Feel Rest

A short 5 minute practice inviting you to find rest and relaxation in your body, wherever it may lie. This particular guidance is useful if you don't feel relaxed, as it encourages you to find an label relative restful states even if you're feeling a lot of activation. Very much in line with the Unified Mindfulness / Shinzen Young approach.

Transcript

Find a position that feels comfortable yet alert. If you're upright, You can ground your feet into the earth, Adjust your hips, Let go of your belly, Let go of your jaw. Roll your shoulders back. And sort of raise the back of your neck up while tilting your head forward. And from there, Take a deep breath and on the exhale, Relax into this position, Making any micro adjustments. You might need to get comfortable. Today we're going to practice feel rest. And so I invite you to bring your attention into the body, Noticing any areas, Any pockets of relaxation or tranquility or relatively less activation. For anything you find, You can label with the word rest and then take a few moments to fully soak in to that restful experience. If you find your attention being pulled to relative activation, If it helps, You can use the label feel to help distinguish restful states from activation of the physical body sensations or emotional body sensations. You might notice a particular area of the body consistently and reliably producing restful sensations. And if you'd like, You're welcome to narrow in and simply cover that area of the body. So basically stay there and keep noting rest. So a good example might be your breath, Particularly your out breath. If you're noticing a lot of relaxation there, You can choose to simply stay there. Or you can continue to float around, Noticing rest wherever it might come up. And also, Another strategy that can work is to create rest. And so if you are noting feel because you're noticing some sort of tension or activation in the body, You can choose to, In the moment, Intentionally introduce rest by relaxing that part of the body and then labeling accordingly. Thank you very much. So you have options. Okay, Staying with that awareness of rest as we transition out of the practice, Seeing if you can stay connected to a sense of relaxation as you move on to whatever's next.