Staying At Home Series: Relaxation 16 (With Original Song: A Little Love)

Reading a photo piece in the New York Times this morning many European countries come out of Lockdown this week. All that has happened in the last 2/3 months, I've felt social issues surfaced in clarity; our need for community, the harmful acts of singular people in power acting by their own agenda, health, inequality, racism - in so many ways saddening and at the same time enlightening and I feel hopeful; we have each other, we have love.

Transcript

Hi there,

Welcome to today's relaxation on Thursday the 11th of June.

Wishing this finds you well.

If you find you're quite a play style,

I'll tell you about today's song and a bit more about today's relaxation.

Okay,

So today's relaxation song is an own song called a little love and I'll tell you about this song.

That's a way of introducing today's theme.

I've been living in shared houses for many years now,

Pretty much always actually.

Since moving away from home,

Which always had lots of visitors.

And yeah,

Community houses particularly for the last number of years,

Maybe the last 10 years or so.

And I was in one in my mid-twenties and there were lots of friends sat around the table.

We were talking about love and about how in a way that you can just connect with someone else,

Even in a small way and it can bring about,

It can bring you up if you're feeling down.

And we were reading some roomy poetry at the time,

Or someone had a book on the table.

And there's the idea that you need to take away the barriers to love,

Love is always there.

But all you need to do is tap into a bit of it,

That's what we were saying.

Someone said,

Yeah you just need a bit,

Don't need to bring you round.

And I took that away and made this song with it.

Europe it seems is coming out of lockdown.

There's an article of some photos I'm posting from the New York Times today,

Showing different countries as they emerge,

Still with some distance,

But more into public spaces.

And with all that's gone on I suppose this is kind of a prayer if you like that language,

Or a wish,

An intention that we remain loving during this time.

It feels to me like the world can never and should never,

Maybe the other way around is better,

Should never and I think can never be the same again after what's happened,

And how much has come to the surface over the last few months.

How much need we have for connection,

How individuals making impulse decisions doesn't work,

In positions of power,

How the need for accountability and justice is so important to so many people,

How important family is,

How important a non-violent world is,

How obvious in many ways inequality is,

And so overall how important love is,

And in some ways that feels simple and in some ways that feels,

And also many multi-layered ideas of love,

And bring something different I think with the definition of that word.

But for me in this song it's about connection,

And the kind of love that is possible in the shortest amount of time,

A human familiarity.

Okay so take a deep breath in and out together,

Breathing in,

And breathing out,

Breathing in,

And breathing out,

Breathing in,

And breathing out.

And it's also about self-love,

Finding that love within ourselves,

As many of the songs have been in this series.

Okay so feeling the contact of your body on the ground,

Get a sense of the weight and shape of the whole body,

Feeling the feet,

And feel them fall to the side,

Close bones,

Up to the ankle,

The heel,

Casting s,

Talus,

Centre point of the,

Centre part of the ankle,

Lower leg,

Tibia fibula,

Up to the knee,

Muscles there,

How are they doing today?

How's your calf muscle?

How are they?

How's the rest of your lower leg?

So move above the knees into the thighs,

Aware of the quadriceps,

The muscly part of the front of the thigh and the hamstrings behind,

Femur bones in between.

And then up to the,

Joining at the pelvis,

Aware of hips,

Buttocks,

Aware of the resting organs of the pelvis,

Up to the bladder,

Small intestine,

Large intestine and the stomach.

Can we bring our attention into that area,

Different points?

What can we imagine we're feeling if we move our attention around that area?

Intestines and stomach,

Pancreas,

Maybe gallbladder,

Located just off from the intestines,

Can we sense where the spine is?

There is 34 vertebrae running up behind the kidneys alongside,

Or in front but on either side of the spine,

Filtering blood,

The liver up to the right hand side of the body,

Also filtering blood,

Both with their many,

Many filters and passageways.

You've got the heart on the left side,

Sending oxygenated blood out to the organs and receiving blood with carbon dioxide in from the organs that journeys back to the lungs where the exchange takes place.

The air comes down the trachea,

Along that spine line and into the lungs by the bronchioles to that exchange point,

All held in the ribs,

The evolved protection of the organs and part of the skeleton,

The clavicle at the top of the collarbone.

Good on the left arm today over the left shoulder.

Down through the bicep,

Humerus bone to the elbow,

Into the two bones of the lower part of the arm,

And moving to the wrist area,

To the palm of the hand,

To the thumb and the fingers,

And then finding the 19 bones of the right hand,

Starting at the fingertips and moving down the fingertips into the palm and the back of the hand,

To the wrist and then following the two bones,

The radius and the ulnus,

Up to the elbow,

And then the line of the humerus bone up to the shoulder,

Aware of the bicep resting that whole area,

Allowing it to sink with gravity.

Okay,

And then finding the chin and the teeth,

Bone of the skull begins,

Tongue resting,

There's thousands of taste buds,

Aware of the teeth,

And now the teeth are rooted in the gum and the structure and shape of the skull.

We're looking at the nose today,

So above the teeth,

Above the lip,

We've got the shape of the nose,

The interesting facts about the nose which you may or may not know.

So as the air comes into the nose,

It passes over and cells on the inside that connect to the brain,

And the brain recognizes and identifies those smells,

And there's also hairs there just inside the nose,

That act as a filter system for any dust or other particles in the air.

And one thing I find amazing that the nose does as well,

Is that the lungs don't do so well with dry air,

So the nose acts as a humidifier,

And it also warms the air.

So then it comes into the lungs in a way that's easier for us to breathe.

So breathing into the nose and imagining that that's happening right now.

Okay,

Moving up towards the ears,

We looked at the ears yesterday,

The outer ear,

Middle and the inner ear.

Similar to the nose,

There's hairs on the inside of the outer part to filter the air,

And then the middle ear contains those three bones that fit on a penny,

The malleus,

The incus and the stapes,

That's the smallest bone in the body,

The stapes.

And then the inner ear is known as the labyrinth.

At the end of that is the cochlea,

Which then transfers those sound waves into the brain.

We'll do the eyes tomorrow and then the brain on the weekend.

So your eyes,

Under eyelids,

Forehead,

Top of the head and back of the head.

So we breathe in and out and feel some ground into some presence for our body,

Allowing it to be just as it is in this moment,

And knowing all these amazing processes are going on all the time.

Can we love our body for that functioning that's happening right now?

Singing a song about a little love.

OK,

Some rain just started.

You can hear that?

So yeah,

The theme of self-love and self-care.

And love for others and receiving love from others,

And a little bit of love to give to ourselves or we finding someone else and that couldn't be just enough to bring us round again.

OK.

It's cold in the dawn and you think about it all,

The world spinning around and around,

And your head goes up and down,

Up and down.

We need love,

A little love,

To bring us round.

We need love,

A little love,

To bring us round.

To bring us round.

When the notes that are coming out your throat are singing sad songs,

Only sad songs,

And oh no,

There's water in your boat,

You know you won't float so long.

We need love,

A little love,

To bring us round.

We need love,

A little love,

To bring us round.

To bring us round.

When the books you read,

They're not everything you need.

You're turning pages,

Oh,

There must be more than these,

But oh,

May everything you feel not last so long.

We need love,

A little love,

To bring you round.

We need love,

A little love,

To bring us round.

To bring us round.

Music Okay.

That was a lovely song than usual at the end of the relaxation.

Take care,

Best wishes,

Some nice deep breaths into the body as you begin to move into the rest of your day.

And I'll see you next time for another relaxation.

Music

Reviews

Amazing as always. Ideal to do in a lunch break whilst working from home :)