Welcome to the Relax and Retune Meditation.
Starting out by just taking a deep breath and letting awareness descend into the body,
Right to the ground,
Feeling the entire body here.
Letting your body be at ease.
If you're lying down,
Settling into a sense of total relaxation,
Softening the muscles.
If you're sitting,
Just relaxing every muscle that you don't need to maintain this posture.
Allowing all muscles that aren't needed just to be at rest.
All the muscles of the face,
Softening the eyes,
The rest of the body softening still.
Even while lying down,
Settling into this sense of being relaxed while also adopting a posture of just being open,
Aware,
Awake.
Knowing that the key to deep relaxation really revolves around the breath.
If you can learn how to relinquish any control of this body's natural tendency to breathe,
Your body will naturally begin to soften.
As you're breathing,
Knowing there's no preference for any type of breathing,
Just this sense of allowing and letting be.
Knowing that every out-breath is an opportunity to relax more deeply into the body.
With every exhalation,
Fully releasing a bit more,
Releasing all the activities of the mind,
The busyness,
Releasing tension in the body,
All while being clear and aware.
No effort that's needed on the inhalation,
No effort that's needed on the exhalation.
Inhaling the body takes in what it needs,
Exhaling the body lets go of what it doesn't need just naturally.
Just breathing.
Just allowing the breath to settle into its natural rhythm,
Whether it's long or short or deep or shallow.
Whether there's moments where there's a deep inhalation and a deep exhalation,
Just knowing the nervous system's finding its own balance through the breath.
And you just getting out of the way,
Just this sense of watching,
Witnessing,
With every exhale releasing a little bit more.
Just breathing.
And of course the mind can wander off into a place of sleepiness,
Dullness,
Dreaminess,
Or maybe into a place of busyness or anxiousness,
Distraction.
When this happens,
We just know that this is happening,
The mind's wandering.
Perfectly fine.
The first step is just to relax the body again,
Gently guiding it back to just being aware,
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
Releasing a little bit more,
Just letting go of any fears or hopes.
Just letting awareness rest in this stillness,
In this moment,
In this field of the body.
Outside of this practice,
There's many things going on in the past and the future,
But right now just settling in,
Letting your awareness being open in the body,
Like a mist filling the body,
Not tightly focused,
And even being aware of the duration of the breaths.
Long breaths,
Noticing long breaths.
Short breaths,
Noticing short breaths.
Just maintaining this balance of relaxed while having this sense of knowing,
Relaxing more and more deeply with each out breath.
Maintaining a sense of knowing this body,
Breathing,
And whatever thoughts arise,
Just see if you can take note of them and let them be.
Allow the out breath to release the thoughts from the mind.
Just carry them away.
Breathing in,
Breathing out,
And just letting be.
Nowhere to go,
Nothing to do.
Right now,
No problems to solve.
Just maintaining this balance on the out breath,
Releasing,
Relaxing,
While remaining aware,
Of this body's natural rhythm,
Letting be.
From time to time,
The mind will drift into either a sense of dullness,
Or spaciness,
Or dreaminess,
Or into a sense of busyness,
Excitement.
When that happens,
The first step is just relaxing the body,
Coming back to this balance of relaxation and awareness.
Just deeply relaxing into the breath,
Letting it settle into its own rhythm,
Releasing thoughts,
And attention with every out breath,
Maintaining this sense of knowing.
In a moment,
You'll hear the sound of a bell,
And that will be the end of our practice.
Until then,
Just seeing if you can acknowledge the act of choice,
Of taking this time out of all your daily busyness for your own learning,
Health,
And well-being.
This is certainly an act of self-care,
So some way of acknowledging yourself for taking this time.
