Day 12 - Feel Rest Globally - UM 30-Day Challenge

This short meditation with lots of guidance is part of a 30-day Unified Mindfulness challenge I offered at CarMax, and am now happy to share it with the Insight Timer community. The 30 sessions are designed to be done in order, however, you can jump around if you wish, just keep in mind I may refer to a previous recording. There's a short introduction followed by a 5-minute practice.
In this session, you'll focus on feeling rest throughout your whole body.

Transcript

Today we'll continue with the theme of rest.

We'll be focusing on relaxation in the body,

Finding or creating it in one place,

And then as we focus on it,

Letting it expand out until the relaxation is spread out over the whole body.

Let's begin.

Take a moment to get comfortable.

Stretch up,

Inviting the body to become alert and focused.

Then let go of any tension you may notice by consciously relaxing.

Connect with a few long,

Slow breaths.

As you settle in,

Bring your attention down into your body.

Scan for any areas that feel particularly relaxed.

Once you've found your relaxed area,

Allow your attention to soak into it.

You can label it as rest and then pour your attention into it,

Getting curious about it.

Explore the details of the experience.

You might also take the attitude that your awareness is receiving this restfulness.

Rather than you actively pouring your attention into it,

You can take a receptive stance,

That you're opening up and just receiving this restful sensation.

Now as you're focusing on this relaxation in the body,

Allow it to spread spatially throughout the body.

Gradually track it as it expands and spreads until it's evenly covering your whole body.

You're moving towards a global sense of physical and emotional relaxation.

Total calm.

Just resting and abiding in this awareness of relaxation.

You may continue labeling rest every few moments to keep your focus on track.

If thoughts or discomfort or anything else comes up other than this global rest,

That's okay.

Have equanimity with this and just allow it.

No need to fight it or resist anything.

Simply allow it to go on,

But gently bring your attention back to rest.

If it happens again,

Just gently bring it back again,

No matter how many times it happens.

If you sink too far into sleepiness or fuzziness,

Take a second to re-straighten up,

To bring back that brightness of mind to stay with the experience.

Excellent work.

If you're feeling like it,

Continue on for longer until you're ready to stop.

Otherwise,

We can end here.

Just take it easy and gradually come to an awareness of the space around you again and maintain some contact with this calm as you go about the rest of your day.