,
And maybe that same side is also different on your leg,
On your cheek,
On your eye.
So that whole side of your body is feeling the benefit of the movement that you may say,
Oh,
It's about the arms and it's about the ribs.
There's no arm and rib,
It's just you.
It's a convention of the language to separate you in parts.
So breathe into your whole right side and expand number of times and breathe into your whole left side and observe where are you bigger,
Fuller,
Wider,
More spacious.
And when you feel ready,
Bend your legs and extend your feet,
Roll to your left side.
Find comfort for your head,
For your legs.
You will notice that if you bend them about 90 degrees as if you were sitting on a chair,
It's a little more comfortable than if they're longer,
If they're less bent.
It's easier for your lower back.
And now place the right arm on top of the left and just imagine that eye tight or somebody friendly tight,
A little ribbon on the right wrist and it's very,
Very,
Very,
Very gently just pulling,
Just pulling as if you could infinitely,
Infinitely,
Infinitely to the point,
And this is why I don't want support under the head if you don't need it,
To the point that you can very,
Very slowly allow the possibility that you could look over your left shoulder.
And what would happen to the ribs?
And what would happen to the arm?
This right arm can get long,
Long,
Long as those inflatable guys on the street,
Right,
That have super long arms.
There's no limitation to your imagination.
So you can imagine this right arm expanding further,
Further,
Further.
And of course at some point your pelvis wants to contribute to the movement and your legs can relax and glide.
So nothing is putting the brakes.
Yeah,
Your right knee can slide over the left and you can lean on the left side onto the floor and let your right side move forward and then return,
Find your comfortable place to rest before you do it again.
Can you put your attention in what your ribs are doing?
And what your sternum is doing?
So little eyes,
The eyes of your awareness,
The inner eye of your attention in the each rib,
One on each rib,
And they're rolling and they're folding and they're flexing and they're turning.
If the ribbon on the wrist is not a clear image for you,
Think of your middle finger,
Because your middle finger is the longest and it's like an arrow.
Ah,
That's right.
So now I'm going around and pulling you on your little finger.
You can imagine your little finger long as an arrow,
Straight up.
There you go.
And your whole spine is turning,
Isn't it?
Good.
That's right.
No,
No strain,
No strain,
Just direction.
Ah,
There you go.
Whoop.
That's it.
Beautiful.
And find your resting spot for your shoulders once you come to the neutral again.
Identify as a possible place to rest on your side without too much weight on your shoulder.
And then let it go.
Come onto your back again.
Rest.
And feel what is different.
Notice where is the most comfortable place for your arms to be,
For your shoulders,
For your palms.
And now bring back to your awareness,
To this time imagine.
Bring back this image of you lifting the elbow and turning to the side with the gentle movement of your arm like you did at the very beginning.
Just think of that.
And think that the movement is equally fluid and easy and enjoyable just as the one you had on your side a moment ago,
Which is a very much more familiar.
It's less different,
It's less,
Less new.
So what if you could take the quality of this movement on the side that you've done before and bring it to the other movement that is more challenging because it's unfamiliar.
In other words,
Something you've never done before or very rarely creates a little stress,
Creates a little challenge.
Could you take this quality of you with yourself and plug it in?
So begin by just imagining it to be easy.
Your knees would be bent and you would have your hand on the lower ribs and you would be bending the wrist and lifting the elbow and just turning like nothing one way or the other.
And your head will be coming along and your shoulders be free and your pelvis.
And when you feel excited about trying it,
When you feel curious,
Then place your feet on the ground and do it a couple times with that sense of curiosity leading the way.
You're taking the sensation,
Start with whichever side is easier.
Maybe if you have an injury on one shoulder,
Use the other arm.
You can leave the arm you're not lifting long so it can slide on the floor.
Maybe that's easier for now.
And you're plugging in or taking and applying the sensation of you with yourself of no restriction,
No limitation of it being easy and enjoyable and your legs support you but they can move and your neck is free to follow and not contradict.
And still you're not moving the ribs first,
You're lifting the elbow first because that's creating the chain reaction that we want between the ribs and the shoulder and the clavicle and sternum.
We're reorganizing your whole torso with this movement.
And of course you can take pauses in between each repetition and recalibrate.
You can switch to the other side.
Follow your sensation,
Give yourself the rest that you need,
Move to the pace of your comfort.
Yeah,
That's right,
At some point you lean over so much onto the side opposite the elbow that is lifting that you might even find yourself on your side.
If your long arm is on the way you have to move it apart a little bit.
That's it.
Good.
You know,
Fellingre said to cultivate freedom we have to at least have three different ways to do the same thing.
So what if this was a unique way of turning to your side that starts on your elbow?
That's one way to look at it.
And how many times did you turn in bed and it aches and pains because your ribs were behind the movement and not involved in it or your pelvis was not involved in it.
So make sure you use both sides even once or twice if you have an injury still because you can imagine the movement on that side and do a tiny,
Tiny version of it and your brain doesn't know the difference.
You're moving in your mind and of course at any point you can leave the whole thing quiet and rest and integrate,
Observe.
Notice if there are any changes between you and the floor that are meaningful to you or just simply enjoy resting.
Move your head a little.
Is there any change on your neck?
Something easier about turning right and turning left?
And at this point on the lesson which we're not done yet but at this point would you ask yourself and just be ready to collect the first thing that comes up so it's not a thought but it's more of a sensation or knowing that you have with yourself without being conceptual.
If I just tell you right now get up quickly.
Which side would you go to?
And could it be possible that little by little we cultivate your ability to turn to the right and turn to the left and mobilize your whole self over one side that is not only the habitual side but both.
Both become a choice and an option.
Okay bend your legs,
Stand your feet,
Interlace your fingers,
Lift the hands somewhere a little bit off your chest just a little bit so you have a little room to observe your look at your thumbs there watch watch your hands and then move them in such a way that you can see your your palms and then you can see the back of your hands and your rings if you have any and then you can see your palms and the lines of your hands again and just observe for your own your your elbows are slightly bent and there's enough room for you to do a turn of the hands this way your elbows a little bent that's right.
That you notice your own ability to turn your bones this way and if you are okay without seeing you can close your eyes and you can imagine what is happening on the the two bones of the lower arm.
They're ringing,
They're ringing like a rag like a wet towel and if you were to lengthen the arms towards the ceiling maybe you would be making a line with each arm and your elbows wouldn't be bent anymore and then you will come up and bend them again and bring them to the chest and and see your palms again and then turn them and so you alternate between folding and lengthening your arms one side and the other side of your hands and notice how your arms can do this.
It's a pretty remarkable thing right you can do this without getting any jammed bone that doesn't know how to return.
Look at all the turning that is taking place it's marvelous.
So now switch over your interlacing so now the other index is on top and close your eyes and do it a number of times with the eyes closed.
So this is the non-habitual way of crossing your fingers feels a little weird.
Breathe and continue turning and lengthening and just let the your body recognize this experience is a little different.
Turning and lengthening so it's not a stretch you're not going further than your comfort zone but you are recognizing you are putting attention in a simple to a simple movement placing attention in all the things that are happening here how the elbows and the wrists are bending and the lower arm bones are turning and creating more and more detail beautiful and rest again and leave it alone.
Bring back to your mind's eye the sensation of ease of the turning to the right and to the left from lifting your elbow so it's connected fluid uninterrupted graceful not necessarily fast or forceful but gentle and graceful and pleasing to yourself and now bend your legs and stand your feet and interlace your fingers again and place them on the lower ribs and you start going in the direction of ease so you know by now which arm had the easier time lifting which elbow hmm but your arms your fingers are interlaced now that's right so you lift that elbow the easy elbow and continue doing the same thing except this times the palms are allowed to slide so you keep on lifting the elbow and turning and the palms are allowed to slide and the arms are allowed to lengthen so they don't have to stick to the ribs anymore but yes the ribs are moving that's it and the arms are lengthening and at some point they want to turn around at some point they want to push away with the palms away from your face just like you did a moment ago at some point yeah and it's okay if you do it because you know it's gonna happen but it'd be nicer if you can listen to one doesn't want to happen it wants to happen when your arms cannot go any further bent with the with the palms facing you and that's when the intelligence of your body will guide you to turn the palms around that's beautiful there you go good and you lengthen from a different place internally you're not lengthening because somebody told you to do it or because it's the right thing to do but because at that precise moment is what your body needs and you go to the other side and you can still make it start on the elbow yeah that would be nice but yet it's a movement of your whole self your legs are participating your hands are turning and the arms keep going from left to right not so much towards your legs but in the direction of your shoulder in the direction of the horizontal line across your your shoulders that's lovely and to the side that you can't do it if you're injured or have a limitation you can imagine it you can imagine the full length there and then leave it lengthen open into the floor and rest and sense and feel and most importantly place your arms and your legs wherever you find it most comfortable take up the space that you deserve and breathe into that space and one more time just sense how wide are your shoulders and your chest and your pelvis how soft the two sides of your face and your palms and how long your spine and see if you may consider turning to one side or turning to the other with equal ease and not a habitual response just notice if you ask yourself which side would I get up to and now that you have the choice so begin by taking your head a little bit in that direction whichever direction you want to explore maybe the same as always and it's just gotten easier or the new direction or just whatever comes up right now because it's easy both ways begin by just taking the nose there and coming back so even the movement of coming back up to sit will be done as part of the class like an approximation so not suddenly okay we get up we're done but gently as if it was a whole new piece a whole new discovery and you take your nose and at some point you want to bend one leg and you found multiple ways today of turning to the side so choose one way and take yourself gradually peacefully gracefully into that side that's beautiful and then bring yourself all the way up and find a place on the floor where you can stand and just observe what has emerged in your own experience after this class during this class your length your with your sense of grounding or alignment how do your shoulders hang on the torso yeah and then if you want to you can a couple times lift your arms again and see what happened to that sense of gravity and when it turns into levity and how light everything is now something changed right gravity is not so heavy anymore Wow and then if you're set to just live to the to the sky and receive is there something easier maybe about this and is your head more part of it yeah so it's very interesting that we didn't do this movement right we turn to the left and to the right and we rolled and yet this is easier so that proves that you are an organism and if you improve something everything else will be easier yes so next time you have a pain here or there don't isolate and hold embrace that part of yourself as if it was something to be kept aside from you there's no separation yeah move everything and you'll see that part that seemingly different parts of you will will will improve by itself okay all right walk around smile keep smiling I like the smiles in the room thank you so much guys have a beautiful day thank you you
