Welcome to a 20-minute practice known as resting on the cloud of awareness.
Please take a few moments and find a comfortable place to lie down on your back.
Now that you've found a comfortable,
Dignified lying down posture,
Please take a few moments to acknowledge your effort in making time to meditate today and knowing on a deeper level that every time you drop in,
You're being proactive in managing your own health and well-being.
Now with this practice,
There is a particular goal,
Which is to relax as best as you can.
The verb relax comes from the Latin root relaxare,
And it means to soften and loosen.
Throughout our time together,
The first half of the meditation will be a guided relaxation,
And the second half will be in silence until the bell rings three times.
Upon hearing the bells,
Take your time with transitioning by first rolling over to one side and slowly getting up and moving on with your day.
It is very important that you settle into your lying down posture so that you don't move your body.
You're invited to simply rest in stillness for the duration.
If you have to shift in any small way,
Then just do so mindfully.
To help achieve this stillness,
Allow your legs to be extended a little further apart than body width,
And your toes are falling away from each other.
Place your arms comfortably at your side in a way that eliminates any kind of contact point with your fingertips.
The idea here is to mitigate an active mind by not having sensory contact.
Now letting your chin just be slightly higher than your nose,
Which helps to soften the jaw and ease breathing.
Settling in to your lying down position and resting quietly now.
Breathing in,
Breathing out naturally as you begin to mindfully focus on your breathing.
Feeling the sensation of breath where it stands out the most in your body.
It could be in your abdomen,
Nostrils,
The chest,
Or maybe your back.
Or perhaps you are simply aware of breath going in and out of the body in its entirety.
You can also imagine that your breathing penetrates all throughout your body to all limbs,
Organs,
And bones.
Just naturally breathing in,
Breathing out,
Moment by moment.
If the mind wanders,
Simply acknowledge where it went and come back to the moment by moment awareness of your breathing.
Now shifting awareness to focusing on sounds.
And really try to pick out any type of sound that may be occurring at this very moment.
Please note that the sound may have a beginning,
Middle,
And an end.
Whether it repeats,
Recreates,
Is loud or soft,
Or maybe it's coming outside of the room you're in or inside your body.
Just noticing the sounds however they are and letting them become a part of your meditative experience.
When you wear camouflage in the forest,
You simply become a part of the whole forest,
Not standing out in any way,
Just entering and blending.
So in a similar way,
Letting sounds join you just as they are,
Whatever they are,
Breathing in and out with whatever sounds may be present.
There are 360 joints in the human body,
86 in the skull,
6 in the throat,
66 thorax joints,
And 76 in your spine and pelvis.
There are also 32 joints in each upper limb and 31 in each lower limb.
But we're just going to scan over 7 bigger joints from the bottom to the top of our body and relax these areas as we move along.
Bringing breath and sounds to be a part of it all as you move your attention now to your ankle joints.
Putting the mind in touch with your ankle joints and letting them relax.
Imagine gravity helping you out,
Drawing down into the floor,
Taking out what you don't need,
Helping to release any tension or tightness.
Now moving your attention up into your knee joints,
Focusing on the tops of the knees,
The sides and underneath the knees,
Also feeling into the knee cartilage.
Just letting your knees also relax,
Soften,
Let go.
Now rising up with your attention and focusing on both of your hip joints and their bigger connection to the pelvic basin,
The center of your body.
Let this area soften.
Let go or imagine you're letting go of any constriction,
Soreness,
If at all there,
And just relax.
Moving your awareness now up into your torso and with a widened perspective,
Feeling into your back region,
Abdomen,
And chest,
Letting these areas be still and at peace.
Now letting go of the torso and purposefully bringing attention over to your finger joints,
Feeling it into any sensations that might be there,
And let the fingers soften,
Loosen.
Going right on up into your wrist joints,
Perhaps detecting pulsing sensations there or not.
Allow the wrists to be as they are and if you can,
Let them too relax.
Continuing right along to the elbow and shoulder joints,
And if there's any tightness or unpleasant sensations in the areas,
Letting it soften and loosen.
Getting relaxation now up into your neck,
Head,
And face all together.
In particular,
Letting your face be natural.
You're not trying to achieve anything here,
Not trying to do anything,
Except relax.
Now focus on feeling into the entire body,
Just lying here,
Breathing in and out,
One breath at a time.
Expanding your awareness and briefly feel into the entire right side of your body,
Areas like the right side of the face,
Right ankle,
Right arm,
Right side of the chest,
Whatever stands out moment by moment.
And now beginning to breathe in a little bit more deeply and on the exhalation,
Just simply letting go of the entire right side of your body.
New inhalations,
Helping you now to focus on the entire left side of your body,
Areas like the left hand,
Left upper thigh,
Left foot,
Left side of your head,
Whatever stands out.
Breathing in a little more deeply,
Fill the lungs and on the exhalation,
Completely let go of the entire left side of your body.
New inhalations,
Move your focus onto the top side of your body and feeling into what is exposed to what's above you,
Just noticing what's there.
Breathing in a bit more and with a bigger out breath,
Moving awareness evenly down through your body,
Relaxing everything on the inside until you can feel the underside of your body in contact with the floor.
Now you've arrived at resting on the cloud of awareness.
Simply dwelling now in the silent space of relaxation,
Calmness,
Stillness,
Breath,
Sound and the sensation of your body in its entirety.
Feeling yourself be at peace until the bell rings.
Depression ends.
