The Tension You Call Normal

Most of us are carrying tension we've stopped noticing.
In the jaw. In the shoulders. In the shallow breath that's become so normal it doesn't register anymore.
This isn't carelessness — it's the body doing something on your behalf. Bracing. Protecting. Making sure you stay ready.
This practice uses the breath to send a different signal: safe enough to let go.
The mind won't stop. Thoughts will keep solving and planning and protecting — that's not a problem. This is about finding the observer underneath all of that, even briefly, and bringing something quieter back with you into the rest of your day.

If this resonated, I made a free 5-minute practice you can return to anytime.

Transcript

As we close our eyes, We can feel the tension in our bodies. Just look. It's there. When I say look, I mean look with that felt sense. Bring your attention to your jaw. To your lips. To your eyebrows. They're just resting tension. Feel your neck and your shoulders. It might just feel normal. But if we take a closer look, The normalness is just tense. If we're up and around and working and doing our thing and solving problems, There's a certain level of tension that is held. And that's the body doing something for our self, Bracing, Making sure that we're not going to be too vulnerable. A lot of this tension is not necessary. And notice where the breath is breathing in the chest in a shallow way. In a way that you barely even notice that you're breathing. And so the one thing that we do in meditation to shift this is to bring that shallow breath into the belly. And expand the belly outward. Relax the abdominal muscles. And begin to breathe that way, Letting go. This automatically begins a process of softening, Of quieting, Of communicating with the body that we're safe enough to do this. And we can notice as we get into breathing that the mind is still very active. Commenting, Talking, Solving, Planning, Doing all sorts of things. None of which we're actively creating. It's just happening. And so we breathe, Put our focus there, And let go. Really attending to the full feelings, Sensations, Sounds of the breath. Noticing where and how our attention moves. Momentarily connected to the breath. And then in the next moment, Thinking about it, Commenting. Talking about it. Even when we decide to sit and breathe and meditate, Our thoughts are still trying to protect us and solve our problems. And so oftentimes we get drawn into it and sometimes even stop the meditation. But we have the opportunity to reclaim the attention from our thoughts for a few moments and place it where we want, In this case, Right on the breath. Full breaths in, Full breaths out. And with each release of the breath, Noticing a little bit of softening, A little bit of letting go. The out-breath is our opportunity to just release, To soften. Let some of the tension out of the shoulders, Out of the neck, Out of the jaw. Keeping that attention on the feelings and the sounds. And whenever you find yourself wandering away, Just redirecting back towards this. All those problems that we need to solve in our lives will be there when we're finished. But we've created a few moments to simply be, And to be able to see something about how our minds and our bodies work. On the out-breath, Extend that out-breath so it becomes longer, Pulling the belly in, Squeezing out some air, And noticing the sensations. Sensation that builds up of desire, The need for a breath. And taking that breath, Basic fulfillment of basic desire. Just breathing in, And then this long out-breath, Extended with the belly coming in, Squeezing it out. Let that out-breath be a complete release, Turning into an expelling, Scraping out anything that's left, And breathing in again. All the time being aware of the sensations and the feelings and the sounds, Allowing the thoughts to be out there. They'll be waiting for you. At the end of the in-breath, When you fill your belly, You fill your chest, You can hold the breath there for a few seconds and feel that build up. Fullness and desire to release, And then let that happen. Just connecting with these basic elements of being, Much more basic than all the other protections that our thoughts are generating. This just very basic need and desire to be, To breathe, To allow our bodies to function. Noticing the noticer, How your attention goes from here to there. And then after the next out-breath, Just letting go. Letting go of breathing, Letting go of seeing, Feeling, Listening, And retreating back to simply observing, Watching. Without investigating, Or connecting, Or solving, Just noticing all that happens at once, Automatically. And then slowly opening the eyes, Noticing any shift between before and after, Internal, External. Keeping a quiet, Soft focus, Bringing some of this with you into the rest of your day.