Breathing Silkiness Through The Body

Jaya offered this meditation during the quarantine days of May 2020. Arriving and loosening, like a pile of clean laundry. Coming out of shoulds into a mode of discovery. What is life? Inspired by Yoga and Somatic Experiencing, we can bring breath through our bodies to help with pain and to help us get into a deep love of life.

Transcript

Please be comfortable and you might want to consider trying one of the jin-jin-jitsu hand positions during this meditation,

Holding a finger or more than one finger of one hand with the other.

The inner knees is another place that can be really good.

Inner knees means if you're standing and you would bring your legs together where the knees would touch each other.

So sitting cross-legged or lying on your side,

It's possible to hold the inner knees or if you're lying on your back,

The hands on the front hips.

Or you might want to try having a hand on a shoulder or a hand on each shoulder or one hand on a shoulder and then the other hand on the same side front hip.

So just arriving,

Maybe kind of like a pile of clean laundry,

Just clean and empty and allowed to be maybe a bit wrinkly.

And as you let your body settle into your ground,

Maybe feeling or imagining that the contact between body and ground is friendly.

Maybe enjoying giving all the time that's needed for the body and gravity to land in this position that you're in.

So all the different flows,

Little waterfalls through the body as you come into a new position,

A new relationship to gravity.

Coming out of should and should not into more a mode of discovery.

And rather than,

So not so much listening in order to imitate,

But listening to resonate and have permission to discover in yourself what is important,

What is life,

What is reality.

And I'd like to share one or two ways of working with the breath that come from somatic experiencing and can be helpful with pain.

This is from a request,

But can also just be really lovely or fun ways of getting into our love of life.

Our open-endedness in life.

Open to maybe even what was it that was you before you were born and that would still be here after you die.

Just open-ended.

And the first breath would be starting in the base of the main body,

Maybe down in the pelvic bowl or lower belly,

Lower back seat.

Or if you like,

Even just in the lower,

The upper legs.

But most likely would be around the lower belly,

Pelvic bowl area.

So if there's somewhere in there that feels more comfortable,

You feel more at ease connecting there,

Then letting yourself arrive and then receive the sensations there and a sense of life there.

Until gradually it starts to feel more like feeling the life here,

Being so in there that it starts to feel like being so in here.

And while letting your body be heavy and give in to the ground,

A sense of presence maybe with a bit of volume in the lower body.

And then the suggestion is with the in-breath to have a sense of traveling up the trunk,

Up the main body from the lower belly up with the in-breath.

And coming somewhere in the chest,

Upper chest,

Maybe all the way up to the collarbones or maybe more in the heart.

And then with the out-breath,

Breathing out both sides through the arms and hands and then beyond the hands.

And then back to the lower belly,

Breathing in up the main body and then breathing out both arms and hands beyond the fingertips.

Of course this is only if you feel like playing with this.

Otherwise you can play with just letting the ground have you.

Feeling a living quality in your field of experience,

Kind of resting as if on the sort of shell of the back of the body or the shell of what you know.

All of that unknown,

All of that mystery,

All of that just now happening life.

Or there could be a way of feeling the body heavy and given in to the ground and centered in the lower belly and some loose liquid mind that also breathes in and comes up the main body part way and then breathing out comes through the arms and hands and beyond.

There can be a sense almost of with the in-breath moving up from the lower body to the chest as if you're allowing a kind of message of kindness and support to come up from the lower belly to the heart and then just sweeping out through the arms and hands with the out-breath if you like.

If it feels better to have a resting breath in between,

Gathering again in the lower belly or in contact with the ground or the seat or the back and then again at the beginning of the in-breath starting in the lower abdomen or lower body,

Breathing in up the center of the main body and then the out-breath through the shoulders,

Arms,

Elbows,

Wrists,

Palms,

Fingers and beyond.

And sometimes you might feel like you really get into a flow and this becomes your own and other times after a few rounds of breath you feel like it's enough and really respecting that,

Going with that in sight.

And maybe even allowing a few out-breaths just to be a bit longer down into the legs if you like.

So you could just continue with this simple practice of breathing up the main body and out the arms.

You could again and again get a sense of ground and how gravity always has you,

Always remembers you,

Always has room for you.

Letting your body be as heavy as a stone towards also a silence that's as heavy as a stone.

Enjoyably feeling unable to move,

Less willing to let the mind pick up another thought.

Sometimes it can feel as if the contact with the ground is almost like an egg that has broken open to let the life in it come forth.

The contact with the ground or the known like an eggshell that's now open and the life within that as vast as the night sky or as simple and warm as a creature or both.

Or another practice that can be helpful when there's physical pain but also when there's other kinds of pain,

Pain of thinking,

Pain of emotion,

Pain in the psyche.

Something we've done many times before,

Feeling in the whole field of body where is somewhere that feels okay,

Comfortable,

Good or even really good,

Delicious.

And finding a way to be drawn to that area of your body.

Is it possible to bring your sense of awareness or presence there without interrupting what was happening there?

So sometimes it can feel almost like going sideways or looking out of the corner of your eye or feeling blindly,

Not trying to see it.

Or like slipping into water without a ripple,

Just arriving in an area that feels comfortable or good or maybe even really yummy.

Or maybe it's just neutral.

No matter how small an area.

No matter if it's slippery and kind of in and out,

Pale or vague.

Just hanging out and maybe a friend shows up.

And getting to know the sensations there.

Heavy,

Light,

Fast,

Slow or still.

Sweet or salty or bright.

Fierce or soft.

Expansive,

Comfortable.

Lifting or grounding are some things that you might feel but it's not that you should feel any of that.

And it can happen that as soon as we try to feel something that feels good,

It seems to go away and we can start again.

Or it can be that we don't find inner permission to feel something that feels good.

The mind says it's a waste of time or it's selfish,

We feel guilty,

We think we should be working on something more important.

And if we can just hear those messages in the mind that we have adopted as real,

As true,

As accurate.

Feeling where you feel that in the body.

Feeling the power of that voice in your psyche and the possibility of practicing what we haven't practiced as much.

Which is to leave our magnetism towards the negativity,

Towards the difficult,

Towards the pain and come in touch with something more subtle often.

Or it may be more intense sometimes.

Pleasure also can be intense of course.

Or it might just happen to be a day or a month or a year where there is a lot of pain and it's hard to feel through that to what feels good.

So patience,

Forgiveness,

Not believing that that means something is wrong,

But just being in your actual situation as wisely as you can,

As kindly,

As gently as you can.

Even if you hardly feel anything at all through that sort of wildfire of pain or through the many voices that would stop you.

Kind of as simple,

As simply as possible,

What do you feel?

What does it feel like?

A little bit tingly,

A little bit fluid or curvy or clear,

Whatever it may be.

Maybe almost like a mission to outer space.

Just really simply letting aliveness feel,

Letting aliveness be met,

Be felt.

And if it's too hard to work with the slippery now,

You can play with remembering a time that you felt good and letting that kind of come over you,

Letting it be felt in the body,

That moment of happiness or pleasure,

Feeling at home,

Et cetera.

You are allowed to do this.

Just lean and bend the tendency of mind from its usual pathways.

To be in touch with the slippery actual experience,

Not making a solid thing out of it,

Even a feeling of solidity when we're feeling it as a living experience is slippery.

Sensations that are here and gone and here and gone and allowed to be felt simply and truly.

If it happens that being in touch with something pleasurable for this long brings too much of a backlash,

Then just coming to something more simple and maybe a few longer out-breaths for a while,

The ground,

The feet.

A more comforting posture would also be possible.

We're just starting to free ourselves up to live wisely in our situations,

Including the situation of our body and mind.

Or if it feels sustainable to stay with what feels good or neutral,

Even if it's very faint or slippery,

Then you can play with the breath if you like.

A sense of breathing in that area,

For example.

So just allowing things to unfold from there,

Allowing yourself to feel as if you're breathing in that area.

Maybe where there's an opening in the chest or a tingling or solid feeling in the legs,

Whatever it may be.

Or you could direct the breath a bit more,

A sense maybe of breathing in as if the breath,

The air that you're breathing in is getting soaked with the qualities of that area that feels good.

And with the out-breath,

Kind of sending that soaked breath throughout your body or to certain areas that you feel like especially are thirsty for that texture or quality or mood.

And if you're not particularly feeling places of need or pain in your own body-mind,

Then of course the possibility of sending that texture,

That soaked breath out into our world,

Into the ground,

The cushions,

The air around you.

The ecosystem where you are,

If you're in a building,

Including that building as part of that ecosystem or people that come to mind.

So the possibility of breathing in and letting the breath get laden with or immersed in the sensations,

Textures,

Qualities of what feels good or neutral or very yummy.

Kind of like a bit of air getting soaked with birdsong and then a breeze that with the out-breath kind of moves that on,

Lets it give itself.

Into the world of your body,

The world of your mind,

The world of what's around you or all of that.

The possibility of getting that one little seed secret in life,

That there's a generosity in life,

That there's something lovely about giving,

Including the receiving part of giving.

Or you could play with other ways of directing the breath or the sense of the breath,

The imagined breath.

Perhaps allowing a sense of the breath coming in through one side of the body and passing through the area that feels good and picking up that birdsong or those textures and then with the out-breath passing through the other side of your body.

Dropping off as if particles of that goodness along the way.

If there's more difficulty in the upper body then it could be that the in-breath could be sensed coming in through the left or through that easier side or either side of the arm,

The upper body and passing through the area that feels good wherever it may be and then traveling out through the other arm.

Or if there's more difficulty in the lower body coming in through one leg with the in-breath and reaching the place that feels good and on the out-breath going out through the other leg.

And feeling free to continue in your own way.

This is also another session of having a sense of permission to be just with direct and simple perception as well as to bring in a bit more of imagination directing the mind at times can be very complementary for some people.

And even if you feel like you might want to continue practicing on your own after we finish,

Maybe just landing for a quiet moment of giving up everything,

Feeling the ground.

And just being here,

Feeling the power of this moment.

Perhaps even feeling each other here in this moment.

May there be peace and a relaxing open into what is.

May there be peace and a relaxing open into what is.

Reviews

Thank you for this meditation! A wonderful way of opening and releasing through exploration and the breath. I will send to a friend experiencing inflammation from Covid.

“Opening to a mood of discovery”, this meditation has such supportive guidance for practice and life. Thank you Jaya.