Find yourself a posture that allows you to relax and settle into it.
Just relax into this posture.
Feel the body as it sits here on the floor or on a chair or as it lies here or as it stands here.
Just relax into this posture.
Feel the ground holding you up and rest on that.
Just relax.
Bring your attention to this body and move your attention through this body.
Start at the top of the head and move down through the face and the neck,
Through the shoulders and the arms,
Through the back,
The chest and the abdomen.
Through the hips,
The legs and the feet.
Just let this body come to rest.
Bring your attention to this whole body as it rests here.
Just let it relax.
Feel it relax.
And as your attention rests on this body,
Let it come to any areas that are not relaxed or that won't relax or that can't relax.
Find any areas like that,
Any areas of unrest and just let your attention settle on that place.
It may be the eyes or the mouth.
It may be the shoulders or the belly.
Just find some area in the body that won't rest,
That is not relaxed,
That feels tense or tight or constricted,
That feels ready to go,
Not ready to rest.
If you can't locate any areas of unrest or if you can't feel them,
It may be helpful to create an area of unrest just for this exercise.
Perhaps the belly is a good place to do this.
Slightly tighten the area of the belly as if you're holding something in or holding something out or ready to get up and go.
Just rest the tension on this area of unrest wherever you feel it.
Forget about trying to change it,
Trying to make it the way we want it to be or the way we think it should be.
For now we're just interested in the way it is.
Feel how it is,
This area of unrest.
Contact it.
Feel it.
Meet it.
Really meet it.
Feel what it's like not to rest,
Not to relax in this area.
Feel this area of unrest and feel how it wants to be doing something,
Anything other than just resting,
Just relaxing.
Just feel that sense of unrest.
Feel tension on it.
How does it feel?
Where are its edges?
Where does it start and where does it end?
Just feel it.
Maybe it changes as we hold tension on it.
Maybe it shifts.
Maybe it dissolves and does relax.
Maybe it comes to rest.
Or maybe it grows stronger,
This sense of unrest.
Maybe it gets tighter.
Maybe it gets tenser.
Just hold it in awareness.
Just watch it and feel it.
It's okay.
It's not a problem.
It's just the way it is.
Notice how unnecessary it is.
Notice how even when there's nothing to do,
We're just sitting here or lying here or standing here with nothing to do and yet still this area of unrest is doing something.
Just notice that and note that it is not necessary.
It's just a habit.
Who knows where it comes from?
But here it is.
So we might as well get to know it.
Just hold attention on that place of unrest.
Keep holding it in attention.
Keep watching it.
Keep feeling it.
If it's hard to detect,
You can make it a little stronger.
You can put a little more energy into that holding,
Into that unrest so that it becomes clear.
So we can really meet it and really feel it.
Get to know it.
And now slowly,
Gently see if we can allow that area of unrest to relax a little.
How does that feel?
Notice.
See if we can let that tension or that tightness or that constriction drain away a little.
See if we can move that unrest towards a state of rest.
Just relax.
There's nothing to do.
Just relax.
If that area of unrest can come to rest,
Notice the contrast between unrest and rest.
Notice the contrast between tightness and relaxation.
Hold that sense of relaxation and awareness and notice how this is our natural state.
The state of rest,
The state of relaxation is our natural state.
A state of unrest,
A state of doing or needing to do is something that is added as it's needed and often the force of habit has us adding what is not needed so that even when there's nothing to do,
Still we are doing.
Even when there's nowhere to go,
Still we get up and go.
Get a sense of that contrast between rest and unrest.
Notice how the state of rest is our natural state.
Now bring attention back to the whole body as it rests here.
Feel the whole body as one resting entity,
As one field of relaxation.
Relaxed,
Resting,
But alive,
Energised,
With nothing to do.
We simply do nothing.
Spend some time feeling that relaxed energy and when you're ready,
Open your eyes,
Take a breath and carry that state of rest into your day.
And notice as we go about our lives,
When and how we hold unrest.
Notice how even when there's nothing to do,
We want to do something anyway.
Notice how when there's nowhere to go,
Still we want to go.
And get a sense of the contrast between a state of unrest and just resting.
And know that the state of rest is the natural state.
And know that we don't need to add anything onto that when it's not needed.
Know that we can simply rest here as this.
And when there's nothing to do,
We can just do nothing.
And when there's nowhere to go,
We can just go nowhere.
And when there's nothing to be,
We can just be nothing.
