So begin to make yourself comfortable,
Noticing if your body is wanting to lie down,
To sit up to be on your back,
Or your side or your belly.
In this I rest practice will be highlighting spacious awareness.
So as you're continuing to adjust your body and get more comfortable,
Just notice,
Take in space around you.
Your eyes might be open or closed,
You might be seeing the space around you,
The room around you,
Or you might just imagine seeing it from memory,
Noting the space between you and the ceiling and the walls,
Noticing how your skin feels meeting that space.
As you continue settling in,
And senses are still open,
Taking in space around you.
Can you take in the space within you?
Perhaps there's a feeling of spaciousness inside an openness,
Feeling of freedom,
Or maybe the idea of this,
What would that feel like free,
Soft,
And open?
And there may be an image that helps to point to this as felt sense.
Is there a place where you feel free out in nature or somewhere else?
And how does it feel when you're living in freedom out in the world,
Following your own path that's just right for you,
And you don't have to think about what to say or what to do?
Just this free ease in responding and being.
And if there are images of moments when this felt true,
Welcome those or welcoming what you might imagine that to look or feel like when your body is alive and you're responding freely and with ease,
Living life,
Connection,
Love.
And perhaps you have a particular intention for this practice,
Acknowledging that,
Experiencing openness to feel vast and free,
Whatever it might be,
Welcoming that,
And then letting it go,
Turning attention to your own safety net of ease,
Of okayness,
Its vastness,
Present,
Spacious.
You can come back to that whenever you like in the practice or in life.
As we begin to turn attention to sensation of the mouth,
Noting the space between the inner walls of cheeks,
Between the roof of the mouth and the tongue,
Following sensation back to the hinge of the jaw and the inner ears.
Sounds arriving inside the ears,
Moving as vibration,
As if you could feel the space inside the ears and between the ears,
Right and left,
Opening to the feeling of the whole head,
Noticing the facial muscles and the surface of skin as it meets the space above to one side and the other side,
Sensation of the scalp meeting the surface beneath,
And through the top of the head,
And the whole head and all the spaces around,
Feeling your way down through the throat,
Into the shoulders,
Down arms and hands and fingers,
Noticing places that feel alive.
Is there a pulse,
A hum,
A buzzing feeling,
Perhaps the tips of each finger with their sensations of aliveness,
Noticing the spaces between fingers and all around,
Above and below to each side.
Notice if the mind's story is very attached to the borders of the skin,
Fingers and hands,
The separation.
Can you let go just a little hand sensation,
Fingers sensation,
Intermingling with the spaces around a little more field like as sensation back into arms,
Shoulders,
And the next in breath drawing attention into the space inside the torso.
As you exhale,
Dropping back into feeling of freedom,
A quiet stillness and okayness,
Noticing sensation of hips,
Feeling your way down legs,
All the way to the soles of the feet,
Sensation of toes,
Noticing temperature of the air beyond the feet,
Feeling the space between the toes and all around the feet,
All around the feet,
Empty space,
Sensation meeting,
Intermingling with feet,
Opening the lens like a camera,
Expanding out to the whole body.
One feeling as body feeling meets the spaces all around,
Above and below to one side.
And the other,
The borders of skin may begin to become translucent as the pores of the skin open to the spaces beyond the breath comes and goes,
As if traveling through each pore in the skin,
In and out all around,
Noting how it feels to step back from being the breather,
The body,
Simply being breathed to step back from fusing with thoughts or sensations,
Simply observing what is what's moving and changing through this space.
Is there a particular feeling or thought or something else that might just be bumping back into your field of attention wanting to be seen,
Wanting to be noticed,
You might step back from this content,
Letting it play out on the screen like a movie in front of you,
Witnessing this as it changes as it grows,
As it dissipates,
Whatever's happening,
As this is happening,
Is the feeling of freedom or ease present,
You might interweave that nothing that has to be done,
Just being here,
Observing this,
Noting if other feeling or thought or image joins this content,
Moment to moment.
And at some point,
You may feel yourself dissolving into the space,
Just being letting go of even this action of observing,
Just being as you are open and spacious,
Letting go of words,
Thoughts,
There may even be moments that dissolve completely without borders and edges,
As field like sensation grows empty and still quality of everything and nothing all at once,
And then starting to starting to welcome back the content,
Being this here,
And observing what comes and goes,
And adding it back in layers of pieces of you noting what thoughts bubble to the surface or what feelings are present in the heart,
What sensations are wanting to be noticed,
Welcoming back the borders of skin,
The flow of breath as it comes and goes,
As you become the breather again,
The action,
The doing of inhaling and exhaling energy of the breath,
Quiet stillness,
Somewhere else,
Adding back on movement and sensation of fingers and toes as they begin to wiggle as skin notices the temperature of the spaces around you,
Arms and legs as they may begin to stretch and move,
Noting the surfaces that you rest on,
The clothing and the clothing that touches you,
Taking your time as you begin to return back to the room where you are noting,
Is there some quiet stillness that comes with you some sense of freedom and ease that joins you back as you slowly return to your wakeful state,
Taking your time as you reawaken fully,
And prepare to emerge back to the world around you for the rest of your day or evening.
May you know contentment.
May you feel healthy and strong.
May you live with peace and ease.
